Re: [gardeners] Quiet time in our garden.

trillium@Juno.com (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 29 Nov 2000 18:44:36 -0500 

Ron,

Enjoyed reading your description of your garden.  I have a question--what
are fortnight lilies?

Elizabeth
trillium@juno.com
Zone 6, KY

On Tue, 28 Nov 2000 08:00:20 -0800 Ron Hay <ronhay@pacbell.net> writes:
> November is the winding-down time in our Van Nuys garden. We have
> already had a few light frosts (while we were away in Chicago, 
> making
> prepration to save sensitive plants impossible), which resulted in 
> some
> losses, but they were to have been expected anyway: our volunteer
> late-season eggplants, pumpkin, some leaves on our coral tree, tea 
> tree
> and basil, and some rose blossoms. Nothing major, though, thank
> goodness.
> 
> This year we have already had 3 or 4 frosts; whereas last year we 
> had
> none. I wonder what this portends.
> 
> Our bearded irises continue to give us great pleasure, carrying the
> purple note to the Mexican sage and purple butterfly bush, down the 
> east
> side of our front lawn. The contrasting note of the golden butterfly
> bush is lovely, too.
> 
> The first callas have begun to bloom. Maybe we will have enough for 
> a
> Christmas bouquet this year:)
> 
> 
> The fortnight lillies have also begun blooming, offering a lovely 
> white
> and yellow note to the irises deep, rich purple. Here, too, the
> counterpoint of deep orange and yellow calendulas carry out the them 
> of
> purple and gold on our front lawn.
> 
> Then there is Mac! Our macadamia, completely undaunted by the light
> frosts, he continues to grow at about a foot a month. Maybe in the
> spring he will bear those gorgeous pink blossoms and produce nuts:)
> 
> The roses look a bit sad and tired by now. In another few weeks,
> probably in early January, we will cut them down to about 18", so 
> that
> they will not get all leggy and out of proportion. This year was
> certainly a banner year for our roses, thanks to Vigaro for Roses 
> (not
> affiliation, etc.) They grew from 18" to over 6' this past season!
> 
> In the back, I just finished raking up the leaves from the apricot 
> and
> persimmon.. When we came back from Thanksgiving in Chula Vista (near 
> San
> Diego), the ground was gilded around the base of the young apricot 
> tree,
> and a firey red around the base of the persimmon.. This was the 
> first
> year we had enough leaves to bother raking up.
> 
> The Fuyu persimmon, also a young tree, yielded about 70 lovely 
> orange
> fruit this year, a far cry from last year's 13. Some of them we have
> eaten firm, ripe and luscious. Some we have nuked with our oatmeal, 
> and
> some we are going to make into chutney, syrup and jam, thanks to 
> some
> lovely recipes in Sunset's Recipe Annual for 1988.
> 
> Limes are also abundant. Today I will juice out about 3 dozen, in
> preparation to turning some of our turkey into Yassa. Some of them 
> will
> also go into syrup. This will be just carrying forth a process of 
> syrup
> making we have been engaged in most of the fall, in order to keep up
> with the landslide of passion fruit. It is a truly abundant vine, 
> and
> until recently, we had no good ideas as to what to do with them. 
> Thank
> goodness for Patrick Worley's _Passion Fruit Cookbook!_
> 
> Every day more mandarin oranges ripen, succulent, golden, seedless 
> and
> sweet as honey. Not far behind are the navel and blood oranges, 
> which
> are finally beginning to produce.
> 
> And the artichokes! They are currently on their 8th reincarnation 
> this
> year, not yet producing buds, but gathering up energy for their 
> burst of
> buds in February. The plants are now 8 from our original 2, last 
> year.
> 
> It's a lovely time of year here, often with 50-degree temperature
> fluctuations.There is lots to be done in the garden, but with short
> days, it makes getting things accomplished a bit of a challenge. I 
> try
> to get something done in the garden every morning, before going in 
> to
> work, so that Vivian will not have to fall into a faint on the 
> weekends,
> when I am showing property.
> 
> Having been away a lot this month, both the Chicago and Chula Vista, 
> and
> having enjoyed a week-long visit from my brother and his wife from 
> New
> York, we have not spent a lot of time out in our garden. I had't
> realized how much I missed it until I was sitting in a hotel room on 
> the
> 19th floor of the Sheraton, in Chicago, looking out over canyons of
> stone. It's good to get away, but awfully good to get home again.
> 
> I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. Now we will all take a 
> deep
> breath and count to 10, before getting ready for 
> Christmas/Hanukkah:)
> 
> Be well and cherish the sunny warm days when we have them:)
> 
> Ron
> 

________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today!  For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.