Re: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay
Hi Jim, Yes, I do. I prefer winters that don't have to be shoveled. Tom From: JAMES PHELPS [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]To: biofuel@sustainablelists.orgSent: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 23:31:46 -0300Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- UruguayTom,Do you spend the Uruguay winters in the US?Jimsnip___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay
Tom, You lucky (hard working) dog! I just got to shovel it today! My compost must be working as the 6 of snow is melting faster there than on the ground beside it. I would send you some pea seed that has been in my family for years if you think they will make it. We have grown seed from it for over thirty years now. Very good eating not monsters but you can raise your own seed each fall. Jim - Original Message - From: Tom Irwin [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 6:49 AM Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay Hi Jim, Yes, I do. I prefer winters that don't have to be shoveled. Tom _ From: JAMES PHELPS [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 23:31:46 -0300 Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay Tom, Do you spend the Uruguay winters in the US? Jim snip ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay
Hi All, Greetings from the deep South. The black raspberries are in flower as are the lemon trees. If it wasn't for the manureit would smell mighty nice. The mustard that overwintered is producing lots of seed. I found some good tangerine seeds that I'm hoping will sprout soon.The same is true of some pecans. They got 45 days in the refrigerator. I don't like the nuts much but I really want the wood for smokingmeat. I haven't found much linseed oil in these parts so,' have farm will grow'. The plants are up about 5 centimeter. I wasn't sure if the seeds would germinate so I'm pleased so far. My daughter in the U.S. has tried to send me some open pollinated snow peas but I think they got stopped at customs. Lots of hybrid seed for sale here and no GM allowed so far. I'll probably pull the strawberries this weekend. They went in way too late and really haven't taken off. I've got an insectiary hedgerow started along with some herbs. I had good luck attracting hover flies, parasitic wasps, and a couple of lady bugs. I'd really like to see some ground beetles though. I suppose it is a bit early. The carrots are in the ground but I probably planted them too deep. I got caught in a thunder shower. Lots of other jobs to do this season. I need to put in a new gate, rainwater drainage, and a well. Tom From: Jesse Frayne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]To: biofuel@sustainablelists.orgSent: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 21:40:16 -0300Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Closing the Garden - Ottawa versionHi gardeners,Our yard at home is small, in the middle of the city,and shaded by a big tree. So we were looking forsomewhere to grow vegetables.In the last three years we have had some space onpublic land that was contested over, puzzled over,dog-run over by our differing neighbourhood uses. Wehave put in years of meetings to secure thisgreenspace. We dug deeply through the sod and put in manure fromthe downtown farm (it used to be a zoo), turned overour little square, put in an apple tree and two grapevines... etc.Okay, the earth is pretty great. LOTS of worms andalthough in Toronto we surely have clay, not so bad,put the mulch in there for three years and it'sstarting to break up nicely.Okay, here's the deal. This is a public place, thereare dogs, school kids and everyone else walking pastthe garden. I saw a guy walking away with a biggrocery bag of my roma tomatoes. I say to him, "Hi, Ihope you're enjoying my garden?"He says "Oh, I thought it was school-kids put thisin." Like that would make it okay, humm, and hekeeps walking. Interesting.So my daughter put up a sign: "Until we have dug a big enough garden to feed thewhole neighbourhood, could you please leave theproduce to the gardeners?" (She has a thing that ifanyone would be so hungry as to take food from someoneelse's garden, it must be okay.) Guys, I'm thinkin', this is the way it's going to be. I feel cranky now.Our new sign, for next spring, is: "Here are 5 tomatoseedlings. Plant and tend them and enjoy yourgardening."I don't want to fence. I want straight-ahead. ButI'm wondering what is coming. Thoughts?Jesse--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Appropriately, I spent a few hours on Thanksgiving day clearing most of the plant matter from the garden and putting it on the compost pile. Robert, your recent posts have been an inspiration. Thank you. Our garden did not fare as well this year as in past years. Mostly due to lack of