The Fruits of their Labor

By Steve Weisman

The old ad age “harvesting the fruits of their labor” certainly applies to Earl and Virginia Erickson, as they diligently tend to their six-acre vegetable garden plot located on the north edge of Wallingford in northwest Iowa. From seed to market, Earl and Virginia nurture their crop with the same loving care that they did when they fi rst gardened together as newlyweds 39 years ago.

Why all that hard work? Well, they both love the produce, eating it all summer long, while at the same time canning and freezing produce for the winter. They have also turned their garden into a meaningful part-time retirement
business.

Earl sees it this way. “It amazes me, the idea that you can take a little tiny seed - basically nothing - and get it to grow and harvest a crop from it.”

Virginia adds, “It’s the relaxation and therapy that I get from gardening. I can go out in the garden and not have to worry about anything - no ringing phones, nothing.”

What is Earl’s philosophy on the hobby? “Surprisingly,” he says, “you can spend as much on gardening as any other hobby like golf and fishing.”

A GOOD TIME
As a retired couple, the Ericksons also find gardening to be a way of connecting with people.

“Since we retired, we aren’t with people on a daily basis,” Virginia explains.

“We meet a lot of people when we take our produce to the Farmers’ Market in Estherville.” They playfully say that while they are semi-retired, gardening is taking more and more of their time. Earl stresses, “I wouldn’t work this hard for somebody else!”

He continues, “When I worked at Pepsi, and Virginia worked for the Department of Human Services, we only had time to do our one acre south garden. We could never have added the five-acre north garden if we were still working full time.”

Their gardening business actually began with a very simple dream.

According to Earl, “I first thought maybe we could sell enough vegetables to pay the taxes on our acreage, and then later I thought maybe we could build it up enough so that we could retire early.”

With that plan in mind, Earl and Virginia began their commercial gardening venture in 1986. Sure enough, by the time Earl was 62 and Virginia was 58, they had retired and were “gainfully employed part-time!”

There is, however, much more to this gardening scene than meets the eye. You don’t just throw a few seeds out in the dirt and then, a few weeks later, go out and harvest your produce. It takes great planning and precision to develop this type of successful gardening business.

Timing, of course, is such an important key. Plant the produce too early and frost can destroy everything. Plant the produce too late and the crop never reaches true maturity. Following planting comes the laborintensive hours of nurturing to maturity, then harvesting and selling the produce.

It all begins with planning the garden plot. Altogether, Earl and Virginia have 30 garden plots. The fi ve-acre garden has 23 plots that are 100’ long and 40’ wide, while the one-acre garden has seven plots that are 125’ long and 35’ wide. In between each garden plot is a 5’ to 6’ grassy area.

“We really need this grassy area,” Virginia says. “It provides an area where we can walk during planting and then when we harvest, we don’t have to lug the produce all the way to the end of the plot.”

PRECISION PLANTING
The bed preparation actually begins the previous fall when Earl takes a fi ve-foot tiller through the harvested plots. Then, the following spring Earl repeats the process to make sure the beds are ready for planting. At the same time, he rotates the plots between the tomatoes, corn and viney produce.

Until recently, Earl and Virginia planted seeds in several of their plots. However, persistent problems with striped gophers have led them to a different plan.

“We now start a lot of our stuff in the basement,” Virginia says. “We have shelves that will hold 30 standard start-up trays.”

Following germination and when the weather warms somewhat, they move the new seedlings out to their greenhouses.

The gardens actually become a series of staggered plantings. Earl said, “I like to get out there as early as I can, usually by the second weekend in April.” At that time, they will plant kohlrabi, broccoli, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, onions and potatoes, along with radishes, beets, carrots, peas and lettuce.

Next comes the tomatoes and peppers.

“Usually we will plant these around May 10, depending on the weather and the weather forecast,” Earl explains.

