Planting by the heart a Plains tradition

Planting by the heart doesn’t mean to plant according to the heart of a gardener, or any other person. The local Plains area old-timers saying or old wives tale states, “You don’t plant anything until all of the snow is off the heart of Baldy.”

Baldy Mountain is 7,464 feet in elevation and on a clear day can be seen easily from Plains, as it is only 17.5 miles from the center of town.

Many of the old timers shared the saying with their relatives and friends who are living here now. Many of those people who remember it follow it to this today.

“I remember that was something my first grade teacher Mrs. Ballantine had told my mother when I was 5 years old. My mom was a gardener. That was quite some time ago, way back in the 1950s,” long-time Plains resident Howard Martin said.

Martin and Ken Jones stopped by the Clark Fork Valley Press office with a list of the “old timers” who are now deceased who had shared and followed the adage of not planting until the snow was completely off Baldy Mountain; Annie Carol Pilgeram, Don Cole, Herman Whisennand, Scoop Rummel, Vada Cole, and Bud Hardgrave.

Some current area residents begin their seedlings, starts, and other plants in greenhouses and watch the snow level on Baldy Mountain, waiting to see if the snow is gone. The weather here in the Plains valley is not consistent from one year to the next. There have been many times over the years when the spring weather was brief and lasted only a few hours or just one day, with snow and freezing temperatures quickly following within hours or the next day.

Many of the local farmers and plant nurseries start their greenhouses in the middle of February, provided that there is not a severe killing freeze or deep snow to slow things down. The weather continues to play a big part in planning and maintaining any kind of garden.

“No, I don’t go by that saying. I planted according to the weather,” David Helterline stated,

In the spring, Helterline has planted and maintained a very amazing colorful garden of flowers near his home in Plains.

Is the old timer saying true? Is it best to wait until the snow is completely off the heart on Baldy Mountain? Often times both the old timers sayings and old wives tales have truth in them and are based on a combination of personal and family history that is generational. The men and women who have lived before many of us have learned the lessons from their own experiences with planting too early, ending up with plants that were either frozen or not able to take root because of the frozen ground.

Reporter Douglas Wilks can be reached at dwilks@vp-mi.com or 406-826-3402.