[gardeners] Friday in the garden
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 19 May 2000 19:54:04 -0500
Had to go over to the VA clinic this morning and give blood and urine for lab
tests. Drove 84 miles round trip. My appointment was at 8 am and I got there at
7:45, walked up to desk, lady said come on and took me directly in to draw
blood. Walked out at 8. Has never happened to me before, I had even brought a
library book so I would have something to do while I waited. I am so pleased, I
got home at 8:45 and hit the garden for a bit.
We really had to wait until late this afternoon to do much as the temps were 90F
with humidity at 96%, pretty hot. We pulled the cranberry beans, the vines were
turning yellow and the bean pods were drying on the vine. I think they will do
better as a fall planter here so will plant them again in September. We did get
about a quart and a half of beans when we pulled them. Will have them for dinner
tomorrow. Oh yeah, that row is about 10 feet long so they are pretty prolific.
Think I'll plant some more cukes there tomorrow so they can take advantage of
the nitrogen fixed by the beans. (I inoculate all beans and peas that go into
the garden) The vines had nice big nitrogen nodules on the roots so they went
into the compost after being chopped up.
Also picked about 5 ripe or nearly ripe tomatoes. Mostly Early Large Red with
one Hungarian Paste. I think I'm gonna like these Hungarian Paste tomatoes, they
are very large and meaty and taste very good. Picked a couple of dozen chiles,
all Thai Hots and Lemon Drops off plants that wintered over. The other chiles
are setting fruit now and the Bells have some ready to pick. Probably pick a
couple of them tomorrow as the grandkids like to nosh on raw sweet peppers. My
friend Sam gave me about a dozen sweet banana peppers so they will get cleaned
and put out for chomping too.
I fertilized everything with the deal that goes on the end of the hose and am
looking forward to seeing a fresh bloom on the garden now. Still gotta mow the
backyard, what there is left of it has some pretty tall grass now. Neighbor
mowed the front yesterday as he was mowing his yard with the riding tractor.
Talked to him and told him we appreciated his efforts but we liked to mow our
own lawn and save the clippings. He understood that and said he wouldn't mow it
again. Truly we just didn't want him to use that !@#$%^&* riding mower. The
thing scalps our lawn, makes ruts that are visible from the street and is just a
pain. I don't understand people who have riding mowers to mow a 75X150 city lot
with a 2000 square foot home sitting on it. Sheesh, it only takes about 20
minutes with our self-propelled K-gro special. Oh well, I still don't get to run
the world my way.
I'm off for a shower and a small bite to eat and then beddy bye. Life is good.
George