This planting includes six plots of 100 with a number of different tomato varieties, along with another 450 to 500 pepper plants. It is here that Eric, their 37-year old son, will take a week’s vacation from his desk job to help with the planting. Virginia laughs when she talks about Earl’s passion for precision planting.

“He won’t let himself be even a quarter of an inch off. Each tomato plant is set exactly five feet away from the next one.”

“I can’t be off,” Earl says. “Not when I cultivate both ways.”

Being even an inch off means that cultivating both ways between the bigger tomato plants can’t be done. Earl uses a one-row cultivator for the viney crop and the tomatoes, and a two-row cultivator for the corn.

The tomato planting goes something like this: They start it off with a string from one end of the plot to the other to ensure a perfectly straight line. In between the plants, Earl places a five-foot rod to ensure the perfect five-foot space. He then digs the hole for that tomato plant and moves the measuring rod for the next tomato.

“While Earl does that,” Virginia explains, “Eric hauls a 55-gallon drum of water with the tractor and waters each plant site, and I come behind and plant the tomato.”

Also, around May 10, it’s time to plant the six corn plots, including four varieties of sweet corn and two varieties of decorative corn. With different maturity dates, Earl and Virginia can expect four weeks of sale with four different maturity dates.

“We know other corn growers that harvest as long as 50 days, but we don’t go into it that heavily,” Virginia says.

The next plots are filled with the “viney stuff”. Cucumbers, summer squash, winter squash, pumpkins, cantaloupe and watermelon are planted between May 15 and June 1. Although these are planted in rows, they, of course, will wander beyond the rows. So, cultivating only happens a couple of times.

WATCHING THE WEEDS
Keeping the rows of produce clean comes down to one means: manual labor called hand hoeing.

“We keep up with the weeds pretty well until July,” Virginia says.

Then the Farmers’ Market begins, however, and so much time is spent harvesting and marketing that the weeding takes a back seat. By July, the Farmers’ Market runs on Thursday afternoon and Saturday morning extending through the first two weeks in October.

With all 30 plots in production, Earl and Virginia are always looking at the produce.

“As we harvest, we look for the good and the bad. Are there problems and are they caused by the weather or is it the plant itself?” Earl says.

Once the fall squash, melon, gourd and pumpkin harvest season arrives, Chris, their 36-year old son, comes home to help.

“Chris loves to go out and pick out what he thinks are the biggest and the best and bring them to the yard,” Virginia says.

This type of produce also becomes decorative in nature.

“People are looking at these for decorations. We’ve even done two to three fall weddings that included several of our pumpkins and gourds,” noted Virginia.

Right now it’s April, and the new plants are housed in the greenhouse, and Earl and Virginia are preparing for yet another gardening season. As they refl ect on the past 39 years of gardening, they both feel that every year has been worth it. Where else could you work side by side with your best friend “while harvesting the fruits of your labor”?

THE PUMPKIN MEN
As travelers pass through Wallingford heading north toward Estherville on Highway 4, a pair of tall, wooden Pumpkin Men stand at the entrance to the Erickson driveway welcoming visitors to the Erickson gardens.

For Earl and Virginia, the Pumpkin Men are their gardening ambassadors. “Earl decorates them for the major seasons and holidays of the year,” Virginia says.

Earl begins the decorating in January with the larger Pumpkin Man sporting a beard and a hand sickle to represent Father Time.

“I’ve been trying to figure out how to put a diaper on the little guy,” he says with a chuckle.

February decorations include tall, black Lincoln hats in honor of President’s Day, followed by the Irish hats for St. Patrick’s Day in March.

They may look funny, but bunny ears appear for Easter, and then for May through June, the two Pumpkin Men sport a straw hat and a baseball hat, respectively.

July, of course, means stars and stripes, and the two don patriotic hats and neckties.

Then out come the pointed witch hats for September and October, followed by the Pilgrim’s hats of November and finally Santa Claus hats for December.

“It’s all in fun,” Virginia says, “and we do get a lot of comments as we change the Pumpkin Men for the next season.”