I woke up early Saturday morning and decided to take the family on a tour of a few local yard sales.

I have never been in another area where yard sales were as much a part of the culture as they are here. I see three reasons: most of us aren’t very affluent, we like finding bargains and we lack shopping outlets. Going to yard sales is another rite of passage into summer, along with my other passion — gardening. About a week ago I bought enough Mayo garden seeds to plant every garden in town. I ended up buying enough seeds for less than $3 to fill an entire large paper grocery bag. The seeds were outdated — they were for 2002 — but it really doesn’t matter that much to me. When I can buy a bag of corn that should have cost me $8 for 10 cents, I am going to buy it every time. So what if only half the seeds comes up? I’ll put twice as many in the hole and I won’t know the difference.

The seed selection included two kinds of peas, greens, four kinds of beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, broccoli, rutabaga and several others — almost anything that I would want to plant in my garden. I already have beet seeds, carrots and parsnips left over from earlier years.

I hope to get a small patch of ground tilled under soon and also add on a good layer of manure for good measure. Now I just need to find some horse manure. That shouldn’t be a challenge in these parts.

I have two spots selected for my garden. Both have advantages and disadvantages, so I am weighing them out. One has shade nearby but is on a small hill, the other is flat, but is a good distance from the house. Both have one major setback — they are in directions it would not be safe to shoot if the garden is invaded by cute little furry woodland creatures. I suppose I will try some of my rabbit deterrent powder I bought. I hope it works as well as my little rifle does.

I can hardly wait to get my garden going, although I do have a slight level of apprehension after last year’s gardening fiasco. The wet weather caused the spot I picked out to turn into a swamp and almost every plant I put in died a horrible death. In addition, every time I tried to work it I would sink up to my ankles in mud and a spring even popped up in one of my rows.

I have learned from my past mistakes. Both locations I selected are well drained and I feel sure that things are going to work out fine, if I can ever get it in the ground, that is. The anticipation is nearly palatable for me. The recent sunshine has given me garden fever.

I bought a big bag of 10-10-10 the other day, which is what I usually put on the garden. It is all that I need to keep the plants healthy without burning anything up. I used 20-20-20 one year and wasn’t all that pleased with it. Someone once told me that using too much nitrogen (the first number of the three) can cause your tomato plants to grow big vines with few fruits. I also try to save a few egg shells to put in the tomato plant holes to give them extra calcium. That keeps them from getting blossom end rot.

Garden knowledge is nearly endless. I have picked up tidbits of this and that over the years, the wisdom of the older folks who have been gardening for years and years.

Some of the things they tell me are common sense, but others are things that I might have had to learn the hard way. Some of it may just be lore of the ages with little practical use. For instance, copper dust kills blight, marigolds and pie pans around a garden help keep out deer better than a fence, a string between two sticks about four inches high helps keep crows out of the corn, buckwheat is good for the soil and makes an excellent cover crop, rye in the winter makes gardens grow better the next year, rock dust, sand and compost help soften soil, and always plant frost-prone things after May 15.

I learned that it is a good idea to place newspapers between rows to keep weeds from growing and to put aluminum foil around the stalks of tomatoes to deter cut worms. It is also wise not to dust any plants when they are blooming, lest you kill the pollinating insects. As a beekeeper, I am especially interested in that one.

Anyway, I bought two old gardening books at one yard sale: “Garden Magic” and “10,000 Garden Questions.” They may be old, but I feel sure that plants haven’t changed much. Besides, much of what I know about gardening I learned from working with my parents, who learned from their parents, and so on. There is definitely a timeless appeal to putting a seed in the soil and watching it grow into a large plant and bear fruit and later passing your knowledge on to your children.

I also hope the joy of working in the garden will help me to grow and bear more fruit in other areas of life. After all, life is a circle.

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