Re: [gardeners] Herb garden
Margaret Lauterbach (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 24 Mar 1998 19:15:24 -0700
At 07:56 PM 3/24/98, you wrote:
>At 07:56 PM 3/24/98 -0500, you wrote:
>>At 06:08 PM 24-03-98, George Shirley wrote:
>snipped some of my own message
>
>>>How are things in your garden?
>>>
>>>George
>>
>>Snowy, snowy, snowy. The kids have a good fort started in the front yard
>>and the weather is crisp, cold, clear and sunny. Can't see the ground to
>>plant....but I've been saying this for a couple of weeks now. The herb
>>garden sounds great, George. Maybe I'll get a crack at making one soon
>>myself.
>>
>>Lucinda>
>>>
>
>Snow, snow!! I think I saw some about 40 years ago and it scared me further
>south for the rest of my life. At least in the winter.
>
>Right now the herb garden just looks like bricks lying on bare ground with
>fruit trees in the corners. You have to visualize what it will look like if
>all umpty-ump zillion seeds come up. I do believe I may have gotten heavy
>handed with the seed.
>
>Gonna plant some Jicama and Chinese Yam tomorrow too. Jicama takes 8 or 9
>months to maturity but they store well. I don't know how long a Chinese Yam
>takes as the seed was given to me and I haven't been able to dig up much
>info on the net except that they make a root 3 feet long. Ay Chihuahua!
>Gonna have to do a lot of digging to harvest that crop.
>
>I think I'm gonna order some sunchokes too. Research shows that fresh
>chokes are okay for diabetics as they don't turn starchy until they're
>stored for awhile. Grew some 30 odd years ago and don't remember storing
>them here in zone 9b. Believe we just went out and harvested enough for a
>meal each time.
>
>So much dirt, so little time.
>
>George
>
George, we used to grow sunchokes, or Jerusalem artichokes as they were
known at that time. I love artichokes, and cooked them a time or two (we
had a substantial patch started). Chuck complained about the flatulence
they caused (and he never has needed any encouragement in that respect), so
I started to dig them out. People told me it was impossible, but I sifted
the soil, discarded all of the black apparently dead roots with little red
spots that were growing points, and I did succeed in getting rid of them.
But you look in the supermarket and see they're selling for 89 cents per
pound, and how can you bear to send them to the dump? I called the zoo and
asked if they had any animals that would like them, and they said yes. So
I took a couple of bushels to the zoo. Then I remembered an animal there
-- I think a kit fox -- that is the stinkingest critter on earth (skunks
smell good beside them) -- and decided that that stench, combined with
flatulence, was more than I could take. I didn't go to the zoo for years
afterward. Maybe you ought to buy a batch and see how they sit before
giving them garden space. Margaret