By Greg Evans
A song through the woods came to me, just past dark, I heard it softly, like a whippoorwill through the purple shadows and I knew it was coming from down yonder by the ole Brode's cabin so I followed the sound along the old creek bed. Little Annabel, I recognized her voice, pulling laundry off the line and folding it on the picnic table in front of the little white barn, once a black smith's shop before eighteen hundred and sixty-one, still standing. It was Pretty Saro, in perfect pitch I imagine, and I sat down where I was on a dried rotten log with my cigar, tipped my hat up so I could see the stars and hummed quietly along. It's nice on a warm night, to sit and enjoy a fine smoke and listen to a pretty song. The sounds of the forest alive, crickets and evening birds, the scuttle of little rodents and whispering of the wind. Throughout the mountains folks were out strolling and chatting and playing music from Clinch River to Roan Mountain. Haven't had but one such evening in maybe seven or eight months. It was a hard winter this year. Since last October we have only been out of the mountains once. During the day the bumble bees and wasps zipping about in every direction, though neither is an aggressor and thus I can enjoy the weather comfortably alongside them. With all the heavy rains and snows we're due for a mass hatching of blood thirty mosquiters ready to enjoy a fat spring meal. I'll have to erect a few torches to chase them away or else I'll be filled with welts in the duration it takes to have a cigar. It wasn't until today that I can confidently say, spring is now here and darn it if it didn't take long enough to arrive! I have decided that this year I am going to plant a couple orange trees. As I have mentioned before I have three lemon trees that I have been growing for two years and they are as healthy as ever. The secret is to take what people who claim to be "experts" say with a grain of salt. I am not saying they don't know what they are talking about, but there are more than one way to grow a nice tropical fruit plant in the Appalachian Mountains. The first thing is that you need a pot or a empty plastic coffee container, cleaned of course. The tropical fruit plants won't grow well in the natural clay and come winter they will obviously die. Next, simply purchase a fruit from your local market, like a lemon, lime or orange. Purchase some regular fertilized soil and put it into whatever pot you are going to do your growing. Then remove a few seeds, at least three just in case one or two don't grow (not all seeds will grow regardless of how careful and attentive you are), bury no more than two per pot, about two inches under the soil. Water them well the first day and then a little every day after until they begin to sprout. Then make sure they get plenty of sunlight (southern exposure) because, don't forget! They are tropical plants. They will grow slowly so don't be alarmed. During warm and hot days and nights they can be kept outside but come autumn and winter they must be brought in doors. They will go dormant, which means they won't grow much at all but they will survive if you keep them watered and in front of a window that gets a lot of sunlight. They will survived for years if you care for them well.
