[Ag-eq] Garden

[Jewel]

My sister, Deslie, brought me a box of apricots and peaches, the variety of which she said was
Strawberry Ice.
They are a very large peach , keep well in a bowl or in the fridge which is something rather unusual
for stone fruit.
I am in the process of transforming what used to be my front lawn into an orchard .
So far, I have 2 apple trees:  Brayburn and Cox's Orange, a  French Sugar Fig, and a plum and a pear
, which have both been there for several years.
I sent my local garden shop person haring all over the place in search of the Strawberry Ice peach
but to no avail.
Finally, I rang my brother, Evan, who used to work on the DSIR orchard in Cromwell Central Otago 
where the * Strawberry Ice peach is grown.
He is, officially, retired, but still lives on the property and is employed by the department on a 
casual basis.
I asked him if he could get a cutting of the sought for peach that he could bud onto a donated root 
stock?
His reply that he was, as I spoke to him, looking out of the window at acres of *
Coconut Ice peach trees!  That explained why Mitre10 had come up empty-handed on the * Strawberry
Ice.
He said that he could get one started but, as the best month for grafting was February, it would be
some time before I would get fruit.  It was a pity that I hadn't rung some time ago as acres of
Coconut Ice had been pulled out, and he could have got me a mature tree.
I rang Mitre10 and corrected the name of the peach.
Mitre10 got me a Golden Glow apricot, but, again my fruit tree savvy bother found that the Golden
Glow is not self-fertilising.  Its best companion is a rather poor apricot called Garden Annie.  The
fruit is not much to write home about, but as it will ensure that I get loads of good apricotsfrom 
the Golden Glow , it
is welcome and will be a patio tree on my sun deck.
Returning to my mention of my, now non-existent, front lawn.
Last September, I bought a Masport Home Gardener which is a tiller able to tackle heavier tasks than
a rotary hoe.
I tried to get a tiller that had a clutch so that, rather than constantly turning it off if I wanted
to clear grass and weeds from the tines, I could, simply, slip it out of gear, but I found that
there was nothing with a clutch on the market.
Fortunately, unlike a lot of machines that are started by pulling a cord, the Masport Home Gardener
is a very easy starter;  however, there were modifications that I wanted made so that it would be
safer for a blind person to use.
Just to set the picture, the tines rather that go round and round in a flat configuration as in a
rotary hoe, the Home Gardener has a set of 4 tines that go over and over, and will pull the machine
forward with little help from the human gardener.
With the spinning tines 3 feet out in front of me, I had visions of them tearing up all my treasured
plants etc, so the first  thing I had the modifier do was to reverse the tines so that the machine
would walk itself backwards towards me.
Great idea!:  what!  When I yanked the cord and the tines got a grip on the ground, the machine 
leapt
back, with such enthusiasm, that it knocked me down;  so there I lay on the ground with these 
vicious
tines spinning around and around just a few inches from my unprotected person.
Fortunately, as I went down, still having hold of the handles, I had pulled the tiller over onto its
side so that the tines were out of the soil, thus stopping the beast from lashing about.
Luckily undamaged, I got myself back onto my feet and having stopped the motor with the hand 
throttle, I got it upright,
but, rather than acting on my first thought of continuing with the job, I took a moment or 2 for
reflection:  just long enough to recognise that the was a borderline between sheer bloody mindedness
and sheer bloody stupidity!
However, I was not prepared to admit that I was beaten: more modifications ahead!
#1: I had the tines returned to their original configuration;
#2:  I had the original cut out switch removed from the petrol tank and replaced it with a switch
right next to the throttle on the handlebars;
#3:  I had the tines covered with a steel hood:  actually the bottom of a stainless steel sink:  and
this extended beyond the tines by a couple of inches so that the machine would stop if it came
against any solid object.  The tine cover could be easily removed if not wanted or to clear weeds 
that
might have got caught around the tines.
Well, there you have it!  The machine is safe to use and I am very proud of the great job I have
done in removing the front lawn and cultivating the ground where it used to be!

        Jewel