attention on my part, although not enough rain followed by too much rain wasn't helping either. Still, we had more tomatoes than we knew what to do with, even after giving them away to neighbours and taking them to work for barbecues and so on. The yellow cherry tomatoes were a special success. So sweet. My son took away a good haul of carrots, which he is enjoying immensely. Enough beets to make into baby food for my grandson, several feeds of peas in the garden and enough yellow beans to even make it to the dinner table a couple of times (after some serious consumption in the yard first). Squash was a disappointment - lots of fruit, but none big enough to justify harvesting. The radish and lettuce either drowned or were scavenged by local fauna. The spinach did not take at all. The jalapenos were bountiful, and I had been told I couldn't grow those this far north. The raspberries did well in the spring, but no autumn crop to speak of. I think the squash needs more sun, which means I need to find some vegetables and fruits that can do with less sun for certain parts of the garden. I'm also going to have to trim back my beautiful maple tree (a rescued weed from years ago), to let more sun reach the garden. Still, it will continue to provide good shade over the park bench we have outside the fence so neighbours can sit and rest if they so desire. After reading Robert's posts, I wonder if I should have gone for a fruit tree instead, perhaps cherry. However, the responsbility for the failures is all mine. The garden simply did not get the time it needed, as I
Re: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay
Hi Tom and List...thanks for this post and all our gardeners' posts. One of the additional beauties of this global List is how the summer part of the world caninspire thewinter part throughout the year. Always a garden yielding bounty somewhere. No matter how big or small or in what time of year, I personally love hearing how people relate to their gardens, what they plant, what they find, how they work the soil, what thoughts or feelings their gardens inspire, etc etc. No doubt the human population generally has lost awareness of its' connection to the planet. Perhaps more gardeners and their musings might help bring some of that awareness back and in so doing also restore a bit of lost sanity. Again, thank you Tom and all our gardeners who post. Mike DuPree PS We harvested our basil several weeks ago for making pesto. I really need to learn more about building up the soil and most immediately what I should do now in October in Kansas to prepare the soil for next year. - Original Message - From: Tom Irwin To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 8:26 AM Subject: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay Hi All, Greetings from the deep South. The black raspberries are in flower as are the lemon trees. If it wasn't for the manureit would smell mighty nice. The mustard that overwintered is producing lots of seed. I found some good tangerine seeds that I'm hoping will sprout soon.The same is true of some pecans. They got 45 days in the refrigerator. I don't like the nuts much but I really want the wood for smokingmeat. I haven't found much linseed oil in these parts so,' have farm will grow'. The plants are up about 5 centimeter. I wasn't sure if the seeds would germinate so I'm pleased so far. My daughter in the U.S. has tried to send me some open pollinated snow peas but I think they got stopped at customs. Lots of hybrid seed for sale here and no GM allowed so far. I'll probably pull the strawberries this weekend. They went in way too late and really haven't taken off. I've got an insectiary hedgerow started along with some herbs. I had good luck attracting hover flies, parasitic wasps, and a couple of lady bugs. I'd really like to see some ground beetles though. I suppose it is a bit early. The carrots are in the ground but I probably planted them too deep. I got caught in a thunder shower. Lots of other jobs to do this season. I need to put in a new gate, rainwater drainage, and a well. Tom From: Jesse Frayne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]To: biofuel@sustainablelists.orgSent: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 21:40:16 -0300Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Closing the Garden - Ottawa versionHi gardeners,Our yard at home is small, in the middle of the city,and shaded by a big tree. So we were looking forsomewhere to grow vegetables.In the last three years we have had some space onpublic land that was contested over, puzzled over,dog-run over by our differing neighbourhood uses. Wehave put in years of meetings to secure thisgreenspace. We dug deeply through the sod and put in manure fromthe downtown farm (it used to be a zoo), turned overour little square, put in an apple tree and two