Once a year, I devote a post to honoring my maternal grandmother, Wilhemina “Minnie” Goddard. Sure, I often mention “Nanny” (my name for her from when I was a toddler up to her death in January 1986), but, for the occasion of Grandparents Day, I like to recount special, or even fun, memories of her, like I will do today. Sadly I know that one day my well of reminiscences will eventually run dry.
Grandparents Day is basically a Hallmark-type holiday and originated after a young boy named Russell Capper, sent a letter to President Nixon with a simple request to celebrate grandparents one day a year. So, Grandparents Day is now celebrated the first Sunday after Labor Day.
My blog is filled with references to Nanny’s green thumb and her love of flowers and my own garden from back in the day as well. These days I am less enthusiastic to welcome anyone into my backyard – my rosebushes are the only blooms that remain from my gardening heyday because everything was lost to the ravages of Mother Nature, i.e. first a Polar Vortex, then a windstorm that caused a downed wire fire that finished off the back garden and part of the side garden. Up until these disastrous events, I was proud to tell anyone and everyone that I inherited my beloved grandmother’s green thumb, though her skills with houseplants far exceeded mine.
So did Nanny share her secret for those prolific blooms with me?
Nanny was a kindly soul with a big heart. She was not a penny pincher, but also not reckless with her money either – after all she was old enough, at 23 years old, to remember the Great Depression of 1929. She saved and re-used tin foil, wrapping paper and bows and was resourceful. However, one day a neighbor down the street knocked on her front door and told Nanny he had a “big venture” going on, but he needed a handful of investors to make it work. He presented the details, then finally asked if she would be interested in becoming a partner. After hearing him out, she agreed and parted with some cash to become a proud, part owner of a worm farm. Yes, a worm farm.
So here’s the “dirt” on that venture.
As an investor only, Nanny did none of the work. The gentleman purchased all the necessary trappings to raise earthworms, but the worms were not raised to sell as bait to local fishermen as one might suspect, but instead he collected the worm manure, bagged it, then sold this product as a rich additive to flower and vegetable gardens. On a visit to Toronto to visit my grandmother, she proudly handed me two, one-pound bags of pure worm manure and assured me my annuals would bloom brighter, last longer and I would be the talk of the neighborhood.
Hmm – so was this a “dirty deal” of sorts?
Mom, ever the skeptic, asked my grandmother about that investment and also how one could differentiate between worm manure and the ordinary soil where the worms lived? Sheepishly my grandmother admitted it might not be possible to do so, but did not feel she had been scammed. Mom remained dubious, but who could fault this well-meaning woman for helping out a neighbor in need? After all, Nanny never hesitated to open up her pocketbook to friends or relatives who needed money and/or were down on their luck.
As we packed up to return home on Sunday morning, I remember Mom cautioning me “Linda, don’t pack those worm manure bags near any of our food!” After we moved to the U.S., every trip back to Toronto meant we bought a few food finds only available in Canada to bring back home.
The worm manure business folded soon thereafter. Likely, Nanny did NOT reap the rewards for her investment in this business venture. I fertilized my flowers with the two bags of worm manure and took photos to share with Nanny after proclaiming that my annuals were perky and gargantuan through October that year – heck, a little white lie never hurt anyone.
P.S. – For many years, before I had access to the World Wide Web, like Mom, I believed that the worm manure biz was a scam, however, many years after both Nanny and Mom were gone, by accident I learned that worm manure, a/k/a worm castings, was indeed a “thing” and a coveted item for one’s plants. Who knew?
I hope my story brought a smile to your face.
Happy Grandparents Day if it applies to you.
Terri has no Sunday Stills Photo Challenge this week.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
I did know that worm manure was real but didn’t think It was a hot seller?
How tall was nanny? She looks like she’s 5 foot…..If that.
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Wayne, my mom and I both had no idea that worm manure was a hot seller and when I saw that article online years later, I wished my mom was here so I could say “now don’t you feel badly that we thought this was a scam?” But really, how could you tell the difference between a dark topsoil and what was worm manure? Ha ha – I think Nanny was about five feet tall – she was shorter than my mom who was 5’2″ tall. I was my full height by then: 5′ 9″ tall.
