How does your garden grow?

A Bird in the garden

PRINCETON — Gardening is a lot of hard work, but that’s just what Bob Bird Sr. likes.

At 94 years of age, the Princeton man said it’s been lots of hard work that’s kept him strong and active all these years.

A former Princeton area farmer, real estate developer and community leader, Bird retired from real estate in 1978. Since that time, he’s put out a garden every year. His garden is bigger than some people’s yards.

Bird actually has two gardens, one that is about 140 feet long by 40 feet wide at the back of his house and yard on Fox Creek Lane. His other garden, located on a nearby empty lot he owns, is dedicated to sweet corn.

Bird put out this year’s garden on April 8. He always likes to make sure he has his garden planted by the first of May. His choice of vegetables don’t vary much from year to year, Bird said. In addition to the sweet corn, he puts out the usual things, like radishes, lettuce, spinach, zucchini, peas, beets, beans, tomatoes, squash, okra, peppers, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions. A person can’t have too many onions, he said.

Bird and his wife, Agnes, have already had some fresh potatoes, radishes, onions, spinach, peas and a few tomatoes from this year’s garden. The zucchini is ready for a first-picking.

Though Bird can no longer do much walking, that hasn’t prevented him from working in his garden. He uses a scooter to maneuver through the wide rows of vegetables, and in his hand, he fights the weeds with a long-handled hoe.

“There really aren’t many secrets to having a good garden,” Bird said. “It just takes a lot of hard work and a long handled hoe.”

To help with the gardening process, Bird does practice a few other tricks. For one thing, he’s hung bug-in-bag sacks around his vegetables to collect unwanted insect pests. The bags work well, with one bag getting so full it even split.

Bird also rotates his crops from year-to-year to replenish the soil. He’s set up a watering system for the garden, though he’s not had to use it this year. Around the sweet corn patch, he’s strung a small electric fence to keep out the raccoons or any other varmints that might consider visiting.

Looking back on his 94 years, Bird said he’s been around gardening for as long as he can remember. As a little boy growing up in Kansas, his mother always had a garden. With 11 kids to feed (he was the oldest), a garden was a necessity. The kids all worked in the garden.

After moving to Illinois in 1947 with his first wife and their seven children, the gardening continued. His wife always put out a big garden to help feed the family. After his first wife died, Bob later remarried. Agnes, his wife of 26 years, also loves having the fresh foods from the garden. Every year, she freezes sweet corn and cans vegetables, like tomatoes and beets. She also makes lots of jams and jellies from the raspberry and blackberry bushes her husband planted to border the garden.

With a bountiful crop of vegetables each year, the Birds make sure nothing goes to waste. They share their good fortune with their large family. They also take boxes of vegetables to their church to share with their church family. Sometimes they’ll put a box of vegetables along the street in front of their house for people to help themselves.

Bird said he’s never thought about setting up a vegetable stand to sell any of his garden produce.

“It’s no fun to sell it,” Bird said.

In the fall, when the Birds leave for some time in Texas, they will take their green tomatoes with them, wrapped in newspaper. The tomatoes will ripen just fine in Texas. They’ll also take some of their garden produce to share with their Texas family and friends.

So what does this long-time gardener like best about his gardening hobby? Bird doesn’t hesitate with his answer.

“It’s a soul-builder,” Bird said. “As I go through the garden and do my work, I worship God and thank Him for all His goodness to me.”

Bird credited much of his good health to his garden and the blessing of hard work. His wife, who’s a very good cook, sees to it that he gets three balanced meals a day. He’s never smoked or drank alcohol. His blood pressure is good. He doesn’t take much medicine. He feels like a king, Bird said.

So what about next year’s garden? Bird, who will turn 95 years old on June 29, 2010, said he’s already thinking about it. Each week when he goes through his garden, he thanks God for his blessings and then he thinks about what he’ll do next year with his garden. By wintertime, he’s looking through the seed catalogs to get his plans started for his next garden.

Considering his good health, Bird said he thinks there are still quite a few years of good gardening left in him.

“I plan to keep gardening until the Lord calls me home,” Bird said.