Greens

[George Shirley]

We're getting temps in the mid eighties nowadays so the lettuces, etc. are starting to wilt. Guess we will be back to just eating chard, etc. for summer greens soon.

The fruit trees are leafing out well and I am fertilizing this week as per the ag agency says. Hoping for bumper crops later this year. I had to prune a few limbs from the pear tree over the winter and it is doing well. The fig tree was hit with some sort of borer but only on one limb and I amputated that one. The kumquat has completely recovered from the two hard freezes back to back in February. The avocado trees dear wife planted from seed seem to be healthy and we hope there will be both male and female trees there now. We brought a start of our lemon tree and now have two of them growing. These trees are a cross between a lemon and a grapefruit and the old one at the last house was very prolific and very much spiny. The things grow spines up to four inches long so I will probably be pruning spines again soon.

For a small property we have crowded in lots of good stuff to eat, preserve, or give away and hope it goes well.

George

[Nyssa]

The temperatures have been on a roller coaster here in SE VA, but I took advantage of a warm and not-too-windy day last week to get the broccoli and bok choy transplanted into one garden bed and planted some snap peas and onion sets in another.

I rushed to get 'em done since the weather folk were claiming we were in for three days of rain, so of course, no rain came until yesterday. At least not over my garden.

It looks like one of my three remaining blueberry plants didn't make it through the winter. It was already a replacement for a previous one that didn't make it. Next to it is a bare spot where a different variety didn't make it even after several tries.

I swear this piece of land is cursed! Four rose bushes didn't make it into year two either on the other side of the backyard.

Meanwhile my under-the-plant-light starts are doing okay. Four different varieties of tomato, parsley, and some non-edible flowers (pansies and snapdragons). Well, maybe the pansies are edible, but not by me.

Nyssa, who just wasted an hour plus gasoline trying to find a station that has non-ethanol gas for my mowers using poor directions from my neighbor

[George Shirley]

It rained most of the morning here and a few hours of the afternoon, weather heads say more is coming. Looks to be we've received at least three inches today.

My three year old blueberry plants haven't grown at all and have supplied us with about four berries. They're coming out soon and I will plant domestic dewberries and see how they work, I like dewberries better than I do blueberries so it might be a win win.

Have you had your soil tested Nyssa? That can make all the difference for your plantings. Our lot sits on top of five feet of clay, put in to avoid the extra cost of flood insurance. We've been here since 12/12 and I am going to spread more gypsum to break up the clay and help turn it into dirt of a sort. Takes three or four years of annual gypsum spreading to start breaking clay.

I gave up on gas mowers when we moved to this much smaller property. Bought a Black and Decker battery operated mower and battery operated weed eater, both are about five years old now and take very little care and they live in the garage. The mower is self propelled and works well as long as I remember to sharpen the blade every so often. We started our marriage 57 years ago on ten acres and have, over those years, downsized to a 6500 square foot lot with a 1960 square foot house and even more in driveway and sidewalks. Our backyard just has enough room to walk around the raised beds, fruit trees, and the 12X12 shed for our "stuff." At our age that's about all we can handle anymore and I am partially paralyzed by strokes some years ago plus a couple of heart attacks. Dear wife is still spry so she does the outside stuff and I cook and clean, sort of a backwards operation.

George

[Nyssa]

No, I haven't done a soil test here, but it should be on the acid side of the range. The problem is more likely drainage, or rather lack thereof. The area is basically swampland with some parts a bit higher than others.

I started out with four blueberry plants, all different varieties. One pooped out and I replaced it...several times. Another pooped out and I replaced it and it seemed to be doing okay until now. So out of the eight plants I've purchased, only two are actually still growing.

Ditto on roses on the other side of the yard. I bought four patent roses, hybrid tea and grandiflora. All died within two years. I haven't even tried to replace them what with the current prices and varieties I've seen.

As for electric mowers, I've got just under 1/2 acre. I first bought a rechargeable electric mower, but ran into problems with it. One was that I don't have a garage, so to charge the thing, I'd have to drag it up the back steps into the kitchen to plug it in. :( Then even when fully charged, it could only mow half the yard before needing recharging again. So it was taking 3-4 days to mow between charging, recharging, and actually pushing the thing. I took it back and got a gas-powered mower. It would take me anywhere from 4-8 hours to mow the yard with the pusher depending on how wet the ground was, hight of grass, and so on. I *hate* grass!

Last fall a kind neighbor came across an older model John Deere rider mower that only needed about $100 of new parts and work to be usable. I did the work and I now have it on a "long loan" so I only need to use the pusher for about 1/4 of the yard. YAY! Less time spent mowing and more time for battling weeds in the garden.

Overcast and chilly here today, so no outside work. Plus half the day was used up taking a neighbor to a dentist appointment and the pharmacy. Downpours are predicted for tomorrow, so no outside work again.

Maybe next week....

Nyssa, who wishes the weather would make up its mind whether or not it's spring already