Posted on 06/17/2011 5:12:35 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
All I know is that I will never, ever, ever, plant a running vegetable without a trellis. It saves on space as well. The panels will never wear out, and my husband rigged up a thingee that pulls the rebar up out of the ground. I also use rebar for my tomato stakes, so I have over 200 pieces total to pull up.
Being country folks with a farm, I am blessed to have a variety of trucks and trailers to go fetch my panels and rebar from the store ... but all I really have to do is call my local hardware store/lumber yard, and they will deliver them out to the garden shed at no extra charge. (they like me and the owner is a neighbor of mine)
Well it is a brilliant solution and much better and cheaper than Mel Bartholomew’s (the Sq. Ft. Garden guru) arrangement with pipe, joints, and nylon mesh. I don’t think my farm store would deliver, although they would rent me a truck. I just never considered it for one cattle panel.
Instead, I manipulated it so that my neighbor brought home a cattle panel and a swing set too. Now, it’s a matter of getting that swing stained and placed in my yard. Of course it’s been raining all week, but the grandchildren are already here and have already discovered it in the barn.
But, my husband and I are tied up with the accountant today, closing May.
You know that ad on cashing in annuities (J. G. Wentworth) that they play continuously on TV? “It’s my money and I want it NOW!”
Well: It’s MY swing and I want it NOW!
(Patience is not one of my virtues.)
They used to serve ice cream in the Shite House during the days of our Founding Fathers. I forget which First Lady introduced it — maybe it was Dolly Madison who was noted for being a great hostess and who saved George WAshington’s portrait when the British burned our White House during the war of 1812. They had to paint the President’s mansion white to cover the soot left behind by the Brits, which is how the house got its name! I have often wondered how they arranged to have enough ice on hand to make the ice cream.
I know they used to have ice houses down on the rivers in many towns where they tried to keep ice over the summer by keeping it covered with straw and wood, etc., but I have no idea how that actually worked. It seems a little iffy, doesn’t it?
That should have said White House. Shi-ite!
LOL! Sure you did.
Ice houses would have been a great idea for the time. If the blocks were well insulated, and big enough, and were stored in a well insulated building, it just might last the summer. Unless they sold out. I imagine that the less ice they had, the harder it would be to keep it cold.
It’s pouring rain here right now.
It must have been the FResno County schools because I didn’t the learn spiell cheke rootine either...
There are still places in the world that the men go out on frozen lakes with saws and cut block ice for the ice house... but you knew that ...right?
What's your secret? With all the rain up here many seeds aren't taking well where they thrived last year. Tips?
I waited to plant till that warm week after Memorial day for the summer crops. The corn, peppers and tomatoes I started in pots, but since I wrote that (with this week of rain), the lettuce is exploding and the chile peppers and tomatoes are looking just so-so. The beans are still doing good. They are the only items I started in the beds from seed, and seem to like the area pretty well. I got them at Comstock & Ferre, if you know where that is.
I also use a liquid fish & seaweed based fertilizer before and after any transplanting. I also have raised beds with plenty of mulch on top and peat moss mixed in with the soil.
My sister gardens just south of FResno and went out the other day to check on her tomatoes and came nose to nose with a big old Gopher Snake laying in the shade under one of them. I told her snakes like tomatoes too but she wasn’t buying that so she had her GRAND DAUGHTER haul it way out in the vineyard and the next day it was back on her patio. I don’t want to know what happened next... LOL
Thank you very, very much for all the info. It’s very helpful.
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