l’ll plow up some ground for ya’ the guy said. ‘You can have my old garden,’ she said. Come to find out that the year before she had these wonderful, just- ready-to-pick beans, and she was going to pick ’em the next morning. Then the next morn- ing, they were all down to about half an inch. A woodchuck had come and eaten everything down tojust a half an inch.” Vannie leans back and smiles all over her face at the memory. She took that ground and planted a garden in it. “One day, here comes Mr. - Woodchuck with his paper bag to the garden to gather vegeta- bles. Nobody would b’lieve me when I told ’em he was there with his paper bag. There must’ve been something inside that bag that he wanted, and he kept throwing it up in his paws. The guy did give me a piece of fence to keep the woodchucks out. “One time I grew okra, and my friend [lover at the time] cut off the blossoms because they look kinda like, .. pods.‘Well, ‘naturally, we‘ got no , okra that year. Another time, that same friend took and, well, I had these tomato plants just kind of sodded in together in a corner until I got around to planting them. She took and pulled ’em out for weeds.” Vannilu and Sherry have been together 25 years as of this August, 20 of them spent on their 20 acres of south-facing hillside meadow in Middletown Springs. They decided to build their house in 1981, and had some garden areas plowed two years in a row to break up the tough grass. “And then we bought a Troy-Bilt tiller that is still chugging,” adds Sherry. The first couple of years, every time friends or rel- atives came to visit, the two women would send them out to the garden to pick rocks. “This land is really bony,” Sherry says. “When the guy came with the backhoe to dig the cellar, he kept saying we should sell this land for a gravel pit. Ijust told him ‘Keep digging!” The first few years, Vannie worked out a labor-for- space barter with the owner of a commercial greenhouse to start her seeds in the early spring. Even now, 20 years later, Vannie gives some of her seeds and her planting timetable to the woman who owns the green- house, and buys back the sets when it’s time to plant. She has a cold frame of her own with. 8- foot workshop lights over it to start some seeds. “My philosophy is I plant a lot of vegetables, and rather than plant just a few and pour water on them, I plant more and take whatever [pro- duce] the‘Father gives me,” Vannie says. They don’t water their acre or so of gardens, rely- ing on natural rainfall and groundwater. There is a stream through the woods and down the bank, but that water would have to flow uphill to be of any use. Asked if she had any secrets to share, Vannie says, “You mean, do I plant by the moon and stuff like that? I tried planting by the moon one year, but I coul_dn’t see a difference.” Sherry adds, “Well, we do know Below, Vannilu Harrison’: cabin in Middletown Springs. that the full moon is often the colder part of the month, espe- cially early in the season, around last frost.” “She’s definitely con- nected to growing things,” says Sherry. She searches unsuccess- fully for the right word or phrase to describe an energy that is less aggressive and more innate than “driven,” stronger and more intimate than “enjoy- able.” ‘ “I won’t grow anything unless we’ll have enough for us and plenty to give away,” says Vannie. “I dearly love to give outfood from my gardens.” Sherry adds, “We’ve got 3 freezers for 2 people, what does that tell you?” Vannie makes good use ' of compost and would use more manure if they had it. But they no longer keep chickens, and there’s only one farm left in their town. The farmer spreads his herd’s manure on his own pasture land. She swears by chicken manure mixed with sawdust bedding. “I always plant a marigold between every cole crop plant,” (cabbages, broccoli, etc.) she says. “It really helps keep the cabbage worms down.” Sherry adds, “Our gar- den is very balanced, we don’t need to use pesticides.” Vannie again: “I bought ladybugs a couple of years early on. I make sure to till everything under in the fall. We used a chemical -3" once to get rid of flea beetles.” Corn and potatoes, she says, get fertilizer because they’re heavy feeders. “I soak my seeds and lay them in wet paper towel so they’ll sprout, especially okra, which hates to be transplanted. I just dig a little hole and put the little seeds in. I get on my hands and knees and cover them up so-o carefully,” Vannie. demonstrates, cupping her hands together, and there’s that crinkle-eyed smile again. - “Whenever I can dig in “Whenever Ican dig in the dht it just makes me happy.” the dirt itjust makes me happy. I can be so tired at the end of.a day, but still, being in the gar- den, digging in the dirt makes me happy.” Somehow, I think that is her best gardening secret: happiness and love and digging in the dirt to help things grow. V .