Gardeners of AW, unite

Last year's potato test was a painful failure, barely a handful of potatoes, all about the size of a fingernail. But I've decided to run the experiment again, and with now a better amount of fair weather and rain, I've got four healthy-looking plants! Here's hoping we can at least make a meal out of them this year.

We won't be having cherries, like every year, because the stupid birds rip them off long before they're ripe, littering the back-end of the garden with unripe cherries. Pigeons are the main culprits. But now some of the invasive parakeets are starting to eat the blossoms in spring. Stupid bird-brains, the cherries would have been for you to start with (we don't net, because it 's a big tree and netting would trap and kill birds, which we don't want) at least let them become ripe so you can actually eat them!

We also seldom have walnuts, thanks to the squirrels, unless it's a real big harvest. But we do have a surprising amount of walnut saplings spread over the garden, again thanks to the squirrels.

Most of the flowers are gone now, but our efforts to invest in summer-flowering plants to ensure the bees and butterflies have continuous food are starting to pay off. There are still some splashes of welcome colour this summer. We have finally found a salvia that won't die off and by god it just keeps on flowering for months. I've actually gone and bought three more varieties, hoping we finally found what keeps them alive.

mrsmig said:

Here's the Tomato Fortress:

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Oooh, that looks sturdy!

M.S. Wiggins said:

My war on tomato-squirrel-bandits has some history, but I’ll spare everyone the sob-story and jump straight to the ongoing conclusion. It was sheer desperation to enjoy a backyard tomato sandwich that influenced my choice of weapon: Strips of aluminum foil positioned here, there, and everywhere around the tomato plants finally ‘foiled’ the little bastard critters. (It seems squirrels find sheets of aluminum foil to be evil things better left unapproached.)

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Have you by chance read T. Kingfisher's The Tomato Thief? You may enjoy it if only for the familiar wish of the main character to enjoy tomato from her own yard.

Stew-Piss

I planted a tomato from seed this spring. I decided to buy it because the seed catalog said that it was a Czechoslovakian tomato. Since my mom's family has Czech ancestry it was a must. This spring I started the seed, along with several others--Mushroom Basket, Get Stuffed, Berkley Tie Dye, Rosella and Lime Green Salad were the new varieties. They all sprouted--some 24 seedlings in my kitchen window. I had to give some away. Especially vigorous was the Czech tomato--Stupice.

I had to give seedlings away so I was talking them up in the teacher's lounge and around town. People were interested in Stew-Piss and I gave a couple three away--along with the name. Then I found the Czech pronunciation of the name-- Stoo-PICH-ka. I had to laugh because it sounded so much like one of my great aunts or my great grandmother's Czech words! Everything always ended in ichka. On the tomato website I discovered that Stew-Piss is a common but unappreciated mistake and now I have advanced that pronunciation. I fully expect to see a plate of Stew-Piss displayed at the County Fair this July. Boy, do I feel Stew-pid.

This isn't the first time I have garbled a plant name. The first time I heard the Spanish name for rose moss-- amor por un rato (love for a second)-- I thought it was amor barrato (cheap love.) A Mexican neighbor cracked up and set me straight on that one. The other night, on the phone with a friend from Kentucky, I discovered that what I and most of western Kansas have been calling Leer-Rope (liriope) is actually a whole different word. Ditto for Hoo-Chera. I discovered that error after being corrected by a snooty nursery salesperson. Now I just stick with Coral Bells. Does anyone else have alternate or mispronounced names for garden greens?

Some stupid animal dug up my corn sprouts. There goes the corn on the cob.

My new irisses are budding, eeeh!

shakeysix said:

Does anyone else have alternate or mispronounced names for garden greens?

