Potato Planting

I just hand pull it, but I generally leave Oxalis alone. It's not terribly invasive and, being a legume, it's a nitrogen fixer so good for the garden. ;-)

And it's pretty.

K.

il Sat, 10 Apr 2004 20:50:18 -0500, Katra ha scritto:

Hah! Not in New Zealand. Something about our climate lets the plant lifes' 'inner Triffid' out. Gorse, possums, rabbits, oxalis, macrocarpas, madagascar vine, old man's beard, privet - all noxious weeds and pests here.

New Zealand is rather tropical.....

Yes, but then you are the people who call a swede a rutabager, no?

:-)) Steve

Remind me of that when our temperatures dip below zero C°, which will be in a few days I believe. 'Temperate' is the word, with a maritime changeability. Up north is warmer though. :-)

il Sun, 11 Apr 2004 21:46:50 +0100, "shazzbat" ha scritto:

Nope, not us. We call them swedes, I've even 'cut' them in the falling snow. I doubt if anyone in NZ knows what a rutabager is. (weird name) :-)

lessee what else do we have ... chickpeas, silverbeet, capsicums, courgettes hmm can't think of other names that might be different, oh right mince beef instead of 'ground'. :-))

French Toast is well known in Britain and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was in fact a British recipe in origin. It appears in a lot of my older British cookbooks.

No, not you. I was referring to the Americans.

I'm going to visit NZ when I win the lottery. I've always wanted to go there.

Steve

It's 'rutabaga' (ending in an 'a', not an 'er') and it's from the Swedish word for the vegetable.

We call chickpeas 'chickpeas' or 'garbanzos', silverbeet we call 'chard' or 'Swiss chard', capsicums are 'peppers' here.

Pat

il Tue, 13 Apr 2004 12:01:20 +0100, "shazzbat" ha scritto:

ahh i see, the attribution at the top confused me. You have more chance to save your money :-)

il Tue, 13 Apr 2004 09:08:23 -0400, snipped-for-privacy@meadows.pair.com ha scritto:

ty

yep, the good cookbooks use all names and measurements. Rutabaga still seems such a weird looking word though. :-) But I have no problems with canola replacing rape seed, aside from it being a prime GM/GE crop along with soy.

read somewhere recently it was first known mentioned in a Roman cookbook.

Janice

Rutabaga . aka .. Swede Turnip in the USA.

Janice

I just picked the bugs off of them myself, never sprayed. But you must LOOK for them early and often. What were they? colorado potato beetles.. striped ones? Or blister beetles..black narrower than they are long? They like to eat the flowers first.

Go out early or in the evening, and peer under the leaves for clusters of yellow eggs,..mash 'em if you find them, carry a can with a little gas in it and toss any adult beetles you find...or if you don't want to use gas, something with a lid so they don't just get out again. If it's morning, you can do slug patrol too! Put down boards around the garden and they'll hide under them!

How many plants are we talking about here? A couple or three rows 10 to 20 feet long? or 1/4 acre?

I like yukons, they're mealy like burbank russets. However for a nice all purpose and BIG potatoes, try some Kennebecs or kennebeck .. smooth whites that look like river rocks. ;-)

Janice

In reference to picking the bugs off potato plants, last year was the first year I did potatoes in the east. My neighbor was horrified that she and her husband had no bugs on their potato plants to speak of. She went on & on about how each year they had to pick the bugs off their plants. I have six roaming guinea hens and it turns out they picked the bugs off of the entire neighborhood's potato plants. Now maybe everyone will quit compalining about their squawking and screeching.

il Wed, 21 Apr 2004 18:30:09 -0600, Grandpa ha scritto:

Goats? they don't know when to stop eating.

Yes they do. Never. I think I may be a goat:~))

Steve