Grover Poole has never taken a Master Gardner class, but, when it’s planting time at the Pioneer Museum of Alabama, Poole gets the call.

Poole is a master gardener. His certification comes from 80-plus years of putting his hand to the plow.

“I’ve always loved to plow,” Poole said as he rolled the homemade push-plow to a stop and settled down to rest on a hot Friday morning.

Poole is a volunteer at the Pioneer Museum of Alabama and he was going about the business of planting the museum’s summer garden.

“I can’t do what I used to do and I sure hate that,” Poole said. “I love to work. That’s keeps me going. But I have sit down and take a short rest.”

While Poole is resting, he’s wishing he were back up working so he’s planning what he’ll do next.

“I never like to sit down,” he said. “Even when I was a little boy, I can remember, on Saturdays, all my folks would load up in the wagon and take off to town. I’d stay back and, as soon as they got out of sight, I’d hitch the mule to the plow and go to plowing.

“I’ve always loved to work and plowing was a big part of living and working on a farm.”

Poole said he couldn’t put words to the attraction he found working behind the south end of a northbound mule but he found that a mighty fine place to be.

“I’ve always liked horses,” he said. “I’d hitch horses to the plow or mules or cows. It didn’t matter. They could all pull the plow.”

Poole, laughingly, said that he has plowed with a calf.

“It was a yearling and I called it Buck,” he said. “I broke it and cut its tail off and we plowed all day and never took a break.”

Poole said hard work never hurt anybody. In fact, he said hard work makes a boy into a man.

“We always had a big garden,” he said. “We grew enough for us to eat and enough to give away. Why, we’d grow enough peas for us and everybody and a two-horse wagonload for the cows.

“Talking about good sweet milk. Cows that have been fed peas give good milk.”

Poole said his daddy always had a fenced vegetable garden with sticky, stinging velvet beans growing on the fence.

“When the beans made and the vines died, I’d have to pull the vines out of the fence. They would be wrapped all around the wire and you couldn’t hardly get them out. But, if you didn’t the wire would rust and daddy wasn’t about to let that happen.”

After a short rest, Poole reached for the hoe and began making a place in the garden for another row of tomato plants.

“We’ve got tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers and eggplants planted here in the vegetable garden,” he said. “We’ve got more to plant in the next few days. Up the hill, we’ve planted peanuts, corn and popcorn. We didn’t plant cotton this year. But, we’ve got enough for ‘city’ people to see how their food is grown.”

Poole laughingly said a lot of city folks don’t have any idea how their food is grown.

“Some people are just dumb about where their food comes from,” he said. “Some of them think that peanuts grow on trees. That’s why we plant a few crops and the vegetable garden. And, it’s all good eating, too.”

Kari Barley, Pioneer Museum of Alabama director, said Poole is invaluable to the museum.

“Mr. Poole is one of our longest standing volunteers,” she said. “He is a valuable resource in so many areas. We couldn’t have the garden without him. He comes every day and waters and weeds. I just hope he knows how much he is appreciated.”

Barley said there are many volunteer opportunities at the museum. She invites anyone, who has an interest in pioneer history and time to devote to the community, to share in the fruits of the harvest that is cultivated daily at the Pioneer Museum of Alabama.