BS: What are we doing in the garden?

Subject: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 28 May 20 - 04:04 PM

The covid has me half cracked, so I'm taking it out on the garden, being as food-productive as possible in dread of a sere recession.

Got kale, got red kale, got Daubenton's kale, chard, courgettes, tomatoes, parsley Italian Giant, got holy basil and bush basil and Little Gem lettuces, beetroot, kohlrabi, potatoes (charlotte, carlos, pink fir apple), gooseberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, blackberry canes (2, thornless), winter savory, mint, sage, rosemary, thyme…

A few flowers too: Brompton and night-scented stock, Italian violet-scented sweet pea, rose geranium, roses (of kinds whose hips make great jam). Going to start a meconopsys (sp?) and some dame's rocket next.

Hoping for a crab-apple tree and a damson tree come autumn…

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 28 May 20 - 04:08 PM

Picking up the dog’s shit.
Apart from that, and cutting the grass, nothing.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 May 20 - 04:15 PM

Everything's bone dry at the moment, so we're watering each evening.
Husband was assiduously hosing the front lawn when lots of our neighbours started clapping for the NHS. He's an awful wag, and I watched him bowing and saying, "Thank you! Thank you!" Didn't know where to put my face (we don't clap)
I've sown lots of annuals to fill up spaces in the borders. I found several packets in a drawer and decided to sow them a few weeks ago. Now the seedlings need gentle watering and weeding.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 29 May 20 - 05:29 AM

I’m keeping the grass down.

I wasn’t going to grow anything this year but a neighbour gave us some tomato (3 x Moneymaker, 2 Black Russain and I forget what else in the 11 plants) and 3 pepper (I’m not sure what) plants. These are in our small greenhouses. We’ve got 5 big tubs ready to take something – I believe 2 are destined to have rhubarb but I’m not sure beyond that.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Raggytash
Date: 29 May 20 - 07:45 AM

I've only got a balcony and pots …………. but I've got beetroot, radish, lettuce, red spring onion, white spring onion, carrots, pok-choi, tomatoes, runner beans, French beans, peas, basil, coriander, bell peppers, chilli pepper and I bought 4 mushrooms kits so hopefully I will have button mushrooms, eryngii mushrooms, yellow oyster mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms.

Fingers well and truly crossed.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 29 May 20 - 07:49 AM

I assume there's going to be a hose ban here soon, but at the moment, at dusk, you can hear the sound of sneaky watering as people trickle a bit onto their plants. Mulch is the secret - the big wind blew down most of my old cardoons, and I've been using the leaves to conserve water on the plants.
The front borders have been infested with wild garlic; I'd like to harvest the little triangular bulbs now and use them all winter - any advice on doing this gratefully accepted.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 29 May 20 - 08:12 AM

Incidentally, my dog - a sheepdog from south Dublin - and his littermate, don't poo in the middle of the garden, but find an isolated place around the edge and away from cultivation. My previous and lovely dog didn't have this pleasant habit; she was also of sheepdog stock but with a taste of Labrador thrown in. Maybe the pure sheepdog is closer to the wild and so conceals its spoor.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 29 May 20 - 08:28 AM

Relaid paths, built a pergola, built portable (and one on castors) plant containers from old pallets, fixed broken garden umbrellas, fixed broken umbrella bases, cleaned and repainted summerhouse, cleaned and repainted old horsebox that is a grandkid's den, created wood frames with chicken wire on to keep the cats off the veg beds, rebuilt some stone walls, mown the lawns, laid a flagged base for a greenhouse after excavating an old drain beneath it, repaired greenhouse after storm damage (it is a cheap tent type one), made a cold frame, painted various things including the bird table, made "pannier" containers out of old window boxes to hang each side of a wall, dismantled other old pallets for wood for future projects, attempted to repair a gazebo with missing parts, rushed outside to secure it when the wind came up while typing this, repaired some garden chairs, tried out layering some willow to form a living wall type hedge, started breaking up an old concrete tank, planning out a water feature..... I may have missed some things.

And relax...

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Charmion
Date: 29 May 20 - 09:01 AM

Thompson, I think your sheepdog was just well brought up.

Our house is a suburban number in southern Ontario with way too many trees -- three huge silver maples and one even huger Norway maple, a silver birch, and an overbearing cedar hedge on the property line to the east. In August 2017, when we took possession, it was even boskier, with large scraggly cedars all over the place, a rotting poplar on the west property line that our neighbour never failed to mention, and two enormous yew bushes overhanging the front porch.

