[gardeners] Wednesday, pretty close to the garden

George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 19 Jun 2002 08:51:22 -0500

Got in from a meeting about 45 minutes ago to discover a gentle rain falling on our gardens. With
the early sunlight everything is a radiant green and you can practically see the vegetables and
flowers growing.

A couple of days ago I canned 7 pints of green beans and the things need picking again. We've about
bottomed out on eating fresh green beans and crowder peas because they're producing so much. If it
weren't for the cherry tomatoes we wouldn't be eating any tomatoes at all. The bigger varieties are
getting huge but still very green, not even a hint of pink.

The eggplant and the okra have started to bloom, the lima beans are setting fruit, and the cucumbers
are going wild. I've got 2 gallons of sour pickles curing in the crock and they will be canned this
evening. Since we have so many bread and butter, sweet pickles, and pickle relish jars from last
year I guess we will eat all we can fresh, in gazpacho, and fresh pickled (cut with onions into a
mix of vinegar and water with a couple of peppercorns and refrigerated) that we will soon be
visiting the neighbors at night with plastic bags. (evil chuckle)

The Big Bertha bells and the mild jalapenos continue to produce about enough for us to eat them up
before another batch is ready so cause no problem. The hot chiles are still small but are growing
well.

Flowers are about shot with the exception of the old roses, zinnias, and torenia, all of which are
abloom.

Life is good.

George