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technically……just about any type of manure is great for a garden!
Your Nanny looked like a happy soul!
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That’s true about manure Wayne – at least this kind didn’t smell! When I worked at the restaurant, we had huge five-gallon pickle pails that our sliced dill pickles came in. We dumped all the coffee grounds and eggshells into the pails. Our customers were on a list for those pails to take home to spread in their garden. I asked my father once if he wanted some and he said he did, so I had my manager load the pail into the car to take home as the pail was very heavy. Every time it rained, it smelled like coffee. Nanny was a happy soul. I don’t think I ever saw her mad, but my mom said she mellowed with age and was not as easygoing when she was younger, when she was growing up. She really mellowed out a lot after my old coot of a grandfather died in 1969.
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I enjoyed reading about your Nanny, Linda. 😀 Either she was short or you are tall! Fun story about the worm manure. 😄 I’ve never heard of that before. 🪱
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Thank you Debbie! I can’t tell you how surprised I was to read that worm manure for the garden was indeed a “thing” and here we thought it was a scam, however, how could you really tell the difference between a good, dark topsoil and worm manure? I don’t think Nanny was five feet tall as my mom was 5′ 2″ tall and she was taller than my grandmother. Meanwhile, I towered over everyone at 5′ 9″ tall. Muffin, the dog in the pictures, had just arrived, a six-week-old puppy in the 1984 shot. I don’t think his feet were on the floor the entire weekend we were there as he was in everyone’s lap. The next time we saw him, he was fully grown and a spoiled brat.
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You look like a giant next to her, Linda!
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I WAS a giant Pam – she was only about five feet tall and I was five feet, nine inches tall! My parents were very short too (father 5’3″ and mother 5′ 2″ tall).
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👏👏👏
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It is great to remember your grandmother like this 🙂
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Thank you Anne – I have one more story to use for next year, then that may just be the end of my tales, unless some come to mind down the line. 🙂
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All photos are so pretty looking with Nanny. Beautiful you sharing your Grandparents Day. I lot of enjoy your grandmother story. she was short or you are tal,Linda God blessing 🙏. Really emotional & you remembering my mother.
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Thank you Raj – I am glad you enjoyed the post! I was close to my grandmother, but unfortunately, after we moved to the U.S. in 1966, I never got to see her as much as I would have liked – she lived 240 miles/386 kilometers away. After my grandfather died, she would come over to our house for a month-long visit, which was nice.
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Most welcome ,Linda! I know what you can get feeling. God bless you all 💕
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Thank you Raj.
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My pleasure 😄!
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You are lucky. I didn’t know my grandmothers. One died before I was born and the other died when I was 3. I have no memory of her.
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Yes, I know I was lucky and we used to visit her most Sundays when I was growing up. I didn’t see her as much after we moved to the U.S. and then only went back to Toronto to visit four to six times a year. After my grandfather died, she would come for a month-long visit which was nice.
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Your mom didn’t want to move back after your dad left? I bet she missed her.
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When we moved here in 1966, my father said we would stay 10 years, then return to Canada. That never happened. For him, he did not understand the concept of family ties as he had no family left except an elderly aunt and uncle, so he did not understand how disruptive it was moving here away from her family and her lifelong friends.
No, I asked her if she wanted to move back to Canada and she was reluctant to do so because the burden of moving expenses, a new house would be on me as my father took all the money out of the bank/annuity funds and Mom was too young to collect Social Security as she was only 58 and having mobility issues so could not return to the workplace. She had not worked since just before I was born in 1956. Moving into my grandmother’s house wouldn’t work as it was a two-story house and difficult to get upstairs (to bathroom and other bedrooms) for her by that time. Then my grandmother died in 1986, two years after my father left. Mom did not get the house until 1985 as we had to go through a “divorce by default due to abandonment” so that was a problem as well.
