Re: [gardeners] It must be winter
Ron Hay (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 05 Dec 2002 17:04:01 -0800
Hello, George,
We must be on the same "sucker list," cuz we got our Pinetree Seeds
catalog today, too.
Sure has been a change in the weather here, too. Actually looks as if we
may have a true El Nino this year. Two weak storm fronts heading for us
again this weekend and early next week.
I chopped down our Mexican sage and one of the butterfly bushes today,
and boy was it a hot job! It was really strange: if you stood in the
shade it was quite cool, but if you worked in the sun, it was pretty
darned hot. Filled up the green can for the city to compost, but fear to
use the other one, as the garbage trucks have really smashed that baby
to the point that I am afraid of putting too much of a load in it, any
more. Have arranged for the city to swap it out in 2 weeks.
It may sound strange to chop them down to about a foot high, but if we
let them grow all during the rainy season, they would be rangy and
unattractive looking in the spring. But spring back they most certainly
will!
Mandarins and limes continue to roll in. Gave our cleaning ladies a
couple of dozen mandarins, plus various assorted limes today, which they
accepted very gratefully.
We continue to pick up ripe macadmias ahead of the squirrels, and are
letting the nuts dry out in their shells, husked, before dehydrating
them to keep them from allegedly going rancid. I say "allegedly" because
I don't think we will have 5 pounds of them this year, and I surely
don't expect them to hang around long enough to go rancid (!)
Passion fruit are winding down, too. We are getting to the point where
we have so many persimmons, limes, mandarins and passion fruit to deal
with, that we don't have much time for Christmas shopping or cards (!)
We plan to offer St. Margaret's Guild at our church a whole "mess" of
mandarins to sell at their bake sale, this weekend, even though they are
not baked goods. I was told they would be happily accepted:)
Well, the way these wimpy storms are coming on, I will actually have to
water the navels and the blood oranges, to keep them from splitting even
more. It's really hard to go go out in the morning to do any serious
watering, while it is too dark in the evening to even consider doing
any. I guess we are going to have to bite the bullet next year and put
in some sort of a permanent irrigation system to take care of them,
especially at this time of year.
Well, friends, stay as snug as the proverbial bug in a rug and think
spring thoughts of gardening.
Ron