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Nana's Garden -- Culbertson plot provides fresh produce
CULBERTSON -- Look for the little blue pickup, or the garden tractor. Or try to spot the wide-brimmed straw sun hat bobbing between the roses of zinnias and vines.
If Deb Lau's at home-- and she's almost always home -- her produce shed is open for business and she'll sell vegetables fresh-picked in "Nana's Garden."
This is the first year Deb has offered to the public the fresh produce from her gardens located a mile west of Culbertson, at Mile Marker 73 on U.S. Highway 6-34.
Deb and Doug moved from Johnson Lake to their Culbertson "homestead" in 1998, clearing trees and building their home along the Frenchman River. Deb planted a garden that provided plenty of veggies for herself and Doug, and for their families, to eat fresh and to can. But in 1999, Deb said, they had "more cantaloupe and watermelon that we knew what to do with."
So, they loaded up the pickup -- "The back was so heavy," Deb laughed, "we looked like two little raccoons just peeking over the dash" -- parked at the K-Store in Culbertson and, within three hours, sold every melon.
"The next year, people stopped by out here to see if they could buy more," Deb said. As people requested other vegetables, Deb made mental notes to plant those in the garden next year.
That's how Deb's garden grew.
To create more garden space, Deb and Doug purchased the acreage between their house and the highway, and last spring, officially opened "Nana's Garden."
"My grandbabies just love running down the row of tomatoes," Deb laughed, motioning to the 150 towers of tomato vines. Deb plans to plant 300 next year.
Growing in Deb's garden are green bell and red bell peppers -- "I can't get over the size," Deb said. "It must have been the rain in the spring" -- and green beans -- "I spend lots of time on my knees pickin' beans," she laughed.
The onions -- Spanish, sweet and red -- are all pulled now, and drying. "They're as big as softballs," Deb said. "I know it's the sandy soil."
Deb's cucumbers grow on fences. "It saves space, and they're easier to pick and water," she said. "And the cucumbers are clean."
Deb's pumpkins are orange giants and ghostly whites, and they're favorites with preschoolers and school kids. "I sell my pumpkins by the size, not the pound," she explained, because most people buy them for jack-o-lanterns, not for eating.
Deb is excited about harvesting her gourds. "I had no idea they'd get so big," she laughed, envisioning the bird houses and decorations she'll make with them.
Deb has 60 hills of cantaloupe and 102 hills of watermelon. "They're three weeks behind because of the cool, wet weather this year, yet the plants have never looked better," she said.
"We planted big," Deb laughed, "but not big enough. It'll be even bigger next year."
Deb plans more table grapes, more strawberries, more rhubarb, more asparagus beds and more fruit trees next year. She also plans to start two colonies of bees -- to sell honey, and to supplement the zinnias that naturally attract bees.
"The red and orange flowers attract bees which pollinate my plants," she said. "If I get a good stand of bees in the spring, I can triple my produce crop."
"It's amazing just to stand here and watch the activity the flowers bring to the garden," Deb said, bees buzzing through the petals and butterflies darting from blossom to blossom.
Deb will harvest seeds from her zinnias and sell those, too, this fall.
Although she loves it when people ask to wander through her garden, Deb does her own picking to safeguard her plants. Everything she has to sell is available -- picked fresh off the vine -- in the cool produce shed at the west end of the garden drive. "Cree," the couple's very friendly German shepherd, is the garden's official "door greeter."
Also in the produce shed are canned vegetables, jams, jellies and pickles, and Deb's and her daughter's decorated gourds. "I can't stand to see anything go to waste," Deb said.
The produce shed will be open through the end of the year, offering holiday gift items and crafts sold on consignment.
After the Christmas holidays, Deb will hibernate inside, concentrating on her second love -- quilting.
Along about February -- when the seed catalogs start arriving in the mail -- Deb said she'll start getting excited about her gardens again ... designing the layout, developing a planting calendar, ordering seeds and plants.
The motto of Deb's garden seems to be "fresh produce for a reasonable price.""People get fresh vegetables at a fair price," she said, "and I get the benefits of working in the garden."
Deb compares herself to her plants. "I'm like a plant -- the more sunshine I get, the better I feel. I just need sunshine. Gardening is therapy."
Deb enjoys the benefits of meeting people and growing things, and the challenges of the weather and the weeds. "I'm always dragging a hoe around," she laughed.
"It's a natural extension of my arm."
Deb does not take all the credit for her beautiful, productive garden, "I give the good sandy soil and God the credit," she said quickly. "God helps the seeds grow, and gives me the energy to keep up."
Deb is quick to credit Doug, too. He grew up on a farm in eastern Nebraska, Deb said, "so he understands the soil, the seeds and the plants' habits. He's a Godsend."
"Doug helps with my 'Honey, Do ... ' list," Deb said. "He's so much more than 'the hired man in charge of weed control'," she laughed.
Deb's daughter, Tiffany Stephens, who lives in Imperial, enjoys helping people in the produce shed, Deb said, and her son, Travis Davis, of Culbertson, loves helping in the garden.
Deb said her niece, Michelle Olson, of McCook, "just loves being in the country, and volunteers a lot to help in the garden."
Deb said two other volunteers and supporters vital to the success of her garden are her parents, Louise and Darryl Tucker of McCook.
"Mom and Dad like the idea that their daughter isn't afraid of working hard to make her dreams come true," Deb said.
"And that's all I've done, really. I've found what I love to do. ... I hope everyone can do that."