Holiday thoughts

I have offered to in the past but, honestly, I don't have much interest in gardening. I know that is almost heretical, to some people, but I just don't get it. I do dig up and turn the vegetable garden for summer planting, but that is her interest exclusively. She grows tomatoes and basil. We get enough out of that to make pesto and sun dried tomatoes for an entire year. We used to do the same thing in containers, when we lived in California. No mess and it didn't get weeds, or snails. There isn't any poison ivy in that area so there is not much chance of her getting any there. The rest of the yard area is fair game for contamination. I mow the lawn and that is about it. If you can believe it, this is the first time I have ever owned a lawnmower in my life, at 66 years of age. In San Francisco, there is no space for lawns as the houses come out to the sidewalk in most of the places we lived. When we did move to the suburbs, we lived in a house that had a completely bricked surface that included flower beds and a pool. All surrounded in brick. No lawn whatsoever. There was about 1/4 of an acre that was left to naturalized plantings, but it was on a hillside and couldn't be mowed if you wanted to, without tying yourself to a tree at the top. I loved the low maintainece lifestyle, that resulted. I see people riding around on their mowing tractors here with a couple of acres of grass, and I think of that as the tyranny of the lawn. I guess I am just a city boy caught in the web of small town existence. Give me a small yard or concrete or brick and I will have much more time in the sewing room and work shop. John

Your poor dear wife :( I send her my best. Years ago, while visiting my former husband's sis and BIL in California, we were having a BBQ in their backyard. Somebody was burning something, leaves, trash, we didn't know and didn't pay much attention except the smoke was blowing through their backyard. Just as we were sitting down to eat poor Louis started to wheeze and his eyes were beginning to get red and puffy, in a matter of minutes we were rushing him to the hospital. Turns out whoever was burning their yard clean-up was burning poison ivy and that was carried in the smoke. Louis was highly allergic to this and he not only had it on his skin but also throat and lungs. The guy was a mess, his skin reaction sounds just as you describe your wife's. The doctor said that the same was happening to his lungs, throat and even inside his mouth and nose. He spent

4 days in the hospital. This is nothing to mess with and each reaction can be stronger. Maybe you should suit her up in Haz-Mat gear and respirator next time she goes to garden. Bless her heart.

Val

Val

shall see when the good weather returns in the spring.

John

shall see when the good weather returns in the spring.

There are several hydroponics shops near us in NW England and they definitely have some customers that look like I would not want to get on their wrong side.

We ourselves use NFT (nutrient film technique) to grow tomatoes, basil and sweet & hot peppers in our greenhouse and very nice they are too. No weeds, very few bugs and no remembering to water them as the water flows all the time. The basil is particularly successful with huge flavoursome leaves which make excellent fresh pesto sauce.

Lizzy

Apparently the pot growers tend to keep their lights on 24 hours a day and that is definitely not what you expect from an empty warehouse! Because we grow our hydroponic veggies in our greenhouse in what we call "summer" we have no lighting or heating costs and our water pump is just that from a little garden fountain.

Lizzy

John, there still may be a way for your sweetheart to enjoy tomato growing without harm to herself. There's some sort of hydroponics nursery here that produces magnificent tomatoes and there's no dirt or weeds on the place. Of course, this is Mississippi and we're apt to try anything. There's even a project in Collins that is using chicken litter to generate electricity. So very glad to hear that your DW is surely healing, poison ivy is scary stuff. Polly

;)) We have had a spike in pot-growing arrests. Apparently it is now harvesting time. Used to be there were pot forests in our nearby wilderness areas. Until the dry weather came and dried everything out except for the irrigated plots of pot. The sheriff's dept and DEA would send up their airplanes to scout for pot plots.

Yep, hydroponics are big business. They create forests in middle class neighborhoods, in upscale houses.

G> hydroponics is pretty big time here in So Cal. The folks that use it

Actually, she doesn't have problems in the dedicated garden growing area for the tomatoes and basil. It is in the shrubs and other ornamentals that surround the house. That is the area she has to stay away from. I keep the veggie area clean when it isn't planted in veggies, and so this stuff doesn't have a chance to get rooted. Being from San Francisco, I know all about hydroponics. The local electric company is in cahoots with the police so that when a customer has a large spike in electric usage, a friendly word goes out to John Law, and gets a knock on the door and a one way drive downtown. All those grow lights and water pumps drink up gobs of electricity and so it is easy to tell who is doing what by the size of the electric bill.

John

Yep, there are catching lots of folks that way. Being the genius my relative is she was on the early side of the trend. Years ago. These folks actually make good neighbors since they rarely live in the house, keep the yard up and try to cause little attention. They are probably coming to a neighborhood near you soon!

You keep your dh wife out of the bushes! Poor woman. Taria

John wrote:

Lizzy! I have wanted a greenhouse for the longest time. Are you able to grow tomatoes in the winter? That's my ultimate goal, but I've heard you must have some type of grow-lights to make the days longer. Is that true?

Leslie, Missy & The Furbabies >> hydroponics is pretty big time here in So Cal. The folks that use it

It's it weird how all things are relative when you think about it. Someone growing marijuana doesn't seem like a big deal to me anymore. Since that horrible meth thing has got so common, people might be "cooking" that stuff right next door, and that is scary. One house here actually blew up. Though I think mostly their "labs" are rural. Sherry