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Wow! It was all so complicated and difficult for your mom! She didn’t deserve that.
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Yes, it was not a good time for my mom at all. Lots of things going on right then in the space of two years’ time. And, then her medical issues, 42 operations over her lifetime, most all of them as a child/teenager/young woman because of being hit by a car at age 11, she did not need what my father did to her.
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Yes, your story did bring a smile to my face, along with a few memories of my three grandparents. One died when my mother was 4 years old.
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Glad to give you a smile Anne – I never met my paternal grandparents. They died when my father was young.
Happy Grandparents Day to you!
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Thank you.
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What fun memories you have of your grandmother! I don’t have many (ie one) picture of my mother’s mother. It’s a badly out of focus picture taken long before (I think) I was born. And I remember another image, though I don’t know where it is, of her at our table one holiday dinner, when I was a teenager. I’ve been meaning to ask some cousins, who live one the family farm, if there are other pictures of my grandparents somewhere. My dad’s mom died when I was about 5. I remember visiting her (she lived in Charlevoix and we lived down by the Ohio border) once. I’m sure we visited more than once, but I only remember one time. I do have a decent picture of her that I got when my aunt (her daughter) died in 2022. But I really don’t have any stories about either of them. Which is sad.
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Yes Dawn, I do have some fun memories of Nanny and I have one more to share next year and that might be it. We used to go to her house almost every Sunday when we lived in Canada, but after we moved to the States in 1966, we only visited about four or five times a year. After my grandfather died, sometimes she would come over here for a month-long visit which was nice and I got to know her even better then. I never knew my paternal grandparents – they both died when my father was in his teens.
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What a nice story about your grandmother Linda. I never heard of the worm dirt but I knew adding worms to your garden was beneficial.
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Thank you Diane – I’m glad you liked it and Happy Grandparents Day to you! I wonder if this is why worms are beneficial to your garden … for the castings, or maybe to aerate the soil as they wiggle through? I wish you could have seen the look on my face when I saw the story all those years later and how I would have liked to show my mom that story and say “well you were so skeptical and thought it was a scam!” Of course, as a gardener yourself, you likely would not be able to tell the difference between good topsoil and worm manure either, right? I have one more story up my sleeve for next year and unless something else comes to me down the line, I’m fresh out of grandmother stories for Grandparents Day.
I do have a funny story for you though. I decided awhile ago to do this worm manure story this year for Grandparents Day. I thought it would be fun to make dirt pudding (yes dirt cake would be fun, but I don’t bake as you know). So I got a recipe for sprinkling chocolate pudding with smashed Oreo cookies (minus the cream) to look like dirt, then putting gummy worms on top of that. I even bought a new, cute flower pot to put it in, intending to use it for real flowers afterward. It was all good except I misplaced the gummy worms. I was not spending $2.49 on more gummy worms because I wasn’t going to eat the first ones, just use them for the photo. So I scrapped the entire idea. As of today, I never found the package of worms.
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It seems your grandmothers neighbor was a bit ahead of the times. I’ve thought about worm farming but am more so encouraging my son-in-aw to get the grandkids started in it. We don’t buy worm castings our soil has lots of worms.
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Who knew that 40 years ago this was so ahead of its time? That is funny Ruth because Mom and I were very surprised when we went to visit and my grandmother spoke about this new venture. How I wish I could have shown my mom this story I read years later. I hope you convince your son-in-law to get the grandkids started. I wouldn’t think the investment nor the space for such a venture would be all that large would it? That’s why your flowers and produce grow so well!
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A lovely post Linda. Your Nanny was on the right track with worm poo. It works well. Did she get an worm juice as well?
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Thank you Brian! Interestingly, it seems several people have heard of worm poo and while Nanny did not mention the juice, as I scrolled down the comments, I see Ari, a blogger who lives in Ireland now, but is from England originally, mentions her worm farm and worm juice. This is a much bigger venture than we would have thought … and here we “poo-pooed” it. (Wish I’d thought of that line earlier for the post.) I know there’s a way, or was a way, to copy another blogger’s comment, but I don’t want to send it into cyberspace so I’ll put it here. I wish I could show my mother these comments, because she really thought my grandmother had been duped.
