[gardeners] Friday and Saturday in the garden
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sat, 26 Feb 2000 11:47:47 -0600
Yesterday I went out and picked the last of the broccoli, finally warm
enough here that it is starting to bolt. Gave it to a friend as we are
thoroughly sick of broccoli for the first time in years. Miz Anne ate
the last cauliflower head, made herself some cream of cauliflower soup,
yucchh. Smelled bad and I refused to taste it, some plants are best left
for the insects and slugs. ;-)
Also picked two 10-quart buckets of Swiss Chard, cleaned, stripped the
leaves, blanched, bagged and froze the stuff. Would you believe 3 bags
of chard after all that picking. Of course it collapses mightily when
blanched for two minutes and then chilled in ice water for one minute.
This morning Miz Anne took off for Houston to change her paintings at
the gallery she shows in. Sleepy and I went out and pulled the broccoli
plants, stems as big as my forearms, chopped them with the machete, and
tossed them into the compost. Later today I'm pulling the rest of the
carrots and will probably can most of them.
The spring peas are up about 3 inches so they may make before hot
weather strikes. I'm counting down the 10 days to March 7 so I can plant
the garden. Well, I'll plant yellow-eyed beans, green beans, radishes,
onions, and probably a few other things. The seedlings of tomato,
peppers, eggplant, and edible gourd will wait another week or two. Those
plants are doing particularly well repotted into gallon pots and sitting
in the greenhouse. They stay warm at night and get exposed to the wind
and sun during the day but do stay partially shaded and out of the worse
of the wind. Plus lots of food and water, it's plant heaven in there. I
missed Sleepy this morning and she was flaked out in the greenhouse,
flat on her back and snoozing good. Guess the fairly good breezes this
morning were too much for her.
Was good to see Allen Merten's post this morning. Allen, how's the old
back? Boy, I'll be glad when April 6th gets here and I can go to the VA
hospital to get my bursitis in both shoulders attended to. Pulled a
plant at an awkward angle this morning and it felt just like a knife had
been shoved into my shoulder joint. Had to stop and rest for a bit after
that. Durned stuff hurts worse than arthritis.
Gotta go, Sleepy's calling me that someone's at the door. Probably a
neighbor that wants me to go get some composted pine bark with him.
George