Hi, I’m John. Born and raised in North Dakota. Grew up with eight siblings on a busy farm with cows, goat’s, a large horse, chickens, ducks, geese, guinea hens, cats, dogs. I’m sure I missed something! Oh yeah, a pet raccoon my mom named Coony, couple pet crows I stole out of their nest when they were young. If you get them at the right age they can be a lot of fun! Fell out of a couple of trees and had a severe concussion that took six months to heal. Maybe that’s why I’m so different from the other siblings. At least I didn’t hurt any vital parts.
Ok, Now the gardening part. My dad would hook up the tractor to the four row corn planter with each bin with different seeds. Beans, peas, corn and corn. Would run that planter for a quarter mile. Our corn planter only had four bins so there was lots of weeding once the plants were growing. Us kids loved it and were usually hard to find, but dad knew so he told us at during breakfast at the dinnertable what we were gonna be doing today! No escape from the from the hot sweaty afternoon so we dug in and raced each other to the of the rows. Not everyone made it the whole way but there was so much of it we just left it for the rabbits and deer.
Once I graduated from from high school in 79’ Bismarck ND I endeavored west to Seattle three weeks after graduation and dad was not happy. Had a couple older brothers that there that showed me you only have to work eight hours a day to get a paycheck!
I was done with farming but it was still in my blood. Remembering sitting on that John Deere out on the prairie away from everything and fragrance of fresh soil, diesel exhaust, and fresh breeze is unforgettable. That mixture snaps right back in my brain just driving by a tractor in the field! July of 79’ ended up going down to Walla Walla for my freshman year of college and got to meet a ton of people my age real fast. We were all single and made a ton of friends.
That was a busy summer and conforming to adulthood. Greatest summer of my life almost living on my own. An older friend from ND had some orchard land that hadn’t been planted yet so I asked if I could grow a garden on the property. He didn’t care so I jumped at it. There was a small irrigation canal right next to the garden so my prestigious engineering skills kicked right in and made a water wheel to keep the garden moist. Anyway the water wheel broke and summer was over before I knew it.
My gardening and landscaping tastes have morphed into a concept of decoration, color, balance, and verities. I sold an old house to a young couple that only had grass cuz I never planted anything on property except for the garden. Come to find out she was a horticulturist and her husband was working for the forestry department. They were ecstatic to design the whole yard the way wanted to! After several more places and trying to keep things low maintenance and trimming down to nothing. I finally found a place where people didn’t throw seeds everywhere and being so close to the mountains I’m having a chance to see another climate of plants. Just bought this place last December 2020 and the neighbor said I had wild strawberries growing in my lawn!
