[gardeners] Saturday in the garden
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sat, 10 Nov 2001 16:45:55 -0600
Was out today watering and fertilizing where needed and cleaning out the carport in preparation for
turning it into a garage. Had to fight Miz Anne over every piece of junk she had stashed in there.
Sent her to the store and then sawed up and trashed every scrap board, piece of an old chair, a
broken wooden stool, etc. Whooeee, did I get jumped on. She did finally admit I am right in this
regard, she has enough junk in her art studio, doesn't need all this trash stored outside.
Even got the new fan hung in the greenhouse. This is an exhaust fan I bought last year but haven't
taken the time to mount it. Now I have to hook up the electricity to it but I want to replace the
greenhouse roof first. Takes 3 4X12 pieces of corrugated fiberglass, think I'll use green this time.
Stuff on there now is so old it's starting to stress crack. Doesn't make much difference on the
lower sides but I hate running electrical equipment when the roof leaks. Makes all these funny
sparks and things.
Miz Anne finally got around to planting all the poppy seed we had on hand. Had to wait until we got
all the partridge pea out of that bed. Don't worry, the partridge pea will sprout again as it
reseeds to !@#$%^ readily in our climate.
The sweet and hot chiles are outdoing themselves in the coolth of the autumn. I picked a 10 quart
bucket full today, about half and half. I guess I'm going to have to grind chiles for fermenting
into hot sauce before long, got about 4 gallons in the freezer and they're still coming in. The pear
wine I started about 3 months ago is ready to bottle also. Reckon I'll do that tomorrow as I will
have some time then.
I'm tired already and we still have daylight left, I think I'll bag working in the garden anymore
today. Sleepy is just exhausted, she's been keeping squirrels and "boogers" away from us all day.
Makes me tired to watch her jumping and leaping around the place with her ears flopping. Looks like
the flying nun trying for a running start. She did enjoy several naps in the sunshine though.
Did I mention it is absolutely beautiful here, 72F, bright sunshine, slight breeze from the north.
Only problem is about 8 tons of mosquitoes so I will fog those babies at dark.
Tomorrow I pull the knotweed from the blueberries, raspberries, boysenberries and the sunchokes.
Then I'll dig all the sunchoke tubers and screen the soil to try to get everything out. I'm
seriously thinking of pulling the blueberries as the plants are 10 years old and are dying on us. We
started with 10, replaced two at three years, and only have five left now. The boysenberries are
reverting to the parent and have humongous thorns and the raspberries haven't done all that well
here. When I yank the two mayhaw trees in the spring I will yank everything else on that fence line
and then plant some thornless blackberries that are touted by LSU as being the "thing" for this
area. I think those and two apple trees, an Ein Sheimer and an Anna, will do the job for that part
of the yard. Tomorrow I will also look for a replacement for the Bruce oriental plum that didn't
make it. Busy, busy, busy.
Life is good.
George