{"id":92,"date":"2008-05-12T06:07:25","date_gmt":"2008-05-12T14:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=92"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:02","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:02","slug":"edibles-on-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/edibles-on-the-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Edibles on the Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDIBLES ON THE WAY
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My goal this year is to incorporate edibles among my ornamentals and the plan is beginning to take shape.\u00a0 Today I set out an entire flat of June bearing strawberry plants in two separate sunny beds.\u00a0 Since strawberries and roses favor the same conditions, I put the latter near a couple of nice healthy rose bushes.\u00a0 The strawberries are close enough to the roses to share the sunshine, but not so close that they will be overshadowed by their larger neighbors.\u00a0 I may plant some divisions of catmint in the same area in the hopes of deterring varmints. \u00a0Of course the cats may flatten the strawberries as they roll themselves in the catmint, but I’ll figure out some other creative way of dealing with that.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The strawberries are strategically positioned in locations not generally frequented by the groundhog.\u00a0 However, I did see at least one cardinal and several blue jays eyeballing me while I installed the plants.\u00a0 I don’t know about cardinals’ IQ’s, but blue jays are no fools.\u00a0 I will put a note on my master list about buying some netting to cover my strawberries as soon as the fruit turns palest pink.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My father used to mulch his strawberries with either pine straw or regular straw to keep the berries high, dry and free of botrytis.\u00a0 My beds are generously covered with shredded pine bark, which should do the same thing.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I’ve had a dwarf blueberry bush for several years, but this spring it has finally come into its own.\u00a0 The branches are covered with scores of bell-shaped, pinky-white flowers.\u00a0 If all of them are pollinated, I might have a pint or so of blueberries.\u00a0 Since the blueberries are close to one of the strawberry beds they can all go under the same net.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “What,”\u009d you might ask, “are you going to do to stop the raccoons from eating those blueberries?”\u009d<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Our”\u009d raccoons, which live just on the other side of the property line in a disused garage and the hollow of a big oak, are immense.\u00a0 Bigger by far than the groundhog, they are also at least ten times smarter.\u00a0 No matter how thoroughly we secure our garbage cans, they get into them.\u00a0 Since these raccoons are ambitious suburbanites like everyone else in the neighborhood, we figure they send their offspring to MIT for engineering degrees.\u00a0 We also think that the combined technical challenge and ever-changing smorgasbord contained within our garbage cans will prove more alluring than the berries.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We also have blackberries, which require absolutely no work.\u00a0 They emerge from the ground every year right beside a large holly tree and proceed to clamber up the outside of the tree.\u00a0 The white flowers ornament the holly and the fruits grow large and sweet.\u00a0 I figure that the blackberries were either “planted”\u009d by passing birds, or are descendents of some canes that were installed when the hollies were mere saplings.\u00a0 Either way, the canes are sturdy and the fruits are sweet.\u00a0 For some reason neither birds nor raccoons show any interest in them, even when they are dead ripe.\u00a0 This is particularly amazing give the fact that the holly tree, with its sturdy branches and thick covering of leaves, is a virtual songbird condominium.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I planted butterhead lettuce in pots on the porch for ease of harvesting and also to deter the raccoons.\u00a0 With my insights into raccoon psychology I figure that it’s much more fun for enterprising young raccoons to roll a garbage can than to climb steps.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Some of the young lettuce leaves should be ready to pick soon.\u00a0 Now I am hoping that the daily temperatures don’t go up into the nineties and stay there, causing my beautiful lettuce to bolt and become bitter.<\/font><\/p>\n

Right next to the lettuce is a big pot of basil that is coming along nicely.\u00a0 Since basil is part of the mint family, its odor and\/or taste is unpleasant to many animals.\u00a0 I love pesto sauce, so I have planted a lot of basil.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

The only thing left on my agenda is tomato plants.\u00a0 I waited too long to start heirloom varieties from seed, so I will have to make do with young plants.\u00a0 Everyone raves about Brandywines, so I may start with those.\u00a0 I have space to plant them in the ground, but I think that I may be so busy keeping raccoons, groundhogs and birds away from my fruit, that it might be better to put the tomatoes on the porch, right by the basil.\u00a0 All I need is a really big pot and an attractive tomato cage.\u00a0 I am thinking of using some kind of ornamental tuteur for that purpose.\u00a0 Whatever I decide, the job has to be done within the next week.<\/font><\/p>\n

I would love to add cantaloupes, zucchini, pumpkins and even corn to my repertoire, but I think I’ll wait and see how this year’s small scale venture into edible crop production goes.\u00a0 The raccoons and I are waiting eagerly for the results. <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDIBLES ON THE WAY \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My goal this year is to incorporate edibles among my ornamentals and the plan is beginning to take shape.\u00a0 Today I set out an entire flat of June bearing strawberry plants in two separate sunny beds.\u00a0 Since strawberries and roses favor the same conditions, I put the latter near a … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1688,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/1688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}