Enter Tim the Tree Guy. Last year, he hauled out six (or was it seven?) of the scraggly cedars and an opportunistic Manitoba maple, barely making a dent. This spring, virus or no virus, the poplar had to go before it decided to clobber Judith-next-door's garage roof, and we asked Tim to remove three more scraggly cedars and the yew bushes while he was at it.

So now we have what looks like half an acre of flower bed in front of the house where the yews used to be, and we're thinking we should have kiboshed about four-by-eight feet of over-enthusiastic euonymus along with the yews.

First, we planted a lovely little rose bush (that should grow into a large rose bush) in the sunny spot left vacant by the unlamented poplar. Then we endured a visit to the garden centre to acquire some foxgloves for the back fence, bee balm and primula for the front of the house, and three Lenten roses (aka hellebore) for a small bed on the east side of the house that gets about three minutes of sun first thing in the morning.

Also parsley and chives because, you know, omelette.

Water drainage is a bit of an issue because we have a stratum of rock-hard clay about eight inches down, so we have been improvising with drainpipe extensions in an effort to direct off-fall from the roof away from the foundation and, incidentally, the plants along the foundation. A week ago, we braved Canadian Tire to acquire two rain barrels, one of which we installed right spung on the corner of the front porch like something out of Ma and Pa Kettle, and the other we tucked more discretely in beside the gas meter at the back. Since then, we've had drought, of course.

From now on, gardening chez nous will be mostly about lawn-mowing and desultory weeding. When I get bored, and that happens routinely every couple of hours these days, I can take a bucket and a trowel and go dig up dandelions and creeping Charlie.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: leeneia
Date: 29 May 20 - 03:18 PM

Your new flowers sound beautiful, Charmion. What's the name of your rose? Will it be big or small when it grows up?

I live in Missouri, which is not a cool place, but I have a very beautiful rose from Canada called Morden Blush on the corner of my front porch. It is mature, about six feet high and three across, with lovely white flowers which shade to pale pink in the middle. It is so beautiful that people walking down the street take pictures of it.

This year I am growing my tomatoes in large plastic boxes. I hope to sidestep the weeds and the soil fungi that way, and I hope the boxes are big enough.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Senoufou
Date: 29 May 20 - 03:51 PM

More watering this evening. Everyone in our village was outside doing the same. All our rainwater barrels are empty, and there's no hope of any rain for about ten days at least. We're on a water meter, so every drop has to be paid for.
A hosepipe ban has been threatened if this drought goes on.

We have lots of beautiful wild foxgloves which have appeared in all our borders - purple, pink and white ones. A free gift from the birds! And our gigantic mullein (Verbascum) is about to flower (Huge yellow spikes and massive blue-green leaves - lovely plant)

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: The Sandman
Date: 29 May 20 - 05:15 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvf32MGLWys lesleysarony.
uncle jo presumably not stalin
i am growing runner beans spuds kale beetroot french beans raspberries, mulching my spuds with lawn clippings

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: The Sandman
Date: 29 May 20 - 05:16 PM

i have also painted the outside of my house

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Charmion
Date: 29 May 20 - 08:48 PM

You’re lucky, leeneia, to have a Morden Blush rose! Our federal Department of Agriculture produced a wide variety of hardy roses, including the Explorer series (we used to have a John Cabot climber and a Jens Munk that was incredibly bristly). The Morden group were developed at the Agriculture Canada research station in Morden, Manitoba.

Our new rose is of a type the developer calls a “landscape” rose, meaning it’s a bush rose that should not require the TLC demanded by hybrid tea roses. We hope. I don’t remember the cultivar name — shame on me. It has double flowers that are yellow and pink at the heart. I do hope it thrives ...

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Charmion
Date: 29 May 20 - 08:51 PM

Holy cats, Sandman, you painted your house? You da man!

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 May 20 - 09:35 PM

Lettuce and a few herbs -- spearmint, thyme, a couple of basils -- in a 29" high elevated box. Flowers in the yard are doing well.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 30 May 20 - 05:53 AM

"What are we doing in the garden?"
In my case too ***** much i we have an acre of yough ground on a treeleaa plain with shallow topsoil over a limestone plateau on the West coast o Ireland - any trees wee planted have to be pushed up straight and propped up regularly
Having said that, we haven't done too bad and have anaged to sthree quaters surround the garden (sic) with a windbreak - we're getting there
Our tiny fenced and hedged patio is now a haven for tits of all sorts, robins, chaffinches, collared dove and more recently, a couple of goldfinches, with an unseen stone-chat chattering in the background a wren in the bank, and the occasional crane flying over
Now we have devise a cunning plan to drive away the ****** sparrowhawk
Haven't seen the hedgehogs for a long time but spot an occasional hare and a fox leaves has left a trail across the plot from one side to the other
Must go and strim the drains
Jim

