Long Island Rain Dance

Last week's forecast showed days on end with no rain until, Maybe Tuesday - just a quick thunderstorm. What happened?  I think it was my Long Island Rain Dance.  Here's how to do one yourself - it will work in most typically rainy states when the tomatoes are just coming out - and there's a fear of draught:

1. Wash your car
2. Purchase or use all your soaker hoses to make sure the tomatoes and cukes don't get wet leaves,   JUST the roots
3. Run from front yard to back, using a timer to make SURE everything is watered - but not waterlogged. 
4. Ignore all the polution indexes, heat stroke, etc.
5. Without you knowing it, that's key, as you've been running to and fro, staving off death and destruction of precious food for the table, your spouse has been - watching Channel 12.  Does he tell you that they NOW call for heavy downpours?  No he does not - until you've completed your ENTIRE rain dance. 

Try it - I'm not saying it's pleasant - but it works!

Going WILD - Raspberries, Mulberries, Shepherds Purse - with Caveats

If the mosquitoes and poison ivy are in full fling - so are the wild raspberries. Wearing an old oversized Tshirt as a collecting basket (just fold up the front hem and voila! a fruit basket) I collected about 4 cups-full from our neighborhood patch. 

Last month I collected a LOT of mulberries from a wild tree and made a jam with lemon juice, grated ginger and mulberries - ludicrously tasty. 

As for Shepherd's Purse shown above - I've always called it Shepherd Purse - it's a weed - and if you have a yard - you have it don't worry.  Now that the lettuce has bolted (turned to seed) and is bitter, this weed makes a great substitute. 

On a danger note - be aware that deadly nightshade - either black or red little berries with tomato plant-like leaves - vining its way, typically through the wild berries and just about everywhere

To your left is a weed called Giant Hogweed - don't go NEAR it - grows up to 14 feet high and is a federally listed noxious weed whose sap can blister skin and even cause blindness.  Do not mow, cut or weed whack the plant, as it will just send up new growth and put you at risk for being exposed to sap – the same kind of thing that would happen with poison ivy or sumac. If you get sap on your clothes or body, wash it off.  There's been only a few plants sighted on Long Island, but if you see it call the DEC Hogweed Hotline at (845) 256-3111

Jul 17, 2011 - A Long Island Draught

We haven’t had a good soaking for about a week, and looking at the forecast even with a thunder storm or two, we are in Draught Mode. Tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini are hard at work producing fruit – and there’s no rain to sustain their efforts.

I have a love/hate relationship with our in sprinkler system. These are the lawn and shrub grower’s friend, and a vegetable growers enemy. Vegetables want their roots watered but their leaves, that are often
quickly crowded together, rather large and fragile, dry. Vegetable leaves are susceptible to all sorts of diseases and bugs and when its muggy and you add water to the mix, you are asking for a disappointing crop failure.

I worry when I go on vacation and have to leave the system on – it’s a crap shoot whether or not I’ll have produce when I return.

There are several soakers on the market that are good for vegetable plants and I found the FLAT Gilmore soaker to be the best one – it’s not the most expensive either! I recently ordered some more on Amazon the other day but I purchased the first one from Home Depot just to test it out and see if it was worth it. There’s one that looks like a typical hose made out of rubber tire material – this doesn’t bend at all – so if you have a 50 foot straight line perhaps that will work for you. I have raised beds and need a soaker that easily bends, and doesn’t stop water due to a kink in the line.

There are drip systems you can set up that are thin tubes you connect like Lego’s from plant to plant, which is great if you have a container garden. This would require hundreds of dollars of parts for my 20 raised bed system – crazy! Plus there’s the raspberry canes and grapes that aren’t in beds. With the soaker hoses I don’t need 20 hoses, I can move the hoses from place to place, I can adjust the amount of time and the amount of
water for their unique needs as well. For instance, tomatoes need a solid soaking and then need to completely dry out for a few days while squash plants like pumpkins need more frequent watering without so much soaking.

TABOO

Some women cheat on their men, drink on the sly, or stride around the house with their husband's suits on, or simply try to bump them off.

I wait until my husband's left for work or going to a long-time-destination, say the DMV. When I'm sure he's gone, I sneak into the garage put on leather gloves and an apron and take out .. the saws and clippers. I'm a Secret Pruner.

If I'm smart... and lucky... he never founds out. If I'm careless and he catches me it's as if I've taken an axe to his own human limbs as accusations and hurt feelings fill the (now breezy because there's SPACE between the branches) air. It's like Samson and Delilah without the singing and the hair.

You'd think I had a little cred as the onsite gardener for over 25 years. I've explained trees and shrubs grow... a lot... and the property will resemble Germany's Black Forest without an ongoing trim. The trees arch their backs like giant limbo dancers searching for a scratch of sunlight. Look up - you'll see - you probably need a good hacking too.

When I'm done with my surgery I make SURE every tool is put away, every leaf and all the brush is either tossed behind the shed or elsewhere concealed. The dog never lets on but my kids will spill the beans if given a chance, the tattlers!

Don't tell him - it could mean the end of getting the remote - ever.

Picture Credit - Stunning Paper cutting http://elsita.typepad.com/allaboutpapercutting/threedimensional/