There were 4 of us kids. His garden was as long as yours but a couple of feet wider. My mother used to swear that each year he took a little but more of the lawn. He even grew potatoes and sweet corn. He made great use of space, planting root crops next to leafy crops early yield stuff next to late yield. He even planted his cucumbers in with the sweet corn and had the vines training up the corn stalks. He had really built up the soil. He fished a LOT in the Calumet River and Wolf Lake from the shore, buried catfish and fish guts in the garden. He also drove his car across the state line with Indiana (blocks away) and would shovel horse poop from the riding trails into the trunk of his car.