backyard

just a little description of my immediate surroundings as a kid.  grandma took care of all the flowers-from planting to cultivating.  i think one of he favorite's was the silver dollar plant, which when full grown and dried could last all year inside the house.  once it was cut and dried, it had large circular, flat pods on the ends of the stems that were thin silvery, and looked like silver dollars. Another name was the "money tree or bush.  Most of the other flowers just looked like weeds except the red, yellow, and andpink climbing rose bushes tgat grew by the porch and her prized peace rose off in the left center of the yard.  I remember to taller than me hibiscus tree's on the left side of the yard and I think they marked the property line from the neighbor on the left-who originally was Mrs Powel. a relation to the writer of cowboy books. then it happened: Japanese beetles would infest the bushes and granddad would fill his hand sprayer with his favorite bug spray: DDT.  It was actually quite harmless to humans, cheap to make, killed mosquito's that carried yellow fever, which killed millions in third world countries.  But politics got involved and it was banned.  The real reason was you could make a 55 gallon drum for about five bucks.  there was a movie clip of the inventor in nohing but short;s, being sprayed with a hose of DDT, with no ill effects.  Years later, I learned that you spray the ground in the spring while they were still in the larvae stage and didn;t pop out as beatles with hearty appetites.
Granddad had about 5 different plots for his vegtables in different area's. When I took your mom to visit, granddad to a liking to her and found she like green pepper and some tomato and string beans.  While we were in the house gabbing with grandma, he would pick his best ones and with a soft cloth, shine each pepper and tomatoes.  I was also always fascinated by his onion plants: when big enough to pull out of the ground, he would take a bunch with the dried stems still attached, and braid them as a woman would have her hair braided. then hung in his shed to keep dried
His other fascination was with trees, especially fruit tree's.  there were two large silver maple tree's in  the yard, one on each side of the side walk.  when a storm was about approach, the winds would turn their under side up revealing a silver leave.  It never failed to forecast an approaching storm. His fruit tree's considered of a dual variety cherry tree( the birds ate most of the fruit), a dark skin pear tree, a prune-plum tree. about 5 peach tree's which always bore fuzzy skin fruit(yuck) and at the end of his property and the beginning of my dad's, a two story apple tree. GRANDDAD COULD NEVER JUST LET A FRUIT TREE BEAR ONE KIND OF FRUIT: THE APPLE BORE DELICIOUS VARIETY AND HUGE, WHAT HE called winter apples. stupid  caps lock button! Sorry.  they were huge and had a sweet tart flavor. I have never been able to find that variety anywhere.  When the cherry tree, which bore sweet red cherries, was about 12' feet in height, granddad would call someone over to graft another variety. A branch was cut leaving an inch width and several feet in length. It was split opened several inches and a new variety cut to a flat point was inserted.  The neighbor would then put this homemade goop all around it with a rag wrapped around the whole mess like a bandage.  But, darn if it didn't work and the tree had two kinds of fruits, more if they desired.
the other "new" enemy were tent worms which would devour a tree by eating all the leaves. the "tent" was so dense that no bug killer would penetrate. Not to be defeated, granddad would take a kerosene soaked rag and wrap it around the tent. Then ignite it with his trusty Zippo lighter.  once the tent was burned opened he would "DDT" the tent caterpillars to their death. if the tent was at the end of a branch, he would just cut it off and engulf it in flames on the ground!  I did mention the grapes:  the were no good to eat with a bitter skin and slimy center to hold the seeds in place.  The green variety were a little bit better. However these were grapes to make jelly and jams with-which grandma did.  She would pour the jelly into tall glasses and then pour a half inch of wax on top to seal and preserve them.  they were then stored on a shelf in the basement,  But what I liked the most about the huge grapevine arbor was to sit on the big bench underneath, either alone or with granddad
As a side note: Granddad did not want to retire and was bitter about it-so he just sat around doing nothing-which is why he had a he mild stroke.  After that, he put himself on his old factory work schedule: he arose at six and put on a pot of coffee, by the time it was done brewing in the aluminum peculator pot, grandma was up and had his breakfast ready.  by 8 AM he was working in the yard till noon; took a lunch break, just as he would in the factory. At 12:30, it was like a whistle blew and he went back out to work till 4PM, at which time he would come inside, clean up, eat supper, then  rest. read the paper and watch TV til bedtime. He did this M -F till the day he died and I think the "schedule: is what kept him alive till 12/77.  Looking back, it was interesting seeing him use the "old" ways," which he probably learned as a youth. And he always left the largest tomato, green pepper on the vine till right before the frost. He would then smash it open on newspapers for the seeds to dry-those seeds were put in planters inside the house at just the right time in spring. They became next year's crops. And they sa
y you can't regrow hybrid's: he did.
 I really don't like salad's but he grew red leaf lettuce-the more you cut off the more that grew.  Grandma would put in a chopped onion, mix it with oil and vinegar and it was DELICIOUS!  Figure.Next: the mischief or enterprises i got into. Sometime with Bill or a friend but usually my own doings. They usually involved two things"experiments and how a kid could make some spending money: for making model planes, going bowling and buying ice cream cones and chocolate soda pop(really!) from the machine at the gas station.