grapevines... etc.Okay, the earth is pretty great. LOTS of worms andalthough in Toronto we surely have clay, not so bad,put the mulch in there for three years and it'sstarting to break up nicely.Okay, here's the deal. This is a public place, thereare dogs, school kids and everyone else walking pastthe garden. I saw a guy walking away with a biggrocery bag of my roma tomatoes. I say to him, "Hi, Ihope you're enjoying my garden?"He says "Oh, I thought it was school-kids put thisin." Like that would make it okay, humm, and hekeeps walking. Interesting.So my daughter put up a sign: "Until we have dug a big enough garden to feed thewhole neighbourhood, could you please leave theproduce to the gardeners?" (She has a thing that ifanyone would be so hungry as to take food from someoneelse's garden, it must be okay.) Guys, I'm thinkin', this is the way it's going to be. I feel cranky now.Our new sign, for next spring, is: "Here are 5 tomatoseedlings. Plant and tend them and enjoy yourgardening."I don't want to fence. I want straight-ahead. ButI'm wondering what is coming. Thoughts?Jesse--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Appropriately, I spent a few hours on Thanksgiving day clearing most of the plant matter from the garden and putting it on the compost pile. Robert, your recent posts have been an inspiration. Thank you. Our garden did not fare as well this year as in past years. Mostly due to lack of attention on my part, although not enough rain followed by too much rain wasn't helping either. Still
Re: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay
i need some inspiration during the dark days... i get so moody in the fall. JasonICQ#: 154998177MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Original Message - From: MK DuPree To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 9:46 AM Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay Hi Tom and List...thanks for this post and all our gardeners' posts. One of the additional beauties of this global List is how the summer part of the world caninspire thewinter part throughout the year. Always a garden yielding bounty somewhere. No matter how big or small or in what time of year, I personally love hearing how people relate to their gardens, what they plant, what they find, how they work the soil, what thoughts or feelings their gardens inspire, etc etc. No doubt the human population generally has lost awareness of its' connection to the planet. Perhaps more gardeners and their musings might help bring some of that awareness back and in so doing also restore a bit of lost sanity. Again, thank you Tom and all our gardeners who post. Mike DuPree PS We harvested our basil several weeks ago for making pesto. I really need to learn more about building up the soil and most immediately what I should do now in October in Kansas to prepare the soil for next year. - Original Message - From: Tom Irwin To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 8:26 AM Subject: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay Hi All, Greetings from the deep South. The black raspberries are in flower as are the lemon trees. If it wasn't for the manureit would smell mighty nice. The mustard that overwintered is producing lots of seed. I found some good tangerine seeds that I'm hoping will sprout soon.The same is true of some pecans. They got 45 days in the refrigerator. I don't like the nuts much but I really want the wood for smokingmeat. I haven't found much linseed oil in these parts so,' have farm will grow'. The plants are up about 5 centimeter. I wasn't sure if the seeds would germinate so I'm pleased so far. My daughter in the U.S. has tried to send me some open pollinated snow peas but I think they got stopped at customs. Lots of hybrid seed for sale here and no GM allowed so far. I'll probably pull the strawberries this weekend. They went in way too late and really haven't taken off. I've got an insectiary hedgerow started along with some herbs. I had good luck attracting hover flies, parasitic wasps, and a couple of lady bugs. I'd really like to see some ground beetles though. I suppose it is a bit early. The carrots are in the ground but I probably planted them too deep. I got caught in a thunder shower. Lots of other jobs to do this season. I need to put in a new gate, rainwater drainage, and a well. Tom From: Jesse Frayne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]To: biofuel@sustainablelists.orgSent: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 21:40:16 -0300Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Closing the Garden - Ottawa versionHi gardeners,Our yard at home is small, in the middle of the city,and shaded by a big tree. So we were looking forsomewhere to grow vegetables.In the last three years we have had some space onpublic land that was contested over, puzzled over,dog-run over by our