Edibles - '08

AYankeeCat.....traffic on Rt 81 keeps away the deer. So do the RR tracks 300 yds to the south and I-95 half a mile to the north. Deer get into this little cul de sac in the spring but don't stay long.

That's it - I'm working on a railroad - all the livelong day!

David_Paul, Love the tomato trellis system you have put up. I will be showing DH when he gets enough of the TV that almost just flew through our bedroom window. He is currently hanging out in a pine in the front yard. Might be a young one. He/she makes me feel pretty. Patti

Another one of the Turkey vulture. Just took off. Patti

David/Paul what do you use for wood on the t-plant set up? Bamboo?

Looks like bamboo with re-bar stakes. Very nice, David.

that's what i think as well. currently i use 12 ft. pvc poles burried 2 ft. with stakes at the end and wire strung between them to hold them tight and bare the wieght of 8 plants per row. it has been working just a hassle/work to dig those holes every year as i move the plants to the other side of the garden every year. reduced t-plant count to 4 rows/48 plants this year and "only" 12 holes.

Whats with the Turkey Vulture on an edibles thread?
HUH?

Patti. Is that what is left of your husband???

wha....yes, it's bamboo. A gift from my father who passed away in 1984. Twenty years before, he planted a five gallon pot of Phyllostachys aureosulcata at my sister's house. This is what the grove looks like now:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=3729417

bbrook...thinking of bamboo on Nantucket? Is there any there now? Deer don't eat it I think (but pandas do so don't introduce them out there).

BAMBOO story!
Hard to make it short but it involves an 1830's house in densly populated Piermont NY .
Owner came home from Habitat for Humanity building blitz in some foreign country gone months, failed to appear at town meetings where it was approved to over shoot the footprint laws for the NEW Mc M ansion next door.The new house is less than 10 fet from my Pals and rises up three stories( better to view the river).
It blocks th light for her studio it invades her private patio garden(she looks into their basement windows.
I could go on as to how offensive this house is.
Her solution was to plant Bamboo between the houses.
She retires in a year and plans to move to NM.

ge1836.....bamboo is the preferred material for Punji sticks as well.

Punji sticks. Must be a hot item. What are they?

Yeah what?
I have a vision of Vlad the Impailer somewhere in that Punji stick usage.
I think it was a form of torture to stake a person on top if new Bamboo and watch them slowly die as the bamboo grew.
Musta been a John Wayne movie 1940's.
I believe anyone so insensative as to musle in and build without reguard for neighbors ,deserves to find bamboo shoots and roots under and into their nice family room with mongo TV.
It's the perfect revenge.

ge1836. You have given me a plan! Surely bamboo is a lot nicer than the chinaberry trees my neighbors are growing.

(P.S. china berry trees put out a crop of poisonous berries each of which grows into another hideous china berry tree is it is not eaten by some unsuspecting animal. The dead animal naturally is left along my property line to stink away until he finally returns dust to dust.)

Hope I never have to cope with that.
Just planted two Butterfly Bushes, fingers crossed, the soil was a pile of rocks, amended with soil and compost but the roots are going to have to struggle.

ge1836, you got me. I was so taken aback by the vultures appearance in the yard, that I scrambled that sentence so that it seemed as if my DH was up in the tree. Too funny. The TV was not a juvenile as it had a red face. I thought maybe we had lost, don't I wish, another bunny and the TV was going to have a bunny burger. No such luck.

David_Paul , funny you should ask as about Bamboo on Nantucket, as today when I was picking up our new shad at the nursery, I told the owner that I was not taking the vitex rotundifolia that I had ask them to hold for me as after reading about it. I think it might it might be invasive. The owner was surprised and is checking further and is going to pull it from sales if it is. He is a member of a task force dealing with invasive species on Nantucket and said that the Bamboo was one of our biggest problems. We talked about all the places it is taking over, so I know where I can get a mess of it and the more I take and use the better it is to help eradicate it . Patti

if the butterfly bushes can live in my ground... they can live anywhere

:)

In my new House Beautiful magazine there is an article about someone decorating a very small house 2 blocks from Sunset Blvd in LA.
They planted a bamboo screen as a plant that wouldn't take up much space and would screen out traffic.

I had visions of it coming up in the middle of Sunset Blvd. like it does in the streets in residential areas down town Greensboro!

Patti! I thought - Lordy! Why was a TV (television) flying through your window and what is your DH doing in the young pine tree anyway?!

Then I looked at the photo. Oh! Turkey Vulture! I had a good laugh on that one.

Okay, back to edibles. This is my first year growing anything edible, but hopefully, not my last. Well, last year I had a tomato plant from Arlene. I got one good tomato out of it. I should've put it in a bigger pot or soil. I'm learning.

