Matt Hamilton/Daily Citizen-NewsBradley Tankersley, 90, tends to his tomato plants at Ridgewood Manor Health and Rehabilitation in Dalton. 

DALTON, Ga. — Each day after breakfast, Bradley Tankersley puts on his large straw hat, a long-sleeve shirt and pants with suspenders and goes on the patio to tend to a small garden he’s growing at Ridgewood Manor Health and Rehabilitation in Dalton.

Many people garden every day. What makes Tankersley noteworthy is that he’s 90 years old and has been gardening for some 50 years.

Tankersley is a native of Chatsworth and has been a resident at Ridgewood since last December, his daughter Ann Tant said.

“He knows just what it takes to make a garden grow,” she said.

In the evenings when it’s time to water the vegetables, regular water from a hose won’t do. Only “special water” is good enough for the tomatoes, cabbage, squash, cucumbers, onions and beans that Tankersley is growing.

“He only uses well, spring or pond water,” Danielle Polley, activity director at Ridgewood, said. “He doesn’t like the chlorine in other water.”

The only exception is if it rains. To help honor a Tankersley request, staff members have buckets and kiddie pools on the patio to catch rainwater.

Polley takes empty jugs home to fill with water from her well and her grandfather’s spring. She said it’s a small sacrifice to help Tankersley maintain his garden.

“It’s very nice to have residents who want to stay active,” she said.

The idea of the garden started during a residential group outing to Western Sizzlin in Dalton recently. As Polley was driving back, Tankersley asked her to stop at Lowe’s so he could buy two tomato plants. He was accustomed to having a garden each year and wanted to continue his love of growing vegetables.

“I must have a garden every year,” he said. “It hurts me in the winter (not being able to have a garden).”

Tankersley said he loves being outside and watching things grow.

“He sits with the plants and talks to them,” Polley said.

Tankersley said gardening “brings me joy.”

“If I could, I’d stay in the sunshine all the time,” he said.

Tankersley’s favorite vegetables to grow are beans, tomatoes, corn, squash and cucumbers. He said tomatoes are his favorite to eat.

“I like them right off the vine,” he said.

Tankersley said he enjoys sharing with others. He plans to share this year’s crop with family, fellow residents at Ridgewood and staff.

Doyle Tankersley said his father has always been active. After his retirement from North Georgia EMC, Tankersley and his wife Ezma traveled a great deal. Bradley Tankersley was married to Ezma for 72 years. She passed away last year.

Bradley Tankersley said Ezma would help him maintain three chicken houses, watching them during the day while he worked.

“If something happened and she didn’t know what to do, she’d call me,” he said. “I enjoyed raising and eating chickens, just as well as you would enjoy a T-bone steak.”

A lifelong member of Cool Springs Baptist Church in Chatsworth, Bradley Tankersley said he’s been blessed.

“God has been good to me,” he said.

He advises anyone starting a garden to use good soil.

“Take good care of your plants and don’t use too much fertilizer,” he said.