differing neighbourhood uses. Wehave put in years of meetings to secure thisgreenspace. We dug deeply through the sod and put in manure fromthe downtown farm (it used to be a zoo), turned overour little square, put in an apple tree and two grapevines... etc.Okay, the earth is pretty great. LOTS of worms andalthough in Toronto we surely have clay, not so bad,put the mulch in there for three years and it'sstarting to break up nicely.Okay, here's the deal. This is a public place, thereare dogs, school kids and everyone else walking pastthe garden. I saw a guy walking away with a biggrocery bag of my roma tomatoes. I say to him, "Hi, Ihope you're enjoying my garden?"He says "Oh, I thought it was school-kids put thisin." Like that would make it okay, humm, and hekeeps walking. Interesting.So my daughter put up a sign: "Until we have dug a big enough garden to feed thewhole neighbourhood, could you please leave theproduce to the gardeners?" (She has a thing that ifanyone would be so hungry as to take food from someoneelse's garden, it must be okay.) Guys, I'm thinkin', this is the way it's going to be. I feel cranky now.Our new sign, for next spring, is: "Here are 5 tomatoseedlings. Plant and tend them and enjoy yourgardening."I don't want to fence. I want straight-ahead. ButI'm wonderi
Re: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay
SILENT SPRING - with acknowledgements to Rachel Carson. Hi Mike and all, Enjoyed the garden tour. I'dlike to take youon a little trip around ours and ask for a little help. Keri and I have afew acres in the far north of Godzone, otherwise known as New Zealand. The area is a long peninsula jutting into the Pacific ocean with asub-tropical oceanic climate, which means you can have five seasonsin one day. The soil is a very fertile volcanic near loam. So fertile in fact that the local joke is a warning to newcomers to treat all fence posts with herbicide before use to prevent sprouting. We have the usual range of home orchard fruit with the exception of pip and berry fruits requiring a winter chill (though I persevere with a couple of favourite apple trees more out of childhood nostalgia than any serious attempt at getting fruit). Oranges, lemons, avocado and persimmon usually crop heavily as do the macadamia and pecan nuts. I've planteda Spanish chestnut but am probably on a hiding to nothing as this too needs a touch of winter to produce a decent crop. The hedges are 10-foot tall acmena (monkey apple - an edible thumbnail-sized fruit) to attract birds of which we have a plethora, including pheasants, puketos - a bit like a domestic henon stilts, turkeys and a warble of songbirds that open up at dawn and don't shut up untildark. Ahalf-acre of lawn takes two hoursto mow to but repays the work with a vista that gladdens. However a worm, or rather a mite, has enteredparadise. The varoa mite appeared in NewZealand a few years ago, possibly brought in with an import of bees.It lives in bee hives and lays its eggs in the worker cells, eventually wiping out the hives. It has now spread throughout the North Island andbee keepers are making a valiant effort to keep it out of the South Island. This Spring I stoodamid aprofusion of fragrant citrus blossom and realised the mite had won. A single bee- where once hundreds would have been droning back and forth - was working the flowers. It was indeed a silent Spring. And if the rather anaemic scattering of early plums isany indicator then I doubt we will see much fruit of any kind this year. Bee keepers are using insecticide strips in the hives. This certainly kills the mite but also a few bees too and makes the honey suspect. But it doesn't address the wild bee population which is where the re-infestation in coming from. Any ideas, anyone? Or is Paradise Lost? Best wishes, Bob. Original Message - From: MK DuPree To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 9:46 AM Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay Hi Tom and List...thanks for this post and all our gardeners' posts. One of the additional beauties of this global List is how the summer part of the world caninspire thewinter part throughout the year. Always a garden yielding bounty somewhere. No matter how big or small or in what time of year, I personally love hearing how people relate to their gardens, what they plant, what they find, how they work the soil, what thoughts or feelings their gardens inspire, etc etc. No doubt the human population generally has lost awareness of its' connection to the planet. Perhaps more gardeners and their musings might help bring some of that awareness back and in so doing also restore a bit of lost sanity. Again, thank you Tom and all our gardeners who post. Mike DuPree PS We harvested our basil several weeks ago for making pesto. I really need to learn more about building up the soil and most immediately what I should do now in October in Kansas to prepare the soil for next year. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay
Jason,Have you tried one of those lights for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)?Google Seasonal disorder lightOn 10/16/06, Jason Katie [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: i need some inspiration during the dark days... i get so moody in the fall. JasonICQ#: 154998177MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Original Message - From: MK DuPree To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 9:46 AM Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay Hi Tom and List...thanks for this post and all our gardeners' posts. One of the additional beauties of this global List is how the summer part of the world caninspire thewinter part throughout the year. Always a garden yielding bounty somewhere. No matter how big or small or in what time of year, I personally love hearing how people relate to their gardens, what they plant, what they find, how they work the soil, what thoughts or feelings their gardens inspire, etc etc. No doubt the human population generally has lost awareness of its' connection to the planet. Perhaps more gardeners and their musings might help bring some of that awareness back and in so doing also restore a bit of lost sanity. Again, thank you Tom and all our gardeners who post. Mike DuPree PS We harvested our basil several weeks ago for making pesto. I really need to learn more about building up the soil and most immediately what I should do now in October in Kansas to prepare the soil for next year. - Original Message - From: Tom Irwin To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 8:26 AM Subject: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay Hi All, Greetings from the deep South. The black raspberries are in flower as are the lemon trees. If it wasn't for the manureit would smell mighty nice. The mustard that overwintered is producing lots of seed. I found some good tangerine seeds that I'm hoping will sprout soon.The same is true of some pecans. They got 45 days in the refrigerator. I don't like the nuts much but I really want the wood for smokingmeat. I haven't found much linseed oil in these parts so,' have farm will grow'. The plants are up about 5 centimeter. I wasn't sure if the seeds would germinate so I'm pleased so far. My daughter in the U.S. has tried to send me some open pollinated snow peas but I think they got stopped at customs. Lots of hybrid seed for sale here and no GM allowed so far. I'll probably pull the strawberries this weekend. They went in way too late and really haven't taken off. I've got an insectiary hedgerow started along with some herbs. I had good luck attracting hover flies, parasitic wasps, and a couple of lady bugs. I'd really like to see some ground beetles though. I suppose it is a bit early. The carrots are in the ground but I probably planted them too deep. I got caught in a thunder shower. Lots of other jobs to do this season. I need to put in a new gate, rainwater drainage, and a well. Tom From: Jesse Frayne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]To: biofuel@sustainablelists.orgSent: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 21:40:16 -0300Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Closing the Garden - Ottawa versionHi gardeners,Our yard at home is small, in the middle of the city,and shaded by a big tree. So we were looking forsomewhere to grow vegetables.In the last three years we have had some space onpublic land that was contested over, puzzled over,dog-run over by our differing neighbourhood uses. Wehave put in years of meetings to secure thisgreenspace. We dug deeply through the sod and put in manure fromthe downtown farm (it used to be a zoo), turned overour little square, put in an apple tree and two grapevines... etc.Okay, the earth is pretty great. LOTS of worms andalthough in Toronto we surely have clay, not so bad,put the mulch in there for three years and it'sstarting to break up nicely.Okay, here's the deal. This is a public place, thereare dogs, school kids and everyone else walking pastthe garden. I saw a guy walking away with a biggrocery bag of my roma tomatoes. I say to him, Hi, Ihope you're enjoying my garden?He says Oh, I thought it was school-kids put thisin. Like that would make it okay, humm, and hekeeps walking. Interesting.So my daughter put up a sign: Until we have dug a big enough garden to feed thewhole neighbourhood, could you please leave theproduce to the gardeners? (She has a thing that ifanyone would be so hungry as to take food from someoneelse's garden, it must be okay.) Guys, I'm thinkin', this is the way it's going to be. I feel cranky now.Our new sign, for next spring, is: Here are 5 tomatoseedlings
Re: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay
