[gardeners] Tuesday
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 21 Jul 1998 18:31:36
We got about another 1/4 to 1/2 inch of rain today and possibilities
abound, according to the weather dude, for more this week. Probably gonna
cook all the plants out there as the sun comes out right after the shower
and the temp is still running 90-100 on a daily basis.
Worked on this years batch of limed sweet pickles today. Will load the jars
and BWB the lot tomorrow afternoon. This old recipe is a favorite with our
family and was given to us by the elderly lady who lived behind us when we
were in our first house, some 33 years ago. Works equally well with green
tomatoes or cukes or zukes. Had to make some as the 97 batch is about gone.
Usually make 8-10 quarts and then sort of dole them out over the year.
Picked some cukes, some crowder peas, a few chiles, and a couple of cucuzzi
today. The lagenaria seed that Margaret sent me was planted and the plants
are now about 6 inches tall. If they grow like the cucuzzi did I'm gonna
have a whole fence covered with them.
Planted jicama for the first time this year and was amazed at the rampant
growth of the vine. The vine is quite pretty with large green leaves and a
thick green vine. It also gets pretty big and is covering about 20 feet of
fence now and shows no signs of letting up. As it is a perennial, and the
planting instructions say that for bigger roots you have to give it a few
years, I'm hoping for another mild winter for this tropical plant. The
Sunchokes, or, as we old timers call them, Jerusalem artichokes, are about
8 or 9 feet tall and doing well. Looking forward to a bumper harvest come
fall. The Dorman raspberries planted in February are covering about 10 feet
of the back fence and looking healthy as are the pluot and pear trees
planted at the same time. Unfortunately I lost the aprium tree and will
send the dead stick back to Stark Bros. and get another one this fall.
Thank goodness for reputable nurserymen as the aprium never did properly
leaf out.
What are all of you up to today?
George