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 30 May 20 - 06:35 AM

My favourite 'garden' saying from Dlan Thomas's 'Under Milk Wood
Polly Garter "Nothing grows in our garden but washing"
Jim

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Charmion
Date: 30 May 20 - 10:01 AM

Lots of rabbits in our garden lately, included the dreaded Genghis Bunny who likes to behead the flowers just as the buds are about ready to open. I'm about ready to call in the coyote on Genghis before he gets started on the rudbeckia that he ate down to the stalk.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Donuel
Date: 30 May 20 - 10:32 AM

cutting 2-3 inch thick bamboo stalks and stacking for removal

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 30 May 20 - 03:43 PM

Lady Hillary is going into a mixture of hydroponics nd soil on our 4 x 8 foot porch. She's got a mix of scallions, onions, potatoes, lettuce, peppers, basil and probably a few volunteers. The Thai basil is doing better than the inside basil. We have tomato seedlings indoors at the moment.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Senoufou
Date: 31 May 20 - 04:18 PM

I don't know if anyone on here has one of those 'flame-throwers' to kill weeds? If so, please be extremely careful in this drought. One of our neighbours now has her mother-in-law and her partner billeted with them, because the partner bought a flame-thrower this afternoon and foolishly played with it in their garden (another village not far from us)
He managed to set alight his entire garden, the wooden shed and then their oil tank exploded. The fire spread to their house and several neighbours' houses. Theirs is now a smoking ruin. Three fire crews had to attend (20 personnel). Luckily nobody was injured or burned, but oh crumbs!
They have an elderly rottweiler who has now come to stay with our neighbour, and all their fish died in the pond, because the water was so hot!
I don't think flame-throwers and oil tanks are a good combination!!

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: JHW
Date: 31 May 20 - 04:47 PM

Watering with watering can. Easier than rigging up the hose. Flowers, grass and weeds all growing well. Never dared try veg. Critters will be waiting for the day...

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 31 May 20 - 06:15 PM

Everyone's doing so much! Black belt - I'm exhausted after reading your work!
One thing I'm doing because of the drought - making compost using the trench method - you dig a 2m x 2/3m x 2/3m (the last is depth) trench, and start throwing your kitchen waste and waste paper and cardboard (nothing cooked, though, and no meat, raw or cooked) into it, covering each load of waste with a spadeful of the earth you've removed.
You fill up the first third of this in about a fortnight, then move to the middle section for another two weeks, then the third section. By the time you've finished the third section, the first is ready to be used.
You need to water it to keep it moist.
Worms come haring in from across the garden to dine on the goodies you're throwing in.
You can cover it with a piece of plywood, though I just have some chickenwire to keep off my friendly local foxes.
The compost made by this method is magic, and really enriches your soil.
I'm going to have to find some source of mulch to keep the moisture into the beds - the only source I have at the moment is some big leaves from a couple of giant plants that got knocked over by the high winds.
And I've learned why you should be patient about sowing your broad beans - by the time the Ice Saints were finished, mine were sprawling adolescents and they're lounching around the soil instead of standing up straight. (I meant lounging, but somehow I like lounching, a combination of slouching and lounging.)

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 31 May 20 - 06:17 PM

Oh, and if you make sourdough bread, the spare levain - the starter that you throw out every couple of days as you're getting it nice and bubbly - has a fantastic effect on the compost, making it form soil faster, and also giving it wonderful microbial life. Normally I wouldn't put flour in compost, but sourdough starter is an exception.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 May 20 - 08:21 PM

"What are we doing in the garden?"

I want to respond, "I know what you're doing and it better not be with my daughter!"

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 04:08 AM

Cutting grass mostly, as we have put all our flower beds to grass. Too old and arthritic to tend them myself, so rather than weep at the weeds, I now cry at the grass.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 04:33 AM

Lots of people here have the same problem John. Three couples in our road have covered their garden with permeable membrane and put slate chips over it all. Then they've put several attractive pots of flowers out, which 'merely' need watering and feeding. Looks quite nice, and very easy to maintain.

I do like our two lawns though. The green sward is refreshing to the eye. (Husband mows them, not so 'refreshing for him though!)

