On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 09:21:45 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:

On 5/30/2014 9:28 PM, bluechick wrote:
On Fri, 30 May 2014 12:01:46 +1000, Fran Farmer
wrote:

What sort of things are you interested in growing?

Right now we have a couple of varieties of peaches, lots of rabbiteye
type blueberries, Celeste and LSU Purple figs, several thornless
blackberries (and about a zillion wild blackberries with mean thorns
and dewberries), 1 raspberry as a test, all sorts of tomatoes
(mostly heirlooms), several types of peppers, and bulbing & bunching
onions. We're getting the tail end of the English peas now though
some are still trying to flower even though it's getting way too hot
for them. The sugar snaps just finished producing. Most of the
blueberries were transplants of bushes we had at the old house and
they had to recover last year from the ordeal. Same for the Celeste
fig scions we dug up when we moved. I don't know if the figs will do
anything this year because they were frozen back in February and are
coming back from the root. The blueberries seem to have recovered
completely from the move and are covered in berries. I'm keeping my
fingers crossed that another calamity won't hit them. The hailstorm
and small tornado we had Wednesday didn't bother them at all though
the hail tore up several tomatoes.
Our blueberries were hit by a late frost in early May and dropped their
blossoms. We planted them last year and harvested about a gallon of
berries that year.

I checked our blueberries in the main garden (not the two container
types on the deck) and they're still hanging in there. Not quite
ready to pick. The container ones are producing well but I spied a
muskrat on the upper deck not far from the blueberries. I scared it
and it scared me! I don't know if he was making plans for those
berries or not but he's going to have to fight me for 'em.

We had a fall garden with spinach and many types of lettuces. Didn't
bother with broccoli, cauliflower or cabbage last fall though we've
grown them in the past.
We've got so much broccoli and cauliflower still in the freezer from the
garden we had in Louisiana, we moved here in November 2012 so you can
imagine how full that freezer is.

A full freezer indeed! We used to grow cauliflower and broccoli every
fall but the last time, years ago, we were hit so hard by cabbage
loopers that it put me off growing them for years. We used Dipel
(bacillus thuringiensis) on all the brassicas but we couldn't keep
ahead of the caterpillars. Now that we live in a rural area the bugs
are even worse.

We also finally finished the big herb bed and have several types of
basil, common chives, flat-leaf parsley, French rosemary, borage (in
the herb bed and also next to the tomatoes), several varieties of
thyme, Bergamot and pineapple sage, and Texas tarragon because I gave
up on French tarragon a long time ago in this climate. The smaller
herb bed won't be finished until the tiller comes back from the tiller
hospital and then I'll stick the container-bound spearmint in there.
What are you calling Texas tarragon? Would that perhaps be Mexican Mint
Marigold? I took the Mexican Mint Marigold out and bought a "Russian
tarragon" from a local nursery, seems to me it tastes more like real
tarragon than the other ones. True tarragon doesn't like the weather
here. I grow both Greek and Spanish oregano, the Spanish version is what
you find in the grocery stores. Always grow lots of big leaf basil,
rosemary, common thyme, flat leaf parsley, fernleaf dill (I use the
fernleaf in dill pickles or anything that requires dill as the seeds are
to strong for my taste.) Lots of scallions, aka bunching onions. This
year we bought several Texas 1015 sets and they are bulbing nicely. Lots
of garlic and onion chives, we plant them around fruit trees to keep
peach borers away.

I've grown both "Mexican tarragon" and "Texas tarragon". Everything
I've read seems to indicate that they're the same plant, both billed
as Tagetes lucinda, but they aren't the same. I've learned that there
are two varieties of Tagetes lucinda, one that is tall and one that is
short. No other differences are noted.

What's being sold here as "Mexican tarragon" is not worth growing. It
never comes back after the first year even though it's supposed to be
a perennial, has thin curly leaves with a sprawling growth habit,
flowers in late spring, and has only a hint of tarragon flavor. It's
more like a scrawny marigold. My two "Texas tarragon" plants are
absolutely perennials, grow upright, have long 3-in. straight leaves
that are anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide, have a strong tarragon
flavor and don't bloom until late summer. I've been able to find it
at only one local nursery. I got a second one from them this year, 5
years after getting the first one from them. Everyone else around
here has the Mexican variety I mentioned above. It's an entirely
different plant and I'll be damned if I can find any book or website
that makes note of the difference. In my experience growing it,
Mexican tarragon and Texas tarragon are not interchangeable.

I've tried Russian tarragon and I don't remember if I liked it or not.
I do wish French would grow well here but it hates our climate. Last
time I grew it I had to treat it as an annual and it didn't do well.

I knew I'd forgotten some herbs in my last message! We have Greek and
another oregano here that is probably Spanish or Mexican. Both do
well here. The Greek is trying to take over the whole corner of the
herb garden so I guess it's happy.

I will try planting garlic scapes around our peach trees this fall.
Thanks for that tip! I'd forgotten everything I'd learned about
caring for peach trees. My parents had a peach orchard when I was a
child but the trees finally died out. We didn't try to grow them at
the old house since the umpteen thousand squirrels we had there would
have taken all the fruit anyway. As for garlic chives, I won't
plant them again. They took over one of our original raised beds at
the old house and choked out some of the herbs.

On the deck, we have some container-type blueberries (Jellybean and
Peach Sorbet - both corymbosum types, which are new to us, and they're
the first to produce ripe berries this year) as well as some lemons,
oranges and limes. Those citrus trees did surprisingly well last
year, even though they took over the sunroom in the winter.
Our only citrus is a kumquat tree, still rather small but heavily in
bloom at the moment. I miss my old fifteen year old Meiwa kumquat, it
was very prolific, so much so that we ended up composting about ten
gallons of fruit as we had eaten and made marmalade and jellies from
many more pounds, still eating some of it two years later.

I saw a kumquat at the same nursery where we got our second Meyer
lemon. Almost got it but we've run out of room on the deck. Sounds
like you had wonderful luck with that Meiwa. I know you wish you
could have brought it with you to the new house. I feel that way
about the big Celeste fig we had to leave behind. I hope your new
tree treats you as well as the Meiwa did.

The rest of the stuff we're growing this year are mainly to attract
bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

My lovely wife grows salvia near the vegetable gardens, salvia attracts
bees of all sorts. Our biggest pollinator this year are bee flies,
there's hundreds of them in the garden every day. Here's info on bee
flies: http://www.cirrusimage.com/flies_bee.htm when bees are scarce
these little guys really help out.

I haven't seen them here. I wish they'd visit us since that site said
they don't sting or bite. We're lucky to have a beekeeper next door
and his girls have been busy with the citrus trees and the clover. I
assume they were pollinating the tomatoes but I never did see what
critter did us that favor. A few of our salvias are blooming and are
covered in butterflies which the hummingbirds chase away. They don't
like to share. I'm waiting for the bee balm to bloom. That ought to
keep everyone happy.

Your gardens sound like what we used to have until we got old and
decrepit. I started gardening with my parents during WWII, as did my
wife, in the family "Victory Garden," didn't garden while I was in the
military but as soon as we married we were building gardens again. Keeps
me sane most of the time.

Gardens feed the soul as well as the tummy.

George

bluechick