From Ari:
“Lovely history of Nanny. What a shame about the business and I hope she never lost too much.
I have to say, I’ve had wormeries (worm composters) for many many years now. In fact, my original two are still going strong – one with a family friend, the other with my dad. (Couldn’t figure out how to transport them when we moved to N.Ireland) lol
But the worm juices (liquid) that is drained off is incredible for plants (needs to be diluted as it can be so strong). The two wormeries used to produce so much I would end up with 5-10 1ltr bottles every few weeks.
I offered it free to gardeners, neighbours and those at the allotment. (maybe I should have sold it! lol)
The worm compost is a lovely dark shade and good for the plants.
I can’t imagine running a whole business for such a thing. Having a single wormery in a garden is fun – but making a business out of it. lol sounds like that young man had some interesting ideas, if a little foolish. 🙂
Lovely photos
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thanks for sending on Ari’s comment 😀
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You’re welcome Brian – since you asked about worm juice, something I’ve not heard of, I knew you’d enjoy reading Ari’s comment and now we know why English gardens are so beautiful. When I worked at the restaurant, we saved pails of coffee grounds and eggshells for customer’s gardens. My grandmother used to also put banana skins in her garden for the roses.
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Coffee grounds and egg shells are good for keeping snails away from plants
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I didn’t know that – I had slugs and used beer in low containers – they are attracted to yeast and would crawl in and drown. I never had snails, but those slugs were awful, chomping on all the Hostas. Eventually I got some flat copper wires to put around each plant and that helped as they wouldn’t cross the copper as it would shock them. You can do the same if you can find copper pennies.
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Hello Linda, how fun to hear about the investment into the worm farm – and how later you discovered that the worm castings really did help the plants and soil.
I did know that worms in the soil were a sign of healthy, irrigated terrain – and there was a certain part of our front garden that was so sterile – it has no signs of life and not even one worm – so I always use gloves when touching the soil there. I think the former homeowner used harsh chemicals in certain areas – blah!
Oh and I liked the photos you chose for the post!
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I’m glad you like the photos of Nanny and I and the post as well. Since publishing this post, now I am finding out that worm farms and worm castings are legit and even worm juice is beneficial to gardens. I am sorry now I was in my mom’s camp of disbelievers 40 years ago!
Many years ago, we had an area of my city where neighbors suddenly noticed that the grass on some City-owned property was glowing in the dark. They were concerned about it, even contacting the City. This was long before the internet, just stories in the local paper, but I do recall that since the City took no action, neighbors contacted a TV station and got a reporter to visit and a scientist to take samples. It was nothing more than phosphorous if my memory is right, but neighbors described it as an eerie glow. The paper did not publish color photos. I don’t blame you for being concerned. I always use gloves outside, as I am afraid I’ll reach into the dirt or a plant, etc. and something will bite me. Mind you, I’ve never been bitten, but now, more than ever, after the groundhog debacle a few years ago, plus catching two opossums in the traps the pest service set out to bait (and release) the groundhog, but they never trapped the groundhog, I go in the backyard very infrequently.
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wow – that is an interesting story about the glowing in the dark earth areas!
And glad it was nothing more than phosphorous but it does make one wonder
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Yes, isn’t it? Now, people would blame the glow on all kinds of things, even climate change. It was a hot topic for a while, until the next hot topic happened and yes it was good nothing bad came of this.
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linda, you are so right about the “hot topics” and the way they change
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I’ve always been amazed how quickly the “hot potatoes” disappear Yvette, especially nowadays on social media. For years, when print journalism ruled, the main stories of the day were always “the stories above the fold” so that told you when you picked up a newspaper, or even just glanced at it in the metal newspaper box, what were the most-important stories of the day.
