Topic: Gardening

[Slack]

I've been debating whether my zucchini belong in the "Giant Hog" thread, but I guess I better put it here (that's a quarter sitting on top).  And I used to like zucchini.  

http://picasaweb.google.com/jtdodson/Garden#5501259057761582626

Tomatoes have been great however -- my cherry tomatoes especially, they went bonkers.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jtdodson/Garden#5501259054912831714

 

[Parlor Picker]

There goes Slack, bragging again...

A courgette/zucchini is really just a little marrow, so if you leave them on the plant, they grow like crazy.

[Stuart]

I've been debating whether my zucchini belong in the "Giant Hog" thread, but I guess I better put it here (that's a quarter sitting on top).

Now this is a family oriented website, Son. If you can't follow the rules, then you're going to have to post elsewhere.

Last year, one of the local mallards got into the zucchini patch. Here's the photographic evidence:



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Prof Scratchy]

Here in Scottish climes we've had a bumper year for plums/cherries/rasps/strawberries/red currants and white currants. The tatties were OK but not brilliant. As far as division of labour is concerned, I cut the grass and Maggie does everything else. Oh, we've also got great herbs and, for the first time this year, brilliant coriander. Next stop apples, which look like they're going to be good too! Getting back to the red currants, Bert Deivert was over from Sweden last year and gave us a great recipe for red currant cordial - great with water, better with vodka!

[Richard]

I'm still pretty obsessed with making as much compost as possible.

PP I can just imagine you doing that.
As for your other interest in watching the birdies, do you dress up for it? Over here there are many fanatical twitchers (as they are known) who invariably walk around on Sunday mornings with huge boots and large green lumpy objects on top of enormous tripods. However there is one bloke who eclipses everything else as he turns out in what looks like any army type camoflage suit at a distance... but when you get close it is actually made to resemble camoflage feathers so when the wind blows his feathers flap - it's true   Needless to say he looks an absolute anatomy and I have yet to see him when I have camera handy, but I live in hope!

Generally though I'm with the Prof as regards gardening, I'll cut grass and do a little light watering!

[David Kaatz]

Great plum crop for me, been eating them for a couple weeks, but the tomatoes are sad this year.  Still hoping for some more extended heat to ripen them up.  We bought one plant with two tomatoes already on it - they ripened but we got no further fruit.  Other plants we started ourselves are way late with fruit.  Apples will be small but edible, but I may have to fight the raccoons for them.

D.

[Parlor Picker]

I'm still pretty obsessed with making as much compost as possible.

PP I can just imagine you doing that.
 
As for your other interest in watching the birdies, do you dress up for it?

Generally though I'm with the Prof as regards gardening, I'll cut grass and do a little light watering!

Richard you should get into compost! You may develop the same fascination for it that you have (quite rightly) for Casey Bill Weldon.

No I don't dress up (flamin' cheek). I'm not a twitcher either - I keep no lists, but just take a general interest in the countryside around me.

Cutting grass and a little light watering! - You big girl's blouse. Get making some compost!

By the way, it's interesting to note how many Weenies grow a few fruit and veg in an era where everyone is supposed to buy them from the supermarket. Keep growing, Weenies!

[dj]

I'll agree with that.  Compost is very satisfying.  Though sometimes I get odd looks around the hamlet where I live, as I'll scoop up likely-looking earthworms to throw on the compost pile.  You could do that too, Richard.   

It's been a bad year for gardening in the Northeast US.  Very hot and very dry.  In spite of watering almost every day, we've lost a lot of plants in the garden.  Even the ones that love dryness and heat are giving up and burning out.  And the generally bad growing conditions have forced deer out of the woods and into town, where they're eating anything that hasn't succumbed to the weather.     

[Stuart]

Apples will be small but edible, but I may have to fight the raccoons for them.

You better first get your affairs in order, Dave, 'cause it's a fight you can't win. We have 10+ (7 are kits) that come around and peaceful co-existence seems to be the best that we can hope for.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
A note of caution for any of you who have fruit trees:  I was picking our Italian prune (plum) tree today and reaching to my left and the ladder that I was on flipped out from under me.  I was fairly high up on it and was quite lucky in my landing--more or less full length on my left side.  No broken bones, pretty scratched up on both arms and I think the back of my right calf really struck the ladder hard as I landed.  It happened so fast that I had no sense of falling, only hitting the ground.  
I had thought I was being very careful in the placement of the ladder.  A resident of our town who ran a wine bar that our trio had played at died from a fall from a ladder about three weeks ago.  Ginny and I decided to get a proper orchard ladder.  They're much more stable.  I feel very lucky right now.  I guess one thing to bear in mind when you're on a ladder is that too much reaching to one side or the other distributes your weight across a wide space and causes your feet on the ladder to push in the opposite direction from the side you're reaching towards.  That's what happened to me. It's much better to move the ladder more frequently than to try to get too much done from one ladder placement.  Also, don't assume that grabbing a tree branch will brake your fall.  This brittle old tree didn't slow me down a bit, it broke instantly and scratched me up on the way down.
Anyhow, I hope you'll all take special care if working from a ladder under whatever circumstances.
All best,
Johnm  

[Stuart]

Hi John:

I'm sorry to hear about this, but glad to know that you didn't get seriously injured. I've been on more than a few ladders in my day, and I'll be the first to admit and agree that there is a tendency to overreach. Stability and safety are paramount, and with it's wider stance, an orchard ladder is the way to go--"The right tool for the job," as the old saying goes.

Take care of yourself and get well soon from your bumps, bruises and scratches.

My Best,

Stuart

[Bill Roggensack]

John - you could say that "the ground broke your fall." You are indeed lucky that your fall was the only thing broken, other than perhaps your pride.

[uncle bud]

John, glad you're more or less OK, and that it was not worse. Sounds like a nasty fall!

[Slack]

You lucked out John!  One of my friends fell down a stairwell while painting the ceiling above it on a ladder - shattered his elbow on the bannister on the way down, lucky he did not kill himself!  Both cheap lessons in ladder safety!  glad you are OK!

[Johnm]

Thanks for your good wishes, guys.  I'm fully aware how lucky I was, and lay in bed last night thinking about it.  A fellow at the coffee shop where I stop on the way out of town told me after I told him about the fall, "That's your mulligan!", so maybe that is my one freebie.  I'm certainly not going to look for more of this type.
All best,
Johnm