Who was Norman Creighton?

Since settling down in Minnesota, Don renewed his interest in gardening. Because bees pollinate fruit trees and are known to increase the tree's yield, it seemed reasonable to Don to keep bees even here in chilly Minnesota. But, if you have never kept bees, how do you get started?

Who was Norman Creighton?

Norman Creighton

Norman Creighton provided Don with the confidence to keep bees. Who was Norman Creighton you ask? Norman was an early pioneer in organic gardening and lived next to our family in Hantsport, Nova Scotia many years ago. He was born in 1909 and died in 1995 after living much of his life on Avon Street located next to the Avon River.

Don has vivid memories not only of Norman, the organic gardener (lots of horse manure and never any pesticides or manufactured fertilizer), but of Norman the beekeeper. The scent inside the honey house is an everlasting memory from his days as a young boy watching Norman at work. He let Don and his brothers stick their fingers into the freshly harvested comb honey for a taste, and chew the wax like gum. You could be sure that Norman's honey was pure and clean!

Norman liked to garden. There was a large Primrose garden just behind the house with a raspberry patch next to the Primroses, and then a border of 2 very large sweet cherry trees. There was a large lupine field across the street along side the Avon River and lilac trees that marked the border between our house and Norman's.

Most memorable were Norman's apples trees, mainly Yellow Gravenstein that Norman refused to "spray". In those days that spray was DDT. Instead, he picked up all the dropped apples and used lots of manure under the tree extending out to the drip line (that was a lot of manure!) to rid the apples of maggots.