George Shirley wrote:
On 5/25/2014 7:38 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
On 5/25/2014 4:36 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
The berry patch looks like a a snowdrift ... They're blooming like
mad , and they're loaded with fruit . It looks like clumping them
is going to make it a lot easier to bloodlessly harvest them .
Actually , it's going to be a good year for all the wil;d fruits
here . Muscadines are loaded with fruit , blueberries actually
low-bush huckleberries for those who're anal about names are
loaded with fruit too . I'm watching the Mayflowers a mandrake
species too , but see no blossoms yet . Might be because of the
late cold snap - there are tons of these scattered on our land ,
and if they do fruit this year we'll be making some jelly .
And I'll be getting our first beehive next week ... I'm so excited
about our
garden/orchard/wild fruits this year I could just explode !
I've not seen a low bush huckleberry in about 50 years or more. I
reckon in my part of SE Texas the locals got carried away with
mowing and clearing. I used to love those things back in the
forties and fifties, we had never heard of or seen a real blueberry
back then. We used to harvest Mayflowers too. Muscadines are always
good, we also had a wild grape, rather small, that we called a
Possum grape because the possums were always in them. I'm jealous.

George

We have possum grapes here too , but I haven't seen any on our land -
doesn't mean there aren't any , just that I haven't seen 'em . I
plan to rectify that situation . The neighbor down the road has a
nice patch at the foot of his driveway , when the time is right I'll
be getting a start from him . Actually , I think I can clip a stem
at any time and dip it in rooting powder ... but right now I have my
plate somewhat overloaded , with the garden , the orchard , and
building a house - plus running the machine shop part time .

I got tired just reading that last paragraph. Many years ago I had the
stamina to work an eight-hour shift in a chemical plant, come home and
work another eight hours in my gun shop, get up the next morning and
take care of ten acres with goats, cows, chickens, ducks, rabbits and
about a three acre garden. Thought nothing of it then, would kill me
quickly at nearly 75 years of age. To many years sitting in management
chairs. Now we're gardening a small backyard with 128 square foot of
raised beds, two feet wide by 66 feet long along the fence angle, and
a small flower bed with Swiss chard as a backing in the front along
with a pear tree in front and a kumquat and a fig tree in the back.
Sometimes I miss all that work that kept me in fairly good shape and
then I think, "Nah, don't need all that stuff anymore, been there,
done that." I'm teaching the grands and great grands how to do all
the stuff I learned over the years and enjoying the hell out of it.
I'll leave the heavy stuff to you young people.

George

Young people ? I just retired ...

--
Snag