I see that the large fire caused by the flame thrower is now reported online in a local newspaper. There's a photo of the fire crews' tenders and the smoke. (Dereham Times, garden fire at Hockering)
Oil tanks around Norfolk can be so dangerous. (So can flame-throwers!)

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 09:43 AM

We like to sit on our porch and gaze at the lawn, which our teenaged neighbour Georgia mows for $30 a time. I dread the day when she goes away to university -- but she has a little brother, and with luck he will take over her clientele!

I'm not good at crouching since I busted my ankles back in the early '90s, and my knees are not too clever either, so I have to stoop from the waist to pull weeds. Fortunately, Himself still can crouch and kneel as much as he wants but, unfortunately, the only weed he can (or will) identify is the dandelion -- the rest are my job.

Life is so not fair.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 10:04 AM

Heh, Raparee!

People around here are covering their former lawns with gravel or cement, too, which makes me sad for two reasons: it messes up the water table, and it starves out the poor birds.

When I get too old to crouch, should I live that long, I think I'll make raised beds the easy, cheatin' way - using pallets covered with breathable membrane, and topped with pallet collars, and filled with cardboard then weeds then more cardboard then a topping of about a foot deep of good compost. That way I'll be able to garden at my own height.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 10:56 AM

I’ve a fair bit of grass to cut but we don’t really have a lawn. Even the bit we can refer to as the lawn is really part of a farm track and right of way. It’s really nice being round the back there. This is looking out from the bench across to the field (potatoes this year) and looking the other way from our veg beds and tubs to the bench and pigsties.

As for the ability to do things. Mum always was the gardener here but now mid 80s, she needs the help of a wheeled walker to get round the back now. She’s round there at the moment doing a little bit of tidying up round the pigsties but she can’t do much and of what she can do, what she’d have done in 1/2hr a few years back might take all day now.

I’ve got my own limitations too, eg. I can’t bend to weed but at the moment, I can strim and mow without problem. Sometimes we have wondered if we will keep this area going another year (also there is a gardener who does an hour a week) but we’ve managed it so far – with some simplifications, eg. flower beds have gone to grass.

Oh well, I’ll have to see what mum’s doing for tea in another hour or so. Not making it – I’ve got the second day of a veg curry I made for that – but whether she wants her meal in or out doors.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 02:22 PM

First thing when people started panicking over toilet paper, I was already locked down (age and asthma and a tendency that when I get sick, I get very very sick), and so I panicked over potatoes, and turned half of the front lawn into a lazy bed. Spuds are coming up now, randomly, but I love it, even though it still mainly looks like a large grave in the front garden, and even though potatoes are probably a mad thing to grow.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 02 Jun 20 - 05:41 PM

Well, today I planted out the Galway Bay rose I bought in Lidl last summer and that's been sitting there giving me dirty looks ever since, and potted some Italian violet sweet peas into a pot already containing a geranium cutting. A friend called around with a bit of oregano and I gave her a few of the same sweet peas. And since the bush basil isn't looking too happy, I sowed a bit more in a lidded transparent blueberry carton in compost and vermiculite.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Jun 20 - 06:11 PM

Living in Idaho, potatoes are not a worry. In fact, in early May some of the farmers were GIVING AWAY literally tons of spuds because of the collapse of demand from the restaurant industry because of the lockdowns (you had to come get them). Those that weren't taken were turned into compost or animal feed. A shame, but tons were also carted into towns and food banks and given to the needy. Much farm produce here still is being given away. Mind you, I'm talking about Idaho only.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 02 Jun 20 - 06:18 PM

There's potatoes and potatoes, though. I'm growing pink fir apples, Carolus and Charlotte.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 02 Jun 20 - 06:19 PM

Oh, and a couple of years ago I grew some called Inca Gold, or maybe Maya Gold - little yellow-fleshed potatoes, sweet and nutty and melting on the tongue. A breed from Peru, apparently.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Jos
Date: 03 Jun 20 - 05:30 AM

Didn't all potatoes come from Peru or thereabouts originally?

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 03 Jun 20 - 05:49 AM

I'm looking out at the soggy sight and wishing I'd never told my elderly neighbours that I would see to trimming our hedges. :-}

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Donuel
Date: 03 Jun 20 - 08:50 AM

Here come the Mullberries and Blueberries and Raspberries later.
I will Till and prepare the veg garden for next year

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 03 Jun 20 - 09:18 AM

Yes, Jos - in their earliest incarnation in Ireland they were known as An Spáinneach Geal, or The Bright Spaniard, suggesting they came in from Spanish ships returning from South America.
The Peruvians still grow many, many varieties of potato, using the same lazy bed method used in Ireland - I assume that cultivation method came in with the same Spanish sailors.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 04 Jun 20 - 05:00 AM

I'm generally pleased with the things I've grown from seed, but heavens, they do fall back when I plant them out!

