Friday, March 14, 2014

GARDENING FOR GRANNY


As some of you may know, and many of you may not, the gardening blogging world was shocked recently by the news that one of our favorites is battling a sudden occurrence of cancer (I refuse to capitalize that word)
For those of you who don’t know this remarkable lady, please click to visit her blog, Annie’s Kitchen Garden. 
"I'm a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. My interests include gardening, music, computers, recipes, my grandchildren and my two dogs, Annie and Otto. And, of course, Mr. Granny!"
Those are her own words as she describes herself.  But she is so much more as well.  2nd Man and I personally owe her a debt of gratitude for exposing our blog to more readers.  Back when I was a young, fledgling blogger (OK so not THAT much younger, but I digress), Granny, as we all affectionately call her, stumbled across our blog and wrote a post about it.  She went back and read it from the beginning (I’m sorry to put you through that Granny, ha) and wrote the nicest post urging her readers to read ours.  As a result of that, we gained a lot of new followers, AND she inspired me to keep at it.  Many of our dear followers have come over from her blog to ours.  She gave our little slice of the blogosphere a jump start in the beginning and for that, we are eternally grateful.

((((cyber hug))))
What always amazes me about her is her tenacity and ability in the garden.  She could probably run circles around most of us in the garden (figuratively AND literally).   Her years of experience have given her an edge that we all hope to someday have, years of trial and error, success and failure, though I’m guessing she hasn’t had much failure.  Her garden totals, as part of Harvest Monday’s at “Daphne’s Dandelions” (something we hope to participate in this year), for the last few years have been huge.  Check this out:
2009 – 1070 pounds
2010 – 912 pounds
2011 – 543 pounds
2012 – 1040 pounds
2013 – 1011 pounds

Amazing harvest totals from a smallish, but well planned, backyard garden.  Even more amazing that a 75 year old woman (I promise she wouldn’t mind me shouting out her age) is doing it mostly by herself.
 
But now our dear sweet Granny is fighting a different kind of battle outside of the garden.  She is so upset that she is not going to be able to have a garden right now, though somehow, I think she might sneak some in anyway, and I hope she does.   There is so much we all wish we could do in reading the comments on her blog and so I thought of this small gesture.
How about we all dedicate our gardens this year to her?  Let’s all garden FOR her to show our solidarity and support of her fight and show her how much we care. 
“Gardening for Granny”
You know how I publish images of historical gardening posters every Sunday?  I sure wish I was better at graphic design so I could come up with a logo and a badge like one of those posters that we could all put on our sidebars.  If someone is good at that and would like to create something, go for it and let us know.  I'll admit I don't exactly understand how 'link ups' and all that works, but if someone will point me in the right direction, I'll figure it out.

I was thinking how nice it would be if we all gave her a shout out this year with our gardening efforts and linked back to her blog so she can see what we are doing when we do it.  Let’s all garden for her so that she can live vicariously through our efforts and who knows, hopefully she’ll pop in to give us each advice from time to time and then in a way, we can all have Granny helping us out in our gardens.  See Granny, you'll get that gardening done this year after all!  If you are so inclined, please help spread the word, or stop by her blog and leave a message of support and lets show Granny how much we care.
So this year, our first year of having a ‘real’ garden at the farm, is for her.
We all love you Granny!
 

27 comments:

  1. You know, I don't always get around to all the blogs I enjoy and I hadn't see hers yet. I'm so sorry she is going through this but I know if anyone can make it through, she can. I will go let her know how much she is loved. Thanks for the info. I don't have a garden but hubby has been bugging me to get a tomato plant and grow it in this large pot we have on our back porch. I will say it's a tomato for granny! :)

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  2. Thanks for this, I will keep her in my thoughts and I will pop over and say hi to her. I will also dedicate my flower garden this year to her. Come on Granny you can do it!

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  3. Great idea. I did read her sad news just the other day. Can't imagine not seeing the bountiful produce coming out of her garden this year.

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  4. Well done, First Man - love this post! Yes, we'll be gardening for Granny this year to support her and show her the impact she has made on us. Thank you for this campaign!

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  5. Mountain Gardening for Granny with a Colorado flair. :)

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  6. Your post and the type of comments left, show what lovely people you all are. It inspires me to some gardening Downunder for Granny, well autumn and winter gardening at least cause hopefully by our spring and summer she will be on the road to recover. Nice thought 1st Man.

