[Ag-eq] Garden

[nfoster at extremezone.com]

Jewel:

You are such a good story teller!

What is the Cox's Orange apple like?

I haven't heard of that one before.

Nella
Quoting Jewel <jewelblanch at kinect.co.nz>:

> 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
>
>
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