[Ag-eq] Gardens

Sat Jul 1 17:09:19 UTC 2017

Hi Nella.
Yes, the nightshade family includes tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and
potatoes.  As well as the poisonous deadly nightshade, which is why
Europeans thought for a long time tomatoes were dangerous!

My squash never even came up.  Very disappointing.  Neither have my zinnias
or Mexican sunflower.  I haven't gotten anywhere near as many beans as I
planted, either.  All in all, it's not a great year for my garden.  But my
tomatoes are setting fruit, so that's encouraging.  And the kale is doing
well.
I did an experiment last fall.  I brought a pepper inside, as well as a
couple tomato cuttings.  The tomatoes died, but the pepper survived, and now
has small peppers on it, back in its pot on the patio.  

The daylilies are blooming, along with the coneflowers and daisies that are
out front, away from the critters.  The roses are actually still blooming,
too.  I guess they like the cool weather we've been having.  And the
summersweet is getting ready to bloom.  It smells fantastic.
The apple tree is loaded with apples.  I've found a cookbook with a zillion
pie recipes, including plenty of apple, so I'm as ready as I'm going to get.
The blueberry bush has berries that look almost ripe.  Who will get them
first, me or some beastie?
Tracy

-----Original Message-----
From: Ag-eq [mailto:ag-eq-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Nella Foster via
Ag-eq
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2017 11:20 AM
To: 'Agricultural and Equestrean Division List'
Cc: Nella Foster
Subject: Re: [Ag-eq] Varmints

Tracy I know possums will eat cat and dog food if it is left out.  They will
also get into garbage cans.

Is the potato also in the night shade family?

We are having a dreary rainy day.  It is good, now I don't have to water the
garden.

Yesterday a friend picked up Cruiser to take him to her farm until after the
fourth.  He does not like all the fireworks here.  She took him last year
and he was much happier.  I will medicate the dogs and drink wine on the
holiday.  It will sound like I'm in a war zone.

For some reason most of my cucumbers died; they just never looked very good
this year.  I'm going to have to buy cucumbers from a local farmer to have
enough to make pickles.

The tomatoes are loaded with green fruit and blooms.  I'm starting to get
lots of peppers.  I'm still getting some lettuce, kale and Swiss chard.  The
spinach was a failure this year; I think it was just too wet earlier in the
spring.  The yard long beans are going to town, so will soon be eating lots
of those.

My herbs are looking good and I've been using them in my cooking.  The day
lilies have been blooming and are beautiful.  The different varieties of
roses are also blooming and the surprise lilies are next.

Well that is all that is going on here.

Nella
-----Original Message-----
From: Ag-eq [mailto:ag-eq-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione
via Ag-eq
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2017 7:27 AM
To: 'Agricultural and Equestrean Division List'
Cc: Tracy Carcione
Subject: [Ag-eq] Varmints

We had the animal catcher out, setting traps for a couple weeks.  We asked
him if he could take what he caught elsewhere and let it go, and he said he
would.  All he caught was 2 possums.  Well, 3, but we told him he could let
the last go here and stop.  I think I can live with possums.  Maybe a
mistake, but we'll see.

I had no idea possums lived in suburban Jersey.  I thought they hung out in
the woods in the South, but no, they're very widespread.  They eat anything
they can get.  I'm hoping they might eat some squirrels, or giant bugs.

I'm disgusted that my neighbors apparently can't tell the difference between
a groundhog and a possum, which are quite different.  Unless they actually
did see groundhogs, but they don't live at my place.

It's frustrating that I can't observe the wildlife that's apparently all
around me.  But that ain't going to happen.  And, if I could, I don't think
I'd be living here at all.  I'd be out in the country, and probably working
outside, instead of sitting at a desk all day.

I looked up possums in Wikkipedia.  They're interesting.  So far as I know,
they're our only native marsupial.  They're immune to snakebite.  One of the
original colonists described a possum as having "head of a pig, tail of a
rat, bigness of a cat."  The animal control guy says they look like big,
ugly rats.  I thought they could hang by their tails like monkeys, but they
can't.  They can use their tails to carry stuff, though.  Pretty handy.

I've made a mental list of things the varmints eat and things they leave
alone.  They don't like lilies, anything in the onion family, and any
strong-scented herbs.  They love any greens, including mustard, but maybe
not kale.  They like coreopsis and coneflowers.  They don't seem to like the
nightshade family, tomato plants, for instance.

Not sure how I can use this list, but I'm giving it some thought.

Tracy

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