Re: [gardeners] A belated happy birthday, George!
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 24 Sep 2001 10:20:49 -0500
Thank you. Our garden has about had it, we have some eggplant still going and the hot chiles are
slowing way up now. Our Fuyu persimmon, bought and planted last year, has one persimmon on it, the
last of 28 that the birds got or that just dropped. It's starting to turn color so we're waiting for
it. I bagged it with an onion sack to try to keep the birds and squirrels off.
A friend has a dozen pecan trees on his place and wants help picking them up on shares so reckon we
will be over there an hour or so each afternoon until they're all up off the ground. His standard
oriental persimmons are loaded so we won't go hungry for persimmons. Even his native persimmon is
full of fruit so we may pick a lot of those too. His citrus, like mine, has some kind of disease
that pockmarks the skin and turns it brown. I had thought it was the grackles scraping them but the
kumquats and satsumas have the same thing. Weird stuff, even the local hort agent has no idea what
it is, he sent a lemon off to LSU to be checked out.
Right now it is overcast and cool, a small front moved in this morning and it's nice enough to have
the house opened up.
George
Ron Hay wrote:
>
> Hello, George, my best to you and Miz Anne. So sorry to hear she is
> feeling under the weather, along with much of the rest of your family.
>
> Here in L.A. the weather has been a bit weird this "summer:" we have had
> the coolest summer for about the last 20 years. We get a few spikes of
> heat occasionally, as in the case of the last couple of days, and again
> for the first half of this week; but, then, agian, cool will descend
> from the north, and even bring rain (!) to northern and central
> California, about 2 months early.
>
> The weather has been so cool at night, that we have not had many
> beefsteak tomatoes, at all, since they usually like night time temps of
> 70 degrees to set fruit, while our night time temps all summer have been
> in the 60s.
>
> These conditions seem to agree with the eggplants, thought, and we are
> churning out a number of 2 pounders along with a plentitude of white
> Persian and purple Japanese fruit.
>
> Our pomegranates are ripening apace and have enjoyed a couple last week,
> one of which was 3/4 of a pound! Being new at raisig pomegranates, I am
> not quite sure when they are ripe. One thing is for sure, when they
> split, they are wonderfully sweet! They look like something depicted in
> mediaeval iconography, as a symbol of the Resurrection, very beautiful
> and fragrant.
>
> The Fuyus are just about 3 weeks away from ripening, while the passion
> fruit continue to fall by the dozens. Limes are falling, ripe, daily,
> too. Can hardly wait to make a batch of limeade this week, and also to
> can some passion fruit syrup.
>
> Last week really didn't happen in the garden, as I had two all day CE
> classes on Monday and Tuesday, took a new listing on Monday, held an
> open house on Friday and Sunday and showed property all day Saturday.
> Whew, I get tired even thinking about all that activity!
>
> This week is catch-up: picking up ripe fruit, canning, prunind the
> butterfly bushes and dealing with the devastating local plague that is
> killing off our roses: some sort of leaf miner that sinmply wreaks havoc
> in a matter of hours. Malathion is useless, except if it contacts an
> insect on the surface of the leaf, so we must use Orthenex, which I
> deplore, but is absolutely essential, according to the rose guru who
> attends our church (he owns a local rose nursery and cares for many
> local rose gardens, including Bob Hope's).
>
> The other plague we are currently dealing with is white fly. Boy, is
> that pernicious! It is festooning our hibiscus and attacking our fatsia
> japonica, as well. Orthenex is doing a good job against that, but one
> must repeat it every 7-10 days.
>
> The macadamia, on the other hand, is in its third flush of growth this
> year, and by year's end, will have about quadrupled last year's leaf
> area, to the point that I am hopeful that we will have some nuts next
> year, since, for the first time, there will be abundant previous year's
> growth for flower buds to appear on.
>
> Well, the garden has had its ups and downs recently, much like all of
> us, these days, but whenever "the world is too much with us late and
> soon, " I go out and seek some peace in the garden; it certainly does
> wonders to calm one's soul.
>
> Peace and love you you all.
>
> Ron