RE: [gardeners] Wednesday in the garden

Anne Green (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 5 Jun 2003 06:48:45 -0400 

George,
You are much farther behind us this year than normal.  In the past you
have beaten us to the tomatoes.  We had our first BLT made with
homegrown tomatoes sometime in April.  Guess protecting that one plant
from frost all winter netted us some really early fruits.  Course, the
rest of the tomato plants have also been prolific.  I have 5 toms
sitting on the sink waiting for that last little pink on the shoulders
to turn red.  If I leave them outside to do that we end up sharing them
with the squirrels.  As for that, for every tomato we have brought
inside one has gone over the fence, into the woods, as the birds or the
squirrels have been tasting them and the bugs moved in.  

I didn't plant any other veggies this spring.  I am looking forward to
more time come this fall, and plan to get out there and do the rest.  I
miss fresh green beans from my own garden.  
Anne in FL


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-gardeners@globalgarden.com 
> [mailto:owner-gardeners@globalgarden.com] On Behalf Of George Shirley
> Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 10:15 AM
> To: Gardeners List
> Subject: [gardeners] Wednesday in the garden
> 
> 
> We had a nice rain yesterday evening and today is overcast, cool, and 
> breezy. Went off to work at 0630 and got home at 0730 and 
> never had to 
> run the ac in the truck. Just came in from helping Miz Anne stack the 
> maters. Did it a little different this year. Since we've never been 
> happy with the reinforcing wire cages a now deceased neighbor 
> gave us we 
> took them apart. Drove stakes along the row of tomatoes and then tied 
> the flattened out cages to them and trained the plants up the 
> "fence." 
> Think we're going to like this arrangement much better.
> 
> Just to make those of you in cooler climes jealous. We're 
> picking green 
> beans every other day now, the grape tomatoes are getting ripe in 
> clusters and are tasty. The big tomatoes are getting bigger 
> and some are 
> taking on a pinkish tinge so it's not long to the first BLT 
> of the year. 
> Getting cukes every few days too, we either eat them fresh on a daily 
> basis or I make fresh pickle with cukes, onions, and a 50/50 mix of 
> vinegar and water. Normally I would just throw a few 
> peppercorns in the 
> mix to flavor it but have been added whole cumin seeds to see 
> what would 
> happen, spices them up nicely. I think I'll try something else in the 
> next batch.
> 
> Sweet corn is about 3 feet high so we'll be bagging the ears 
> before too 
> much longer to try and keep the squirrels out. Either that or 
> we'll have 
> squirrel and corn soup. I'm really getting irritated at the 
> tree rats, 
> what they don't take one bite of and drop they dig up looking 
> for acorns 
> that were never buried there to start with. Easy to find the buried 
> acorns, they're all now small oak trees in the lawn, flower 
> beds, pots 
> on the patio, hanging pots, etc. Pesky little critters but 
> protected as 
> our city is a declared Wildlife Refuge. Luckily Sleepy does a 
> fair job 
> of keeping them out of things or it would be worse. Counted 
> nine of them 
> running around in the neigbors yard a week ago. They're also 
> into about 
> their tenth breeding season this year so there's going to be more of 
> them. Where are the hawks and owls when you need them?
> 
> Still, you have to admit, life is good.
> 
> George
>