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;0)
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Love these photos. Grandmothers are the best. 🙂
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Thanks Sandra – yes, grandmothers are the best. I was close to my grandmother and after my grandfather died, she used to come to our house every Summer for a month-long visit, which I enjoyed, as we only went to Toronto four to six times a year after moving here.
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I love your memories of your grandmother – she sounds like she was a wonderful lady!
There is so much about gardening that I don’t know. I thought “OK, worm manure – why not?”
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Thank you JP – I was close to my grandmother. After my grandfather died, she used to come and visit every Summer for about a month, which I really liked. Interestingly, my mom and I were very doubtful about this whole worm manure business but now, I am finding out with blogger’s comments that this is a real thing and a UK blogger told me she had worm farms for her garden and used worm juice (manure and water steeped together) for fertilizing her plants. Blogging makes you smart(er)!
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You had the sweetest grandmother, Linda! I loved reading about her investing in the worm farm. She knew what she was getting into. And I love how she loved to pose with her garden flowers and you, probably her two greatest loves that brought her the most happiness. 🩷
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Thank you so much for this nice comment Barbara. I was very close to my grandmother and regretted we were not able to spend more time together after we moved to the States. When we lived in Canada, we visited nearly every Sunday, so reducing visits to four or five, maybe six visits a year, depending on the weather, was quite a difference. She used to come over to visit for most Summers after my grandfather died. My father would take us to visit different botanical gardens on a day trip which she really enjoyed. I almost included flowers from Dieppe Park in Windsor for the post but kept it at just her own garden. She’d come over here by bus and we’d drive her back or vice versa.
I have learned today from several bloggers that worm farms for fertilizer is a “thing”. Ari, from the UK said she had two worm farms and made worm juice (steeping castings and water together for liquid fertilizer) and Brian from Australia also asked if my grandmother made worm juice. I feel badly now that Mom and I doubted this venture and thought it was a scam. She did love her flowers and posing with them and the two of us in the garden, the last photo 40 years ago, but it seems like yesterday sometimes.
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I enjoyed this story and the photos. I know about worm farming but also know that it’s not a guaranteed success. Maybe your grandmother’s flowers were healthy because she loved them, more than because of what she used on them!
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Thank you Ally! I am surprised to now learn from several fellow bloggers that worm farming, castings and worm juice (made from steeping water and worm castings) are beneficial for plants. I wish my mom and I knew that 40 years ago as we might not have been skeptical (especially Mom). I like your version about how my grandmother’s outside plants and her inside plants flourished – yes, she did love her plants. I wish I had thought to take a photo of her Christmas cactus. It was very old and covered the old, wooden Singer sewing machine and it was beautiful in bloom. It was in bloom when we were there at Christmas 1985, one month before she passed away and I am still kicking myself today, why I didn’t think to take a photo of her and that Christmas cactus.
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There’s even a worm manure business in Durango (they also sell worms for your compost bin). It sounds like Nanny’s neighbor was just ahead of his time.
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That’s interesting Eilene and I learned from several bloggers, including Ari, a UK blogger who had two worm farms at her home for her own garden, that the worm manure business was a “thing” – I’d have never guessed that and 40 years ago Mom and I believed it was likely a scam.
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Lovely history of Nanny. What a shame about the business and I hope she never lost too much.
I have to say, I’ve had wormeries (worm composters) for many many years now. In fact, my original two are still going strong – one with a family friend, the other with my dad. (Couldn’t figure out how to transport them when we moved to N.Ireland) lol
But the worm juices (liquid) that is drained off is incredible for plants (needs to be diluted as it can be so strong). The two wormeries used to produce so much I would end up with 5-10 1ltr bottles every few weeks.
I offered it free to gardeners, neighbours and those at the allotment. (maybe I should have sold it! lol)
The worm compost is a lovely dark shade and good for the plants.
