--------------C68E31E75CABA6DE45983D1C Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Good morning, friends, It has been a while since I have posted, owing to exigencies of work and the demands of a fecund nectarine tree. Here in the San Fernando Valley, where we usually crank up the a/c beginning on July 1st, we have used our a/c only three days this summer (!). We have had a persisent marine layer every morning, which has kept our temperatures about 10 degrees normal, every day. Here I sit, on the third of August, in sweats and fuzzy slippers, with the fog just having cleared at 7:30 a.m. How strange! It has kept our gardening from ripening very quickly, which is a boon, considering how many nectarines we are enjoying, and how many vegetables we have planted! This is the first year we have had any real crop from our "Panamint" nectarine, a honey-sweet, semi-dwarf variety perfectly suited to zone 9b. The tree, which is only about 10 feet tall, has produced about 200 incredible nectarines of surpassing sweetness. We netted the tree, as mentioned in earlier posts, with the result that squirrels and birds don't even come near the tree, and don't eat the few fruit that escape the net and fall to the ground, perfectly ripe. The netting has prevented bruised fruit, and has enabled us to "milk" the nectarine tree every morning for breakfast, or to garner nectarines for giving or for canning. What a joy to have such a tree! About the only unusual pest we have encountered is a beetle about an inch long with teal-blue metallic wings, which is found on the very ripest (read: dead ripe) fruit, so luscious that one can smell it on the tree from 4 feet away. The corn, which we grew for only the first time this year...with great success...is now down to a single ear left for our delectation. The eggplants are gearing up, and I have a sinkfull of tomatillos to clean up, to make a wonderful batch of salsa verde, utilizing chiles serranos from our garden. I wish we could grow cilantro, but it just bolts in days, if one tries to grow it here in SFV this time of year. We have been enjoying the yellow pear tomatoes, as well as the romas, but the beefsteaks have yet to ripen. Yes, we planted them very late, in May, but we did not want to plant them, leaving them unwatered for a week, while we attended my 40th h.s. reunion on Long Island in April. This year we will have fewer Fuyus, but the trade-off is that the tree has grown a lot more than usual, now that it has "found its feet," after having been transplanted 3 years ago from the middle of the rose garden, where our home's previous owner (who had the landscaping sense of a plastic soap dish) had planted it, right outside our bedroom window (!) The blood orange has set the most fruit ever, in its brief life, now that our neighbors have cut down the unknown variety of noxious tree which we not-so-affectionatley dubbed "the ugly tree." That horrid tree grew like a weed, dropped leaves and seeds all over the place and grew like topsy! The demise of the ugly tree has also benefitted our navel orange and mandarin, which, along with the blood orange, are semi-dwarves. And the pomegranate! It has about 35 maturing fruit, in various stages of maturity, with some fruit having been set as recently as two weeks ago. We look forward to pomegranate ariel and many Middle Eastern meals featuring both the fruit and pomegranate molasses. The Bearss lime is not as loaded as last year, but that is ok. By the time the fruit is ripe in December, we will have just about used up our lime syrup in seltzler and over thick Middle Eastern yogurt with breakfast, alternating with passion fruit syrup. Speaking of passion fruit, that vine has seriously to be taken to into hand in very short order. It has now climbed up to the ridgebeam of our home and is about to devour the chimney. I would guess that we will can at least 10-12 quarts of passion fruit syrup this year, which is just fine by us. We also love to marinate chicken in passion fruit juice for our favorite West African Yassa. In the front yard, our macadamia is now approaching the top of our garage, in height, and is in the process of quadrupling its springtime leaf area. No nuts this year, but the tree is only 3 years old. I am told one has to wait about 4-5 before seeing enought nuts to do anything with. Our new rose garden, along the east side of the drive, is a sight to behold. We transplanted (read: Vivian transplanted. My arthritis does not allow me to do any serious digging.) a Double Delight and a un unknown variety of etherially iridescent white/pink/yellow hybrid tea rose planted by the prvious owner, which were being "absorbed" by our artichokes (which are gearing up again for round 2), before transplanting. To those we added Silvarado, which was being choked by our passion fruit vine, plus John F. Kennedy, Veterans' Honor and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our neighbors are simply astonished at how beautiful they are. Oh, and lest I forget, we also bought Cary Grant, to complete the planting on the west side of the drive; it is about to rebloom after planting. The butterfly bushes have been cut back already and have regrown, with a profusion of yellow blossoms and purple blossoms, with vibrant purple Mexican sage between them and on both sides, to the delight of the bees and hummingbirds. This oddly cool summer has allowed the roses to flourish, which is a delight, since so often, they "fry" in the 100 degree dry heat so common this time of year. Well, friends, just wanted to drop a note. Enjoy your gardens and have a fabulous weekend. Ron --------------C68E31E75CABA6DE45983D1C Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">Good morning, friends,
It has been a while since I have posted, owing to exigencies of work and the demands of a fecund nectarine tree.
