[gardeners] Fall in Southern California
Ron Hay (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 07 Sep 1999 07:23:05 -0700
Good morning, one and all. What strange weather we are having here in
the San Fernando Valley! This time of year should see temperatures at or
over 100 degrees; but all last week, we crept up into the low 80s, with
night time temps of high 50s. Not good weather to set more beefsteak
tomatoes.
The rest of the garden is flourishing, though. Our callas are growing
back, after their summer dormancy. Our seedling African fortnight
lillies are about 2" tall, and our roses continue to grow....and to
astound us with their beauty.
We just put in ageratum and marigolds to replace the waning petunias.
Our passionfruit vine is nothing short of fecund. It had had about 40
fruit on it, the size of baseballs before the spate of hot weather early
last week; but after several days in the 90s, it sent out bunches of new
flowers and set another couple of dozen fruit.
The persimmons and pomegranates are ripening nicely, as are the Bearss
limes. Our Blenheim apricot which is in the ground only about a year and
a half, is about 15' tall. Our Panimint nectarine which we planted this
year is already about 10' tall--planted from a 5 gallon can--and
branching out very nicely.
Our artichokes are coming up for their second season, and have
multiplied 5-fold!
Several 1.5 lb beefsteaks are still ripening, but the vast plentitude of
cherries, Romas, and Early Girls are past...even though we do have about
20 Early Girls ripening on the vine.
This is a lovely time of year in our part of the world. We can actually
sit out in the garden and eat dinner, now that the blast-furnace temps
are past...or what we had of them. It was soooo coooool this summer,
that we only used our a/c for about two weeks...and saved 600 kwh over
two months!!!! Works for me!
Well, dear friends, having had fun in our garden all weekend, the work
week beckons.
I hope Dennis doesn't lash you too severly, Penny. And for the rest of
you in need of rain, may it come genltly and soon. As for us in So Cal,
we have not a clue what our rainy season will bring. Ah, sweet mystery
of life!
Ron,
Van Nuys, CA
O