I can’t imagine running a whole business for such a thing. Having a single wormery in a garden is fun – but making a business out of it. lol sounds like that young man had some interesting ideas, if a little foolish. 🙂
Lovely photos
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Thank you Ari – I’m glad you liked my story about Nanny and the photos. I am fascinated with your info about your wormeries and your history of how you created the worm juice and the rich soil to help your plants in your gardens – yes, you could have sold the worm juice for those lovely English gardens that England is so famous for. When I worked at the restaurant during my school years, we were open 24 hours a day and we sold a lot of coffee and breakfasts, so we had large pails where we threw the coffee grounds and eggshells in. Our regular customers routinely asked for pails of the mixture for their garden. It was interesting to learn that this worm business was legitimate 40 years ago, though my mom and I were dubious!
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Well that was certainly interesting Linda! And very unique! I had no idea worm manure was even a thing. Nice to see the 80’s photos of you and your grandmother!
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I’m glad you enjoyed the post and our pictures from 40 years ago Joni. I can’t remember how old I was when my grandmother was taller than me, but as a teenager I was already 5′ 9″ tall. I had my hair in a French braid in the first picture, then I cut it short with layers the following year, only to grow it out long again. As to the worm manure, I am learning from comments, that this is definitely a “thing” and Ari, a UK blogger wrote that she had many wormeries over the years and made worm juice (castings and water together, steeping it into a liquid fertilizer) … well, you know how beautiful English gardens are, so now you know why.
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That is interesting. When I saw your hair I thought Farrah Fawcett!
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Well I did like her hairstyle and for me this cut was shorter than I had it before. I went to an older lady who had been a hair stylist for decades and she said “your hair is stick straight – do not cut it like this photo because it will only look like this on perfect weather days. That person in the picture is in a studio and has a wind machine blowing to make her hair look perfect.” But, of course I didn’t listen and she was right and I grew it back out but kept some layers around my face. Live and learn!
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Sounds like your Grandmother was both hard working and adventurous. What beautiful flowers she grew!
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Yes, that she was Rebecca. She worked in various jobs through the years, like factories that made chocolate and then peanuts (Rowntree’s and Planter’s) and on her feet all day, then she was a cafeteria worker doing prep work in the kitchen until she retired. She was fun and never seemed like her age, even when she began having heart troubles after she retired. She did love her garden and indoor plants!
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What a great story and memory. I was going to say too that you are very tall or your grandma is very short! But Wayne beat me to it lol. I didn’t know you were tall, I am about 5’7” maybe a bit taller. Strangely my maternal grandma was also very short!
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I’m glad you liked it Susan and I have learned from people’s comments that this was a real thing and not a scam idea as my mom and I thought. Ari, a blogger from the UK, said she’s had several wormeries through the years and even mentioned “worm juice” (steeping worm castings and water for making a liquid fertilizer for plants). Well, you can’t beat an English garden for beauty! I am 5’9″ tall and probably was that height since I was a teenager … I can’t remember when I would have been shorter than my grandmother, except as a kid! That is a coincidence we both had maternal grandmothers that were so short!
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Unlike worm manure, horse manure is a no-brainer profitable business as long as you’re willing to get your hands dirty. One dump truck + one skid loader = hundreds of dollars a load. THEN you turn around and sell the load to a third party for hundreds more. If our community’s HOA fees didn’t pay for our manure dump, I might’ve considered starting the business here after a career in tech 🙂
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That’s amazing Dave – I had no idea of the “going price” for manure! As a fertilizer it’s great, but in your warm climate, oh my. I admit the worm manure was sans smell, at least. 🙂 Your former coworkers would be jealous that they were still slaving over a keyboard, coding and creating.
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Y’all look like me and my maternal grandmother!😊 I thought I had it made when I got taller than my grandmother, only to realize later that she was only 5’3″. I did tower over her once I topped out at 5’11”.
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Linda, my mom always used to say it was the special formula she gave me when I was a baby because I was only four pounds, eleven ounces when I was born. My mom was 5′ 2″ tall, my father was 5′ 3″ tall and I truly don’t remember the last time my grandmother was taller than I was. 🙂 I do remember you were taller than me – I am 5′ 9″ tall, though I’ve not measured my height in a while.
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