Here in the San Fernando Valley, where we usually crank up the a/c beginning on July 1st, we have used our a/c only three days this summer (!). We have had a persisent marine layer every morning, which has kept our temperatures about 10 degrees normal, every day. Here I sit, on the third of August, in sweats and fuzzy slippers, with the fog just having cleared at 7:30 a.m. How strange! It has kept our gardening from ripening very quickly, which is a boon, considering how many nectarines we are enjoying, and how many vegetables we have planted!
This is the first year we have had any real crop from our "Panamint" nectarine, a honey-sweet, semi-dwarf variety perfectly suited to zone 9b. The tree, which is only about 10 feet tall, has produced about 200 incredible nectarines of surpassing sweetness. We netted the tree, as mentioned in earlier posts, with the result that squirrels and birds don't even come near the tree, and don't eat the few fruit that escape the net and fall to the ground, perfectly ripe.
The netting has prevented bruised fruit, and has enabled us to "milk" the nectarine tree every morning for breakfast, or to garner nectarines for giving or for canning. What a joy to have such a tree!
About the only unusual pest we have encountered is a beetle about an inch long with teal-blue metallic wings, which is found on the very ripest (read: dead ripe) fruit, so luscious that one can smell it on the tree from 4 feet away.
The corn, which we grew for only the first time this year...with great success...is now down to a single ear left for our delectation.
The eggplants are gearing up, and I have a sinkfull of tomatillos to clean up, to make a wonderful batch of salsa verde, utilizing chiles serranos from our garden. I wish we could grow cilantro, but it just bolts in days, if one tries to grow it here in SFV this time of year.
We have been enjoying the yellow pear tomatoes, as well as the romas, but the beefsteaks have yet to ripen. Yes, we planted them very late, in May, but we did not want to plant them, leaving them unwatered for a week, while we attended my 40th h.s. reunion on Long Island in April.
This year we will have fewer Fuyus, but the trade-off is that the tree has grown a lot more than usual, now that it has "found its feet," after having been transplanted 3 years ago from the middle of the rose garden, where our home's previous owner (who had the landscaping sense of a plastic soap dish) had planted it, right outside our bedroom window (!)
The blood orange has set the most fruit ever, in its brief life, now that our neighbors have cut down the unknown variety of noxious tree which we not-so-affectionatley dubbed "the ugly tree." That horrid tree grew like a weed, dropped leaves and seeds all over the place and grew like topsy!
The demise of the ugly tree has also benefitted our navel orange and mandarin, which, along with the blood orange, are semi-dwarves.
And the pomegranate! It has about 35 maturing fruit, in various stages of maturity, with some fruit having been set as recently as two weeks ago. We look forward to pomegranate ariel and many Middle Eastern meals featuring both the fruit and pomegranate molasses.
The Bearss lime is not as loaded as last year, but that is ok. By the time the fruit is ripe in December, we will have just about used up our lime syrup in seltzler and over thick Middle Eastern yogurt with breakfast, alternating with passion fruit syrup.
Speaking of passion fruit, that vine has seriously to be taken to into hand in very short order. It has now climbed up to the ridgebeam of our home and is about to devour the chimney. I would guess that we will can at least 10-12 quarts of passion fruit syrup this year, which is just fine by us. We also love to marinate chicken in passion fruit juice for our favorite West African Yassa.
In the front yard, our macadamia is now approaching the top of our garage, in height, and is in the process of quadrupling its springtime leaf area. No nuts this year, but the tree is only 3 years old. I am told one has to wait about 4-5 before seeing enought nuts to do anything with.
Our new rose garden, along the east side of the drive, is a sight to behold. We transplanted (read: Vivian transplanted. My arthritis does not allow me to do any serious digging.) a Double Delight and a un unknown variety of etherially iridescent white/pink/yellow hybrid tea rose planted by the prvious owner, which were being "absorbed" by our artichokes (which are gearing up again for round 2), before transplanting.
To those we added Silvarado, which was being choked by our passion fruit vine, plus John F. Kennedy, Veterans' Honor and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our neighbors are simply astonished at how beautiful they are. Oh, and lest I forget, we also bought Cary Grant, to complete the planting on the west side of the drive; it is about to rebloom after planting.
The butterfly bushes have been cut back already and have regrown, with a profusion of yellow blossoms and purple blossoms, with vibrant purple Mexican sage between them and on both sides, to the delight of the bees and hummingbirds.
This oddly cool summer has allowed the roses to flourish, which is a delight, since so often, they "fry" in the 100 degree dry heat so common this time of year.
Well, friends, just wanted to drop a note. Enjoy your gardens and have a fabulous weekend.
Ron
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