Re: [Fwd: CULT: Picks and Stomps]

Linda Mnn, talking about her country friend with irises said:

<<  Doses her plants  with Sevin and keeps 'em hoed and fertilized.  Most of
the dividing  they   get comes from all the gouging out of increases during
the bloom
  season. ... P.S. that pick gadget is what I call a lightweight,
longhandled, granny
 grub-hoe and seems to be the weapon of choice of lifetime girl gardeners
 hereabouts (assuming Anner's friend uses the same thing).  I finally got
 myself one last year at the Coop - don't know how I ever lived without
 it.>>
  
I've got one of those granny-grubbers myself. Great tool! I used to use it
for working up dirt all the time until Hall bought Mother a small English
border fork from Smith and Hawken after she had surgery which affected her
lifting capacity. Now if I have to turn a border I mooch that charmer for the
duration. My country woman, Mrs. Belton,  was using a wicked pick, one of
those squattybody short-handled ones with a wide, double-pointed  business
end about two feet from tip to tip. She let the weight of the implement do
the work, too, dropping it with some precision and grunting like a chain gang
laying rail. I didn't talk to her about fertilizer, but I asked about weeding
since the grasses were getting high and she said that as soon as the hay was
in her husband would run a tiller down close to the rows and get the worst of
it. This woman was very intelligent and an interesting combination of
parochial and sophisticate. Kept up with all the new perennial plants in
Wayside and was propagating a highly fragrant locust with rose blooms for
which she collected seeds in one of the state parks. Gave me a slip off her
Grandaddy's rose to root up, which I considered a great compliment. 

Anner Whitehead, Richmond, Va
Henry Hall henryanner@aol.com
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