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 04 Jun 20 - 05:12 AM

Building fence and roof for my vege garden to keep those bastard possums from eating everything (especially the parsley).

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 Jun 20 - 05:42 AM

I always grew Maris Piper and Désirée - good multi-purpose spuds, and pretty disease-resistant too.
No need to toil with vegetable-growing now though - the entire village is like a giant market-garden, and people can't wait to give one their surplus fruit, salad stuff and vegetables for free. Perfect!
(We also give away huge quantities of rhubarb and Bramley cooking apples. But we get much of it back in delicious crumbles and pies.)

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 04 Jun 20 - 06:40 AM

Looking around my room it occurs to me that five of Ikea's Billy bookshelf doors (if given a little damp-proofing) would make the basis of a pretty nice greenhouse.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 04 Jun 20 - 07:03 AM

I usually grow tomatoes (often Ailsa Craig, Ferline, Roma and Tumbling Tom), pepper (Topepo Rosso) and Aubergine (Hansel) from seed but not much else… Little Gem lettuce is another, oh and cucumber...I give my excess plants away.

It’s a long while since we had a main crop potato but we do usually enjoy a small sampling of our own new or salad potato. Charlotte is a good candidate for us.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Thompson
Date: 04 Jun 20 - 07:16 AM

I have a few Pink Fir Apple in a potato growing bag out the back too; another couple of those bags came with it, and I'm going to put carrots and leeks in one, and have another failed attempt at scorzonera.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 04 Jun 20 - 07:32 AM

I see they have a watering machine out on the potatoes in the field today. The ground is pretty dry round here (North Norfolk). We’ve mentioned cutting the grass before but the grass is parched and dying in patches here at the moment. A bit of rain forecast for the next few days though.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 Jun 20 - 07:43 AM

Breckland here, Jon, and like you, we're dry as a bone. Neighbour-across-the-road always gets up at 4am (!!) to do her vegetable-selling rounds of the villages, and she's just told me it was raining a tiny bit then, but not enough to help the land.
Our lawns too are nearly dead, but we're on a water meter, and our rainwater barrels are empty. I just keep the bird baths filled - the poor creatures are so thirsty!
To think we were up to our knees in rain over the winter!

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Charmion
Date: 04 Jun 20 - 08:48 AM

We are finally getting a handle on the drainage issues in our little bit of suburban paradise. When it rains during a Perth County summer, often as not it comes down in stair-rods, accompanied by lightning and fierce gusts of wind. It's called the Lake Effect; the storm cells form over the Great Lakes and move east on the prevailing wind, and they can be really intimidating when you hit a series of them on the highway.

But at home a rainstorm means huge quantities of water tumbling off the roof and into the garden, which is about eight inches of tilth on top of hard-pan clay. If your house is in the wrong place, your drainage issues will never let up and you have to get drastic -- one of the houses we saw when house-hunting had two sump pumps and a French drain in the front garden alone!

This place doesn't need a French drain, thank God, but in the three years we have been here, we have installed a full set of eavestroughing and drainpipes, window-wells in all four basement windows, and a patio in the back of the house that takes the flow of off-fall water away from the foundation.

Now we're doing the last phase of the plan, with two rain barrels and rather a lot of soaker hosing. Of course, now the rain barrels are in, it has hardly rained at all.

Himself has almost stopped grumbling about growing vegetables, but it took two full summers of pointing out the sun requirements of even the humblest tomato. We have five huge trees on our property (there used to be a lot more) and a large cedar hedge, so only the front edge of the lawn is in full sun throughout the day. If the world goes completely to pot, we could plough it up for veg, but that doesn't make a lot of sense in this very rural area where every expedition takes us past half a dozen farm gate stands offering all manner of temperate-zone delicacies, professionally grown by people who know how to keep the pests off their crops.

Subject: RE: BS: What are we doing in the garden?
From: Senoufou
Date: 04 Jun 20 - 12:19 PM

Well, I've just emerged from my afternoon nap and whoopee! It's pouring with rain! I can almost hear the land singing with joy!
Charmion, when I stayed with my aunt and uncle in the sixties in London Ontario, there were several fearful thunderstorms. I'd never seen or heard anything like it and was a bit terrified. But I loved the hot sun and swam in every single Lake during my several weeks' stay!