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Probably all the time. The one I know is that apparently I have been pronouncing azalea wrong all my life. I say 'ah-zah-leyah', which I picked up from my parents so maybe micro-dialect or something, but everybody else seems to be saying 'ah-zaa-lia'.

mrsmig said:

Yesterday morning a gray squirrel was sniffing all around the perimeter of the Tomato Fortress, no doubt making notes in his little squirrelly brain about the edifice's weak points, in preparation for a major attack when things start ripening. I am ever vigilant, though. ::looks around warily::

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Just wait until he starts humming Mission Impossible music, then you'll know something's up.

So in my little part of Australia at the moment there's a god-awful cold-or-flu-who-even-knows-the-difference going around, and I caught it five days ago. It is vile. I never get sick, but this one floored me. So today I got out of my pyjamas regardless and went into the garden and did SO MUCH WORK and even though I feel just as crap as I did this morning, my chookpens are cleaned, my paths are weeded, my vegie patch is fenced, my olives are pruned and I've put all the winter greens in and fertilised the citrus trees and moved the woodpile under cover. And I'm happy Sore, but happy

It has never occurred to me to use gardening to fight a cold--but now I want to try it!!

Mrs Mig--congrats on defeating the squirrels thus far! I am very sorry to hear about your beans. They were fine beans, green and lush, and I remember when they were just seeds, it seems like mere weeks ago. Very sad, very sad, and I raise a glass to them.

I'm still seething over the corn, because now it's a question of leaving the six remaining plants so that i can get seeds for next year, or digging them up and putting something else in. Oh well.

In happy news, I picked the first blackberries today. The plant came from my neighbor years ago and I put it in a spot where nothing would grow, and it grows. We get a few pints each year.

And--big news--I picked two cherries today! Did not net the tree, and I hope to beat the birds to every last of the about 40 cherries that are on it.

Shakey Six and Friendly Frog--Those plant names! Basil has a few alternate pronunciations thus making me nervous whenever I try to say it in a new geographical region, and the whole 'erb/Herb issue... I've been in southern california long enough to know it's 'erb and bay-zel but heaven help me if I move again.

There are two dear little fluffy bunnies gambolling all over my front lawn just as I write this. Which is not good news.

The dewberries have been long gone—didn't produce many this year, anyway. The blueberries are almost gone and the netting comes off after the thunderstorms this week. The first crop of cherry tomatoes are all eaten; the second crop on the same plants are coming along nicely (so far). The fig is loaded and coming along nicely. The squirrels can't seem to wait 'til August when the pears are ready, oh well. The key lime is loaded as is the Meyer Lemon. It looks like a good year for the pecan trees if the rains don't ruin them as they did last year. And that's pretty much all I've done this year. Gettin' old, folks, gettin' old.

I can't take credit for the berries or the trees. They're all established and only need regular fertilizing, weeding, and pruning. It's just that my back and knees are beginning to protest too much for a full veggie garden as I've had in previous years in addition to the "stuff" I've had to take over from the spouse 'cause the dude's back seems to be in worse shape than mine.

A very late start to my little urban garden on the 16th floor, a number of losses over the winter due to construction/repairs to the side of the building, but my lilies are beginning to bud, lettuces are happy, dill and oregano growing like crazy, and tomatoes and sweet peppers are coming along nicely. I don't know what happened or why, but my jalapeños died before they could take off, usually very reliable.

Ari--I'm jealous of your Meyer lemon, that was one of the losses I felt most. In case anyone was wondering, concrete dust and dwarf citrus trees don't play well together.

ap123 said:

Ari--I'm jealous of your Meyer lemon, that was one of the losses I felt most. In case anyone was wondering, concrete dust and dwarf citrus trees don't play well together.

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heh Don't be. I've had that little tree somewhere around 12-14 years and this is the first year the yield looks to be more than four lemons. *knocks on wood* It's always, always full of the most amazingly fragrant flowers but no fruit.

I've about finally finished the last bits of pruning in this garden. Yeay! I'm still amazed at the quantities of leaf and twig I pull out of this garden on a monthly basis. So glad I don't have to find room to compost all that.

ap123 said:

A very late start to my little urban garden on the 16th floor, a number of losses over the winter due to construction/repairs to the side of the building, but my lilies are beginning to bud, lettuces are happy, dill and oregano growing like crazy, and tomatoes and sweet peppers are coming along nicely. I don't know what happened or why, but my jalapeños died before they could take off, usually very reliable.

