Gardening

Nip to swell the remaining fruit

Today an accumulation of bits
and pieces, none of them related,
except that they all have something
to do with gardening.

The one exception is “himself”
(who as you know has as little to
do with gardening as humanly
possible). The story on him is that
he is now at home, and making a
fine recovery.

Those apricots that worried me
so much are now picked, sorted
over, the best ones bottled, the
small ones split in half and out in
the sunshine, being dried, and the
remainder stewed to be made in
apricot pies.

I didn’t weigh the crop, but
would estimate it about 30 Ibs.,
which is a pretty nice returm from
a tree badly in need of summer
pruning.

A question in regard to squashes
(Hubbard in this case). The caller.
wondered if she should just turf
her plants out, since all they have

_ produced so far have been male
¥ blossoms.

There is no doubt that squashes
seem late starting to fruit this year,
but once a baby squash forms, it

@ will grow very quickly and should

x

mature before cold weather
appears on the scene. Cold
weather! What an ugly thought!

Still talking about winter
squashes: When several melons
start on your plants, I'd remove all
but two of them, and nip off the
growing tips on the end of the
vines. Now all plant energies
should go into swelling the
Temaining fruit.

‘They are lying
about in a
thoroughly

arunken manner,
most of them flat
on their backs, so
_fhis affernoon.. .
* I’m going to dig
them, tie their fops
in bunches of five
or six, and hang
them up fo dry’

Along the same lines IJ think its
time to stop the upward growth of
your indeterminate tomato plants.
Take an old pair of scissors and cut
off the growing tips on the end of
each branch, in each case leaving
the leaf beside the tip. Its still too
early to start removing most small
tomatoes, to encourage the growth
of huge ones.

This is strictly optional, anyway.
Some people prefer a lot of small
tomatoes, rather than fewer giant
ones.

I had an absolutely delightful
letter from a reader who is also
interested in saving flower seeds to
be scattered along the sides of the
Island roads.

Bless her heart — she was
willing to package each variety
separately, but I had nothing so
exotic in mind, just a desire to
collect as many, and as great a
variety as seemed likely to be
happy along roadsides, and then to
scatter them wherever there
appeared a chance of their surviv-
ing.

She was much more thoughtful
than I, concemed that in scatterng
domestic flower seed we might be
interfering with native wild plants,
but she also felt that where verges
had been destroyed during road
construction it would be a kind-
ness to the landscape to help repair
it.

My friend Bunty Watt called to
ask if I could put something in this
column about a couple of keen
gardeners who have a roadside

stand where they sell surplus vege-
tables to raise money for the Save
The Children Fund.

The Smythes who live at the
comer of Downey and West Saa-
nich Roads in North Saanich
would appreciate your bringing
them any surplus you may have,
especially things such as Yellow
Transparent apples (which are
usually so hard to find) so that
they may be sold (by donation
only), all funds raised going to the
Save The Children Fund. The
street address is 966-Downey Rd.

This is one of those wonderful
ideas that come along far too
rarely. I’d like to think most of us
will have extra apples or tomatoes,
or com, or Zucchini ... something
surplus which could be shared,
and at the same time raise money
for a very worthy cause!

If your storage onions are still
under the soil, you should scrape
away enough dirt so that at least
half the bulb is exposed. This
helps to ripen the onions, and
prepare them for winter keeping. I
gave up on ours.

They are lying about in a thor-
oughly drunken manner, most of
them flat on their backs, so this
afternoon, when I have finished
talking to you I’m going to dig
them, tie their tops in bunches of
five or six, and hang them up to

The clothes line seems a con-
venient spot, but if the weather
changes, they will have to be
tushed inside. Once onions have
been dug, they must NEVER get
wet. More on this next week.

Thousands of Canadians
are waiting for the
gift of a
life-saving transplant.
The Kidney Foundation
of Canada
urges you to sign an

|

TheReview

Wednesday, August 8, 1990 — A113

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