Drought

For the past few years we in the south have experienced a drought which seems to linger on. I feel most fortunate to have a deep well and very good tasting water. Each time I have had it tested it comes up with flying colors. Some of the rain we had a few weeks ago encouraged me into believing we were out of the dry spell, but it is still with us.

One of the unfortunate signs is that a golden delicious dwarf apple tree is all brown. I have watered it so much in the last few years, I really wanted that tree to make it, but it has not. Some furry critters have taken all of the fruit that it has borne in the past. I like to dedicate trees to people I care about and this one was dedicated to my second grandson. Sometimes odd things happen to plants. I had sown cosmos seeds around a lot of Asiatic lilies planted inside of a brick enclosure. They did not sprout, however yesterday I noticed one cosmos outside of the bricks. It just seemed to come up overnight and it has buds on it. Now, how did that happen !!!

Years ago I planted a plum tree up near the vineyard and I killed it with kindness. Wanting to give it every advantage, over a period of one summer I dug an 18 inch trench around the drip line. As I dug each section I filled it with kitchen scraps and a little lime sprinkled over the scraps. That tree just went bonkers ! It had so much fruit on it the next spring that it looked abnormal. And I think it was, as the next year it just told me in tree terms, I'M DONE !! Not one green leaf appeared. Now that hurt ! At one time I had five apple trees. One by one over the years they all died. The one that hung on the longest was an early June apple which had striped apples on it. They were almost mealy, not crisp at all. I think the woodpeckers just pecked it to death as there were drilled holes all over the trunk. In reality the woodpeckers were after some kind of bug or something under the bark.

Where I failed with the fruit trees I have had success with leyland cypress. Way back in 1991 I had some high school boys help me plant 11 of them at the west side of my house. In this year 2009 they are way higher than my house and I believe they do shield my house somewhat from the winter winds coming in from the west. During the hot summers, they have grown to the point where they shade the west side of my house. As the sun passes over my house and onto the west side of the trees there is a short time, about three hours when the space between the two is in full sun. Since I have no garage this is a nice spot to park my car in the late afternoon since my driveway goes all around my house. I have learned how to guage walking around my house 20 times to convert into 1/10 of a mile. Since math is not my strong point I could be off a bit on that !!! Perhaps my son will bring his portable mesuring devise up and confirm (or deny) this.

I heard the weather man say last night that in a few days we could expect late afternoon storms. Well, bring it on !! And with it cooler days. Our Georgia gardening guru told one of his concerned listeners that her tomatoes were not turning red because it had been too hot. It seems the fruit not shaded gets too hot to produce what causes them to turn red. I noticed that in my own garden. After picking market baskets filled with huge red tomatoes earlier in the summer, now it has slowed considerably. There are lots of green ones, which does hold promise for red ones eventually. One year I saved green tomatoes when it got too cold for them outside. I actually had a fresh tomato on Thanksgiving day. Now that was fun !!
Since the tomatoes are all that is still flourishing in my veggie garden I am continuing to water then and that is on my list of chores this morning.

The fall fruit is coming in now and yesterday I made fig strawberry jam. I have harvested a few of the almost seedless grapes planted by Mr. Huffman. They are waiting in my fridge to be put into my new juicer which is still in its box. So, as long as we do get a good rain which the weather man promised I can still enjoy the fruits of my labor. As they say, hope springs eternal from the human breast, and I say, especially after a drought.