Fiesta Party Honoring Christine Newman and David Jenkins

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Engaged couple Christine Newman and David Jenkins were feted with a Fiesta Party at the home of Lisa and G. A. Mayers on April 3, 2021, in Natchez, Mississippi. Throughout the evening, those in attendance enjoyed the social celebration and festive fare.

Christine Newman and David Jenkins Zack Wilson, David Jenkins, Christine Newman, and Annabelle Wilson Sandra Ellard and Marty Kennedy Dee and Christine Newman Mike Ellard with Pam and Tom Middleton Ashley Camp, Angel Camp, and Marty Kennedy Christine Newman and Amanda Floyd Lisa Dale and Dee Newman Marty Kennedy, Christine Newman, Kate Ellard, and Ashley and Andrew Ellard Ashley Ellard and Kate Ellard Paul Burns, Toby Maier, David Jenkins, and Christine Newman Megan Guido and Jim Anderson Christine Newman and Abby Laird Laurie Belshan, Christine Newman, and TJ Baggett Elizabeth Tanner, Abby Laird, Lauren Middleton, Christine Newman, Mary-Margaret Edwards, and Cameron Willard Jacob Jenkins and Abby Laird Peyton and Cameron Willard

Three years ago in February of 2018, Curtis Moroney’s father, Charles Moroney, passed away. He had been growing a garden of tomatoes and peppers for at least the past ten years, planting his garden in six-foot circles, precise, exact, perfectly spaced, and symmetrically placed. He chose different varieties of tomatoes and some peppers and planted them in stages so he continuously had an eclectic selection of tomatoes and peppers throughout the summer and until the first frost.

That year with his father gone, Curtis Moroney felt compelled to continue the garden in his father’s memory. “I’ve got to plant the tomatoes,” Moroney recalled thinking. “Daddy would have prepared the garden by now to begin readying the soil for planting.” So out he went to purchase some tomato plants, and he placed them in the patterns exactly as his father did.

“Oh, by the way, I don’t even eat tomatoes” laughed Moroney. That 2018 crop was a success, and Moroney caught the passion for gardening. The next year, the garden evolved into a much larger space when he found an area on his father’s property where a big burn pile remained in the middle of a pasture from when they built a pond a few years back. Moroney prepared the area; planted grass; and then, looking at what he had done, realized that this space would make a perfect area for his 2019 garden.

The challenge to grow watermelons and other vegetables and fruits was knocking on his door. That year, he planted watermelons, cantaloupes, okra, and carrots. The carrots did not do well, and the deer scarfed up the okra as soon as it gained any height but did no damage to the cantaloupes or watermelons; so he fenced the area off. The okra came back with his adding more okra plants, and the watermelon and cantaloupes were prolific. However, the garden was way out in the pasture, and Moroney had to pull miles

of hose out to the garden to water.

Maybe it was the ash from the burn pile that caused his home-grown produce to be so delicious. Whatever the secret was, Moroney felt successful and had great fun in perpetuating this bit of his father’s legacy. About his previous gardening experiences, he recalled that he did have somewhat of a green thumb in planting flowers and several vegetables on his Liberty Road property. Now, though, he is smitten with the hobby of searching for and planting a wider variety of garden vegetables.

The 2020 garden took on another change when Moroney moved it to the front side of the barn where once stood a large pecan tree. When he was a child, the family had cows and raised Arabian horses that congregated there in the shade of that tree. The pecan tree had long been