Re: [gardeners] hello

penny x stamm (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 9 May 2001 00:37:25 -0400 

Hi, Jodie, I'm one of the Penny's and I garden in zone 6 N.Y.
on a suburban lot. My hubby used to grow veggies,but I ate
them all up before he could carry them indoors, so he quit
planting them. Well, that was only one reason, of course. 
There was also the problem of rabbits. He planted 12 lettuce
seedlings, and they grew like wildfire for about 3 days. Then
we came outside one morning, and all that was left was
stubble. I decided to plant some marigolds around the
veggies, for I had heard that the varmints hate the smell of
the marigolds. Not true. My rabbits were smell-blind. They
walked between the scallions to reach the other goodies, 
and ate the pea vines. Left the scallions, though! OK, I
figured, guess I might as well eat the scallions, which I
promptly did. That's how it all started, of course. 

Meanwhile something fishy was happening to the cucumbers.
Every one of them looked like a boomerang.  Having never
seen a cucumber bent in the middle and growing upwards
instead of downwards, I thought I'd better eat one, and see
if they would be edible...  They were.  Asked my nursery guru
what could be going on, and he said oh, that's quite exciting --
I read about this in the local paper!  It's a virus which has
settled in Westchester County, NY....  

Next to this we were growing seedless Concord grapes. 
Every spring I would prune them back to what I thought was 
the Kniffen system, twin arms along wires like a double
scarecrow. I'd fertilize them and water them and absolutely
every year tiny bunches of nascent grapes would start to
grow. But in 15 years of going thru this sharade, we never got
even one grape to harvest. They would shrivel up and die.
Finally shovel-pruned the whole lot of 'em. 

Of course, long ago we grew brussel sprouts and broccoli
and beautiful white cauliflower and tomatoes and Chinese
long beans and snow peas -- but the aging factor crept in, and
it now takes us about as long to bend down as it would take
you to plant a 50 foot row!  So the veggie plot stands fallow.

Did successfully grow a real pineapple to harvest, the last two
years!  Great excitement... ate both of them, too.  And we grew
two artichoke plants and got 3 chokes out of 'em, which I
thought I should share ....  Plus we do have stand of raspberries
which produce when they darned well feel like it. 

But guess what ----:  those lettuce stubbles rejuvenated them-
selves, and grew fresh heads! So Jimmie has in mind to plant
the veggie garden this summer, perhaps in an all-out effort to
produce a bonanza, for he's turning 80 on his next birthday.

It's obviously now or never.

Glad to welcome you, Jodie, and hope you will enjoy your stay.

Penny, NY


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