Love of garden is family tradition

When Judy Kirkland looks at her vegetable garden, she remembers with fondness the time spent helping her mother in the family's garden.

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"I could pick one time at her garden and have 40 quarts of green beans," said Kirkland, now retired. "My mother always supplied most of Florida and Evans with white half-runner green beans, but she died last January. I was late getting mine planted and don't have nearly as many as she always had, but I am proud of them."

Kirkland's mother,Nell Strickland, kept a garden that would rival the best. In the last few years of her mother's life, Kirkland said she and her sister would help out in the garden when her mother wasn't able to do it.

"Mother came from a family with 10 children and that's how they survived," said Kirkland of her mother's love of gardening.

Today, Kirkland has taken what she learned from her mother, as well as what she was taught during a master gardening class several years ago, and works in her own vegetable garden. Just this week she enjoyed fresh-picked tomatoes and beans.

While Kirkland hasn't always devoted a lot of time to gardening, because of work commitments and other obligations, she retired three years ago and has gradually increased the size of her garden from year to year.

"We're kind of in transition," she said, adding that she has 10 raised beds that measure 8 feet by 4 feet each. "That's kind of the beginning of it."

While the hot summer months are upon us, Kirkland said she keeps her plants healthy with a good dose of water, which is supplied by soaker hoses.

"We decided if we were going to go with raised beds, we could put a faucet at each end and run soaker hoses," she said, adding that the project is still a work in progress.

Kirkland's days are spent harvesting the 48 feet of beans and 32 feet of corn she's growing, as well as keeping an eye out for ripened tomatoes on the 15 to 20 tomato plants she's planted.

"We had about six summer squash plants, but they came in first and now they have quit," she said. "I put out a few carrots, but they aren't doing anything."

Kirkland likes to preserve her fresh vegetables for use during the winter. She's already made a batch of pickles using cucumbers grown in the yard and plans to can some tomatoes.

Asked why she prefers fresh over store-bought vegetables, Kirkland said it simply comes down to taste.

"It's just so much better," she said.