Hi Robert,
Please send our Southern Ontario summer back home where it belongs. We
don't like this summer swap here (but you can keep the humidity and the
howler monkeys if you like). Glad you enjoyed it.
Doug in Hamilton
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of
robert and benita rabello
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2009 4:43 PM
To: sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org
Subject: [Biofuel] This Year's Garden
Hello everyone!
With all the grim news associated with the economic downturn, with
all the howler monkey nonsense going on with respect to health care
reform in my country, it's a real pleasure to get outside and work with
plants. After a long and bitterly cold winter, through which many of
our outdoor plants did not survive, we had a very wet spring, followed
by the hottest, driest June on record. In early July, our faithful
compost-enhanching bunny died, so now the only manure that goes into the
compost is what I bring up the hill from the horse barns.
Our fruit trees did astonishingly well this year. The cherry tree,
which normally drops the majority of what little fruit it produces, was
absolutely laden this season. We picked cherries endlessly, it seemed,
and they were the sweetest and juiciest cherries I've ever eaten!
(Plenty for the birds, too!) The same has been true of our apples and
plums. We've had so little trouble with aphids on our plum trees, this
is the first year I've not sprayed soap on them to control an infestation.
We had better than 2 weeks of temperatures in the high 30's and low
40's in July. It was humid and miserable here, but the plants seemed to
take it all in stride. Our garden produced enough to keep two of our
neighbors, two of my sweetheart's friends, my in-laws and my own family
in fresh vegetables and fruit all summer long. We had HUGE blackberries
and monster, hydra-headed sunflowers that towered nearly 4 meters in
height. (One of those plants had 18 flowers on a single stem!) It's
curious how cross-pollination works. This is the first year we've had
multi-headed sunflowers in our garden.
Not everything did well. I can't seem to grow melons to save my
soul. We've had NO squash this year, and our grape vine didn't flower.
Also, though we've had some of the sweetest maize I can remember, we
wound up with an earwig infestation and most of the cobs we pulled off
were not completely formed. They tasted good, though!
So, I hope the rest of you who grow things experienced similar
success. We've already started taking our garden out. I'm going to be
composting the trees before they lose their leaves. We're expecting an
El Nino winter, which means lots of rain and little in the way of snow.
I'm already thinking about NEXT year's garden. Howler monkeys
notwithstanding, isn't that optimistic?
robert luis rabello
"The Edge of Justice"
"The Long Journey"
New Adventure for Your Mind
http://www.newadventure.ca
Ranger Supercharger Project Page
http://www.members.shaw.ca/rabello/
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