Re: [gardeners] Rambling rain
penny x stamm (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 6 Jul 1998 01:29:38 -0400
Matt, my hubby Jimmie asures me that in about 10 years the
gov't will have put in place a transcontinental web of underground
waterways for transport of excess water in times of freak weather
to other areas in need. Just think how much good that would have
done us this year!
We also (near NYC) have been threatened with severe thunder
storms and hail, plus high winds -- a dozen or more times this
summer. And the weather maps show us surrounded by great
masses of heavy rain. A good deal of the time, however, all we
end up with is dreadful winds... and boy! does that dry out all the
plants and trees! It's worse than a blazing hot sun in its effect.
The rain we have had has taken 3 'Phantom of the Opera' dahlias,
4 Gerbera daisies and 6 snap dragons. They've obviously drowned
in full sun - when it's available. In another location, I had placed
about 8 'pony tail' grasses to make a grotto for the buddha in the
Japanese garden. Today I tore them out -- they've lost their
greeness and their full-circle swish. And yet out front, with only
2 hours a morning of sunshine, and a once-a-week watering, the
blue daisy (Felicia) 'Astrid Thomas' are happily blooming away and
catching everyone's eye!
About 5:00 o'clock I really went off my rocker in the vegetable
garden ... last chore of the day was to put in place a rigid section
of fencing in the mad hopes of deterring the doggone rabbit who's
been chomping away on the lettuce (and who, btw, ate up every single
snow pea seedling!) The watermelon vines are sprawling underfoot,
the 3 cukes in a hill are climbing up the tall fencing, and the 12
unknown plants in the next section are getting larger every day.
There's 2 kinds of tomato plant plus one green pepper, and planted
right in the middle of everything there are clumps of tall, healthy
scallions. Now we had planted scallion seeds ourselves, and I had
harvested the entire crop in one day last week -- skinny, with funny
round bulbs. The radishes were a nightmare, so hot even I had
trouble eating them, and so ugly even I had trouble eating them! So
I had bought Jimmie a small starter kit for his veggie garden, just to
shore up his morale: lettuce, scallions, and the cuke hill.
So I am standing there trying to imprint the shape of the 12 unknown
plant leaves on my memory so I can ask my friend, when I realize
that they are smaller than but identical to the doggone cucumbers I
had bought! Guess what...? We have 15 cucumber vines happily
surviving the wind, the rain and the rabbit! I think I shall have to do
a
data search in my cookbooks for pickles large and small ...
I decided to harvest one clump of those handsome scallions, and to
my surprise, they all came out rooted together in a tangle. Could not
resist breaking off a beautiful long green section to chomp on, and
was delighted with the flavor, so I ate another and another and another.
What a joy! The white bulbs at the tip were very small, but the green
parts were so long that I measured them with a yardstick: 25.5 inches!
After 9 hours out there at hard labor, I am ready for a stupefying
sleep -- hope it finds me.
Penny, NY
_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]