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  7. 1st Man - i never forget why i like you so much...and i could never get the chance to. you always keep reminding me what a thoughtful, good, caring person you are and i really like thoughtful, good and caring people. this post is simply lovely. and to call on all of us to "garden for granny" is such a wonderful idea. we'll be "naked-gardening-for-granny" this year. i'll be sure to stop by and let her know that. if you come up with a button or something, i will definitely add it to our sidebar.

    you're a really good friend.
    kymber

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  8. Such a good heart!

    I dropped in to say hello.

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  9. Ah, that is sad news. If I can get anything going, it will be from one granny aka memaw to another granny.

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  10. i am starting a new garden at my new farm in dripping springs, and even though i am a "bit" younger (71), i will call my garden Granny's, for her. and granny, fight like hell, it can be won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  11. I guess I will have to start blogging again! I'm going to Garden for Granny in PA! After all she is my bestest cyber friend and has helped me through some hard times! Luv you Granny!

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    1. Please do start blogging again...I've missed you! I'm going to Garden For Granny this season...with the challenge of the drought I need to find a reason to at least try...Granny is the perfect reason...it will be an honor.

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  12. Mom and E will garden for Granny, such sad news to hear. I wish someone would find a cure, it is such a hard disease and gets so many young and old. Positive thoughts heading her way that she will beat it and have as easy a time as is possible.

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  13. You are all so sweet and dear to me! I think I'll go plant a tomato, LOL

    Son in law coming tomorrow, we'll discuss his spending one day a week doing grunt work while I sit and supervise. I provide seeds, plants, water, equipment and training, we share the harvest. Win-win situation.

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  14. I read this yesterday and didn't have a chance to respond but I am so in! We love you Granny! I "met" Granny back in 2008 or so on the Garden Web forums. She was so nice and helpful offering advice in such a beautiful and humble way. I have learned a lot from her. I was happy to discover she had a blog and have been reading every post since.

    Granny, you have planted "seeds" in many of us by inspiring, teaching, and encouraging us along the way. I hope that as we "Gardening for Granny" you will reap some of what you have sown in all of us and enjoy some laughs at some of our failures and celebrate is our success. All the while knowing and feeling that you are in our thoughts and prayers with each seed planted and every harvest gathered.

    1st Man, were you thinking of hosting a linkup party? A lot of blogs use Mister Linky’s Magical Widget, InLinkz, and Simply Linked. Let me know what your thoughts are and how I can help. You can reach me at grafixmuse at gmail.

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  15. I love this idea! I, too, am one of Granny's followers that found you via her blog. I get regular email updates from your blog which is how I saw this one. I LOVEE this idea, and I know she will 'dig' it as well! <3 She has been such a mentor to me, I've been out of the gardening for some time now and just this week am gonna start up the blog again. I will definitely take part in giving her some of our gardening love!

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  16. You can count me in! I was already thinking about doing this when I saw your post. I can't think of a better way to honor such a great lady and good friend!

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  17. what a sweet post! granny is amazing and helped me when i first started gardening too by answering some of my questions on the garden web forum. she is a warrior and i'm praying she pulls through.

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  18. Thank you for writing such a positive and inspiring post about Granny! I'm catching up on my blog reading and saw her post just a few hours ago! I will be holding her in my thoughts as I sow, tend and harvest this year. I know we all will!

    So glad to read above that she's made a deal with her son! Totally a win-win situation! :-)

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  19. 1st Man,

    What a beautiful post!!! I'm so sorry to hear about Granny having to deal with cancer. I will go over and visit her blog. Sending prayers and hugs to (((((Granny))))).

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  20. 1st man, even though I haven't been following Granny very long, I was so touched by her kindness and willingness to help any and everyone (even topics outside of gardening). I found out yesterday about Granny's illness and I'm so very saddened. Even as I type this message to you, my eyes are welling up with tears. My living situation has changed and it will be very challenging to grow a garden where I am currently, but perhaps I can manage a container butterfly garden this year for Granny.

    Would you like a button like one of mine? I'd be happy to create one for you. Just give the specifics.

    Much love to you!

    Gammy Tammy

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  21. That is so sweet. But count me in. Heck I'd go help Granny dig her garden if I lived out there. She has always been such an inspiration.

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  22. she is a great lady + what a wonderful post + great idea! robbie

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