Onbei
a farm
-And v
bazar
Joyce B
Attention. Your attention,
please.
We interrupt this regularly
scheduled column with an
emergency announcement
Dandelions have been spotted
blooming in southern York Coun
ty. Repeat dandelions have been
spotted blooming in southern
York County. In the event of a
full-scale explosion of these
yellow-headed invaders, sirens
will sound and you should stay
tuned to local stations for further
emergency information.
Egads! Weeds already? Deft
GW |iP/z>,^
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nitely an emergency. Bad enough
that the residue of last season’s
weeds still litter the garden, with
out the added insult of fresh dan
delions already on the move.
And I don’t even have all my
seed catalog orders mailed off yet
One went on its way last week, but
at least another is still in the plan
ning stage.
Admittedly, the emergence one
sunny afternoon two weeks ago of
about a half-dozen cheery, yellow
dandelion blooms scattered on the
south slope of the lawn prodded
me into action with a full-blown
RD #6, Allentown, Pa.
New IntelUThik™ monitor system watches all
the important tractor functions and alerts you
immediately of any malfunctions.
Improved Sound-Gard* body offers more than
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New John Deere tractors,
dearly the leaders...and pulling
away.
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dose of spring fever. One immedi
ate remedy was to quickly toast a
small batch of soil in the micro
wave and poke into it the few
tomato seeds on hand in my sparse
inventory of seed packets.
Another response was to gather
the fistful of seed catalogs piling
up on a kitchen chair and get seri
ous about the reality that six
weeks of this year are already
history.
Ten cherry-tomato seedlings
are now sprouting their first set of
true leaves. A planting of snapdra
gon seeds is just emerging. And,
daily I haunt the mailbox, await
ing shipment of the major supply
of raw materials for an upcoming
season of pleasure and pain in the
planting patch.
Once upon a time, the perfec
tion of pictures and lavish use of
adjectives -- like “brilliant," “glor
ious,” “enormous,” “stunning,”
“sweetest,” and “pant” ~ suck
ered me into believing I could get
results at least faintly resembling
those glossy, colored ones in the
catalogs. You know - nary a bug,
nary a weed, nary a rot spot on
anything.
Just the fact that the folks in the
picture-perfect catalog gardens
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 17, 1990-B3
never have dirty knees or wore
muddy, scruffy sneakers should
have alerted me to the fantasy of it
all.
Experience, laced with at least
one annual disappointment over
some “New!, Improved!” some
thing or other, has tempered those
illusions. Now, mostly tried-and
true varieties go on my order, stuff
that has proved its mettle through
years of drought, periodic floods,
bug-chasing chickens and fre
quent patrol by our posse of cats.
So Early Girl and Rutgers
tomatoes are on the list, varieties
which have never failed to per
form acceptably even in weather
extremes. Long-Keeper tomatoes
went on the list, too, despite two
years of problems. Problems were
not with the seed, but the seed-er.
First year I lost the pack of seeds.
Last year, I planted the seedlings
out too late. Or frost came too
early.
Burpee’s Hybrid cantaloupe
has been another ever-dependable
variety in our garden. Even last
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(2) 6600 Hydros
(2) 6600 Side Hills
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Reduced
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JD 7000 12-Row Liquid Planter
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season, when rain and lack of sun
shine turned another variety into
tasteless mush, it yielded firm,
sweet breakfast fare.
And, not to forget our favorite
string bean, the Royalty strain.
These bright-purple beans which
turn green after a minute or two in
boiling water are great fun to share
with skeptical friends. Disbeliev
ers are convinced the moment
they boil their first batch of these
“magic” veggies. Plus, they’re
delicious, freeze well, and their
purple color is a turn-off to bean
beetles.
Just for fun, the order included
a pack of miniature pumpkin
seeds, a decorative-type die size of
a small gourd. One catalog whim
sically suggests scooping out the
insides of these and using the
shells as dessert dishes.
Right The day 1 do that my
family will know I’ve shed one
too many old brain cells.
Probably the result of shock
from having dandelions bloom in
January.
Fertilizer w/Fill
JOHNOCCRC