I have two corn plants. Just two. I planted eight seeds. Two came up. I have a bunch more tomatoes, half cherry and half regular. Four of the tomatoes are little seedlings and I'm not sure they're going to make fruit this year, which would be a shame. I have two plants that I bought from HD that will definitely be fruiting. Ah, well. I have about four bell pepper plants, two greenbean plants, two burpless cucumbers and one zucchini. I have one black raspberry plant (from Yankee Cat), but it's too small to make fruit yet, I think. I have a couple of radishes. (I hate them. DH likes them.) I have two basil plants planted near the tomatoes. Gee... that's all I can think of. Most of everything is in large pots. I have to make a raised bed. I had hoped to have one ready for this season, but couldn't get to it. So, hopefully I'll have one ready for next year.

Harper

Harper - you will get tomatoes from your seedlings. I have tons of "mystery" tomatoes every year. You should get a few balckberries this year - but next year - watch out! Blackberries grow on second year wood. Each year cut the canes that bloomed down to the ground and top the canes that hadn't bloomed at about 5'.

Sofonisba...have you considered an Earthbox, homemade earthboxes or grow bags? Not as nice looking as raised beds but a lot less work. I got 8 pepper plants in one EB last year. Two EB's were enough peppers for 4 of us and to give some away. Have eggplant and peppers in the bags this year. Here is a bhut jolokia in a 15 gallon easi-lift grow bag (only have one in there because its a special pepper--the world's hottest--and it was started Feb 22 so it was kinda big when time to put out. 3 and 4 Jimmy Nardello sweet frying peppers in the same size bag seems to be working OK. Eggplants fill up one bag ):

Bhut Jolokia flowers and fruit:

Patti: Your design possibilities are flying out the window!

This is p. 127 of the Jul/Aug Elle Dacor. This is a digital print of a California vulture. SWEET DREAMS!

gloria125, oh my. I do interiors, but this one is not one I would choose as a model. Though I do like the woven spread. Why a vulture over a bed? A MIL's room? Patti

heehee

I believe that the spread is an "overshot" coverlet. I have a few of them, 100+ years old. Now see, you could start a fad: digital photos of your turkey vultures for MIL's room! A must have!

Finally - a baby yellow squash. The seeds were from CapeCodGardner.

AYC....congratulations! Nice photo.

LOL Patti, I thought the same thing as Harper (TV=television) until I clicked on the photo! We have plenty of them here - I think they're probably the ugliest bird I've ever seen!

Interesting thread Victor and since this is our first year for Cherries, how appropriate :) I had a beautiful Montmorency Cherry tree in Maine and had been looking for one ever since moving here. Finally found one in Michigan 4 years ago and squeezed it into the van for the trip back to VA. Had a few cherries last year but this year it's loaded! Also planted several highbush blueberries and getting ready to plant our first bed of Asparagus. We have quite a few Paw Paw trees that grow along the edge of the woods here. I knew they were there, just never took the time to identify them. Rick showed me the flowers this spring - what a unique little bloom! Now that I know where they're growing I'm going to have to watch them and get my first taste of the fruit this year :)

rcn48, Yes, I really confused the issue. Love the idea of cherries. I will have to plant one of those too. I use to make a cherry chutney every July for DH that I found in an Gourmet Mag from the 70's. I will have to see if I can find the recipe on line. The only TV this morning is sitting on a stand in the corner of our bedroom and is currently turned off. Lovely morning, nary a vulture in sight. Patti

Sometimes I think I spent my whole childhood looking out of a c herry tree at the sky. We had to pick cherries to earn school money. The first few days of cherry picking we always got sick. The cherries looked so good, but they had been sprayed. Wiping the spray off on your jeans really doesn't do the whole job.

The cherries that are grown commercially around where I lived in N. Michigan are the Montmorency type. They are beautiful, but not as sweet as the black sweet cherries. They are really for making pie, not for eating fresh off the tree!

I would love to see that chutney recipe!

Nice, Debbie. I would love to grow cherries.

Cherries. (Plant Files- Melissa)

DavidPaul, the earth boxes are very interesting, but expensive. How would I make my own? What about grow bags?

Cat, thanks for the promise of tomatoes from my seedlings and the advice on the blackberry. I can't wait for blackberries!

I have medlars set this year!

Cool! When will they be ripe?

When they rot. :) http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/376/

Holy Cow,I learn something new everyday. They are an intresting shape, are they tart?

I have no idea.however nothing that I read about them said anything about tart. Most often the flavor was described as applesauce. Maybe I'll find out.