Re: [gardeners] Thursday in the garden
Ron Hay (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 27 Oct 2000 07:44:16 -0700
Good morning, George,
It is nice to hear of your garden thriving. Ours is, as well, especially
our outrageous macadamia, which is now in its 4th growth spurt this
year, having grown about a foot in the last two weeks (!)
The star of our fall garden is our newest rose, "Diana, Princess of
Wales." What an exquisite blossom! It's all peaches and cream and
absolutely perfectly formed and a delight to behold. I hope the blossoms
will have longer stems next year, as it has been in our front rose
garden for only a few months now.
We, too have planted calendulas, both pale yellow and rich golden-hued
ones. Not many, since we are using them as a filler until some of the
winter bulbs raise their little green heads.
Your mention of a calendula-based healing cream fascinates me. How do
you prepare it?
When our Australian tea tree (melaleuca alternifolia) is a good-sized
shrub in a couple of years, we plan to harvest some of the leaves to
distill into tea tree oil, one of God's most marvelous healing oils. My
wife, Vivian, has been plagued with psoriasis on her elbows and knees
for years, but since I "discovered " tea tree oil on the net several
months ago, her patches continue to diminish, with regular application
of tto. It is nature's bactericide, fungicide and all-around "medicine
kit in a bottle, as they say."
We just picked our pomegranates this week. I cleaned several and will
make a wonderful fruit salad out of them, sliced almonds, chopped dates,
golden raisins and a nectar consisiting of the juice of half an orange
blended with half a ripe papaya. Simply marvelous. When I made it for
the first time last year, at Christmas, to take to Chula Vista where
Viv's sister and her mother live, she warned me not to be disappointed
if no one ate more than a polite taste, since it was "unusual." Well, I
mean to tell you, there was about enough left over to put into a tiny
container to take home:)
The fuyu persimmon are wonderful this year. I harvested about 5, with
about 45 left on our little 12' tall tree. This morning, I nuked one for
three minutes and we enjoyed it with our oatmeal. I only nuked one to
see how it would turn out. It turned out absolutely delicious! I enjoy
eating them crisp, but Vivian, not a fan of crisp apples, either,
usually waits until they get kinda soft and mushy....which is not my
thing.
Our Italian frying pepper plant has about 15 good sized ones on there to
harvest. Have not taken any off since last week, because our
unseasonably early cool weather and rain (!) has not allowed them to
develop that lovely blush.
In about another month, our Mandarins will be ripe. It will be our first
real crop, since the neighbors cut down the Eugenia berry hedge that was
blocking half the day's sunlight from them.
The Bearss lime tree is amazing! There must be 200 ripening limes on the
tree, some of which I have utilized to a great extent, in my foray into
Persian and Armenian cooking. What a treat to have such lovely fruit
available at this time of year. It is still rather amazing to this kid
who grew up on Long Island.
Well, my friend(s), be well and enjoy the warmth of the fall sun on your
shoulders as you garden:)
Ron