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Sounds like quite garden for what I'm assuming is a small space.

Sucks about the nearby construction.

My old and supposedly spinster apple tree must have kicked up her heels this spring. S. he is bowed under with baby apples! First time I have seen an apple on her in ten years, since I planted her. Spent the morning clipping excess apples and bracing her with bubble wrap and a stake. Sometimes us old gals have a surprise or two left in us! --s6

Friendly Frog said:

Sounds like quite garden for what I'm assuming is a small space.

Sucks about the nearby construction.

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Thanks, yes, my tiny little space is pot to pot to pot. Makes for an interesting dance trying to water in the mornings.

Shakey--yay for your apple tree! The beauty of being older, doing it when you feel like it, not when someone else expects it

Haha. It's amazing what one can fit with many pots in small spaces, yet somehow never seem close enough to crowd out the slugs...

Must be something in the air, our apple tree is brimming with tiny apples as well. Here's hoping the birds will wait a little longer before attacking them after they've finished murdering the cherry crop. I'm happy to leave them all the cherries but I do want some apples without pecking holes this year.

mccardey said:

So in my little part of Australia at the moment there's a god-awful cold-or-flu-who-even-knows-the-difference going around, and I caught it five days ago. It is vile

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I still have this cold is all I'm saying.

♫♪ It’s the most pesto-ful time of the year
There’ll be much pasta boiling
And lobster tails broiling
When basil is near
Yes, it’s the most pesto-ful time of the year! ♪♫

My basil has, obviously, reached that stage when harvesting in bulk is pesto doable. And by ‘doable’ I mean: some pesto for now, some pesto for freezing so that in midwinter―when backyard basil plants say, ‘Screw you, not happenin’, see you in June”―I have summer-made pesto available in the freezer (which never seems to last past winter because I’m a pesto-junkie!).

Now, about drying that tarragon to perfection... Anybody have any tips?

Have never grown tarragon but I did learn a few days ago that if you snip basil stalks and put them in water they will root! I had stuck the extra stalks in water 'in case' I wanted it in another dish... it stayed perky enough day in and day out... And it sprouted roots!

So I planted it in the garden.

Who knew?

Patty said:

Have never grown tarragon but I did learn a few days ago that if you snip basil stalks and put them in water they will root! I had stuck the extra stalks in water 'in case' I wanted it in another dish... it stayed perky enough day in and day out... And it sprouted roots!

So I planted it in the garden.

Who knew?

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I've only ever just snipped basil plants ('dead-head'-style) to produce branching (for more future basil leaves!), but I've never tried rooting basil stalks in water. Good to know. Thank you for sharing this.

I'll be curious if it works for you.

I buy my 'produce basil' at the grocery store in those little pots. "Living Herbs." They are clumps of about a dozen plants. I usually cut the top halves off, for pesto, then divide the root portion in 2 or 3, and plant it.

I did that this time but like I said, ended up with extra stalks that rooted...

But you know what, I have no idea how they get a dozen basil plants to grow in an itty bitty pot like that to begin with, and it might involve loads of fertilizer and hormones. IOW it seemed weird that the stalks sprouted but the whole thing seems weird, every time I buy one of those.

So, I will be very curious if it works for regular basil from the garden!

I'm still seething over the corn, because now it's a question of leaving the six remaining plants so that i can get seeds for next year, or digging them up and putting something else in. Oh well.

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^ I decided to leave the corn (laziness) and I am glad I did because those that survived did well. They're hitting almost seven feet and silking out now. And I think the reason they did so well this year is because I trench-composted a ton of leaves down to about 24 inches last January. The corn seems to love the soil this year more than ever, and I haven't fertilized once, not with anything, not even fish emulsion. So that was good to learn.