Tom, Do you spend the Uruguay winters in the US? Jim - Original Message - From: Tom Irwin [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 6:26 AM Subject: [Biofuel] Opening the garden -- Uruguay Hi All, Greetings from the deep South. The black raspberries are in flower as are the lemon trees. If it wasn't for the manure it would smell mighty nice. The mustard that overwintered is producing lots of seed. I found some good tangerine seeds that I'm hoping will sprout soon. The same is true of some pecans. They got 45 days in the refrigerator. I don't like the nuts much but I really want the wood for smoking meat. I haven't found much linseed oil in these parts so,' have farm will grow'. The plants are up about 5 centimeter. I wasn't sure if the seeds would germinate so I'm pleased so far. My daughter in the U.S. has tried to send me some open pollinated snow peas but I think they got stopped at customs. Lots of hybrid seed for sale here and no GM allowed so far. I'll probably pull the strawberries this weekend. They went in way too late and really haven't taken off. I've got an insectiary hedgerow started along with some herbs. I had good luck attracting hover flies, parasitic wasps, and a couple of lady bugs. I'd really like to see some ground beetles though. I suppose it is a bit early. The carrots are in the ground but I probably planted them too deep. I got caught in a thunder shower. Lots of other jobs to do this season. I need to put in a new gate, rainwater drainage, and a well. Tom _ From: Jesse Frayne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 21:40:16 -0300 Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Closing the Garden - Ottawa version Hi gardeners, Our yard at home is small, in the middle of the city, and shaded by a big tree. So we were looking for somewhere to grow vegetables. In the last three years we have had some space on public land that was contested over, puzzled over, dog-run over by our differing neighbourhood uses. We have put in years of meetings to secure this greenspace. We dug deeply through the sod and put in manure from the downtown farm (it used to be a zoo), turned over our little square, put in an apple tree and two grape vines... etc. Okay, the earth is pretty great. LOTS of worms and although in Toronto we surely have clay, not so bad, put the mulch in there for three years and it's starting to break up nicely. Okay, here's the deal. This is a public place, there are dogs, school kids and everyone else walking past the garden. I saw a guy walking away with a big grocery bag of my roma tomatoes. I say to him, Hi, I hope you're enjoying my garden? He says Oh, I thought it was school-kids put this in. Like that would make it okay, humm, and he keeps walking. Interesting. So my daughter put up a sign: Until we have dug a big enough garden to feed the whole neighbourhood, could you please leave the produce to the gardeners? (She has a thing that if anyone would be so hungry as to take food from someone else's garden, it must be okay.) Guys, I'm thinkin', this is the way it's going to be. I feel cranky now. Our new sign, for next spring, is: Here are 5 tomato seedlings. Plant and tend them and enjoy your gardening. I don't want to fence. I want straight-ahead. But I'm wondering what is coming. Thoughts? Jesse --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Appropriately, I spent a few hours on Thanksgiving day clearing most of the plant matter from the garden and putting it on the compost pile. Robert, your recent posts have been an inspiration. Thank you. Our garden did not fare as well this year as in past years. Mostly due to lack of attention on my part, although not enough rain followed by too much rain wasn't helping either. Still, we had more tomatoes than we knew what to do with, even after giving them away to neighbours and taking them to work for barbecues and so on. The yellow cherry tomatoes were a special success. So sweet. My son took away a good haul of carrots, which he is enjoying immensely. Enough beets to make into baby food for my grandson, several feeds of peas in the garden and enough yellow beans to even make it to the dinner table a couple of times (after some serious consumption in the yard first). Squash was a disappointment - lots of fruit, but none big enough to justify harvesting. The radish and lettuce either drowned or were scavenged by local fauna. The spinach did not take at all. The jalapenos were bountiful, and I had been told I couldn't grow those this far north. The raspberries did well in the spring, but no autumn crop to speak of. I think the squash needs more sun, which means I need to find some vegetables and fruits that can do with less sun for certain parts of the garden. I'm also going to have to trim back my beautiful maple tree (a rescued weed from years ago), to let more sun reach the garden
