Grandma’s Minnesota garden was done by mid September

September 7, 2007 (I was 62)

Grandma’s  Minnesota garden was done by mid September

July August were tending picking cleaning canning steamy months

long twilight evenings of joyful work filled basement shelves with jars

beans tomatoes corn on the cob pickled cucumbers raspberry jam

banana peppers green peppers red peppers and chow chow

Leaf lettuce carrots green onions and radishes were summer gone

Dry corn stalks still stood purchase for cold complaining crows

maybe a few potatoes yet to be dug  Lilacs a patch of bare switches

dormant gladiola bulbs buried against the sinking frost

From the porch Grandma surveys the devastation

I don’t think I be able to do a garden no more

She said that for at least twenty years 

The first frozen crystals ripple the surface dirt

grey as lake water before it all whitens for the longest of seasons

All winter the bright vegetables come up from the basement

empty jars stored on the bottom shelf along with the mud boots

to be worn when she tills away the final snow in May