The Old Folks Home

[ozexpat]

The first time I ever drove on the road was on my way to get my driving license. Someone from our farm was going to town so I drove his 1980 monster Ford station wagon to the DMV.

It was covered in red dust from our 26 mile driving lesson on the way to town - 6 miles was dirt.

The examiner took one look at the car, new I lived on a farm and just made me drive around the block.

He did not know that up until that day all I had driven was a Massey Fergusson 30hp tractor. We did not have the traditional farm "ute". Now you will have to Google a holden ute.

 

[ozexpat]

A world without cilantro would be like European food before Columbus went to the Americas.

Imagine Italy without tomatoes. Switzerland without chocolate. Me without tortillas.

It would be like living in Finland.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I bought garlic at the big box hardware store and planted them three weeks ago. I have three to four inch green spears coming up! I planted them against a wall in the back of a flower bed. What do I do to/for them this fall and winter? Will they die back with frost? Do I harvest any this year, or wait until next fall? If you can't tell by now, I have ZERO experience growing garlic! I am in Zone 7b.

They'll stay green. Mulching won't hurt. You should be able to harvest in about 100 days. During the winter, you can snip off a few tops for mild garlic flavored greens. When the tops yellow and topple over they're ready. Knock over any tops that are still upright. 3 days or so later dig and let dry in a cool shady spot.

You can also interplant some things with them since they're light feeders. Perhaps some spinach or leaf lettuce which will overwinter under the mulch and be ready for the first warm days of late winter.

I've never driven so no tickets. When we first moved to this village(45 years ago) - it was among the highest scorers of traffic tickets. Our chief of police made sure all the out of area parking stickers and license plates got ticketed for something . The village residents were ignored. He was later imprisoned for murdering someone's wife (husband didn't want to pay for divorce). They even had a made-for-tv movie about him.

His downfall was the fact that everybody ,with dirt on their hands, dumped cars(stolen & then owner recouped from insurance) in the canal. The canal was so over loaded with motor vehicles that they were sticking out of the water. After many had been pulled out - they found the Cadillac with the murdered wife in the trunk and followed that back to our police chief.

The only good thing that came of his "reign" as police chief was that our village was the safest place around. No petty crimes, no burglaries, no murders- clean as a whistle. He owned the town and kept most of his antics out of the area.

Our little village is mostly surrounded by forest preserves and canals and river etc. Lots of murder victims discovered but murdered elsewhere and dumped here. There IS a difference. When I did my major walking I always feared I would find some body. It's generally the joggers or dog walkers that find them. Once I did find a dead cat in a brown grocery bag but, that was the last time I did any investigating.

Sounds like an episode of 'Sons of Anarchy'.

The first time I ever drove on the road was on my way to get my driving license. Someone from our farm was going to town so I drove his 1980 monster Ford station wagon to the DMV.

It was covered in red dust from our 26 mile driving lesson on the way to town - 6 miles was dirt.

The examiner took one look at the car, new I lived on a farm and just made me drive around the block.

He did not know that up until that day all I had driven was a Massey Fergusson 30hp tractor. We did not have the traditional farm "ute". Now you will have to Google a holden ute.

We had a not road ready '47 ford pickup I drove around the farm as an adolescent. I was working the Ford 2000 tractor when I think I was 13 but I was pretty short so it wasn't easy reaching the controls.
ute looks like a version of the Chevy El Camino.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

A world without cilantro would be like European food before Columbus went to the Americas.

Imagine Italy without tomatoes. Switzerland without chocolate. Me without tortillas.

It would be like living in Finland.

Or vanilla, potatoes, corn, beans, peppers, pineapple, et. al..

 

[Wisher1000]

Quote: Thank you, CC, this is exactly what I needed!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I edited the post referencing companion/interplanting

 

[Highcotton]

Thirty years ago Haughton, outside of Shreveport,was a very small sprawling town. It was put on nationwide newspaper that it was 4th in the nation for speed traps. I'm the only one in my family that never got a ticket. Besides my Daddy. All my kids, grandkids, SIL's. Everybody. Always had good police dept and things got done. Mostly, they waited for the tourists that went to the lake. Road repairs, new police dept, new city hall. They never looked back. Still giving them out.

We don't have to raise taxes, just pay by the offense.

In the early 70s the governor of Georgia had billboards erected on both sides of Ludowici Georgia that said beware you are entering a speed trap.

 

[Highcotton]

Thank you, CC, this is exactly what I needed!

You shouldn't even need the mulch in Tuscaloosa. Garlic is one of the easiest things to grow. The hardest thing was figuring out when to harvest it down here. My garlic doesn't keep very well for some reason.

 

[Highcotton]

I'm a wimp, lol, got a nice fire going right now and it's only 65 degrees outside!

-Kathy

Kathy, you should be able to give us some pointers on growing Garlic.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You shouldn't even need the mulch in Tuscaloosa. Garlic is one of the easiest things to grow. The hardest thing was figuring out when to harvest it down here. My garlic doesn't keep very well for some reason.

I was thinking that too but she said she is in 7b. I'm in 6 a/b (depending on which chart) and it hit -19 last year but usually if it's really cold the snow cover is all it needs to protect it.
You mean doesn't keep after harvest?
It's a light feeder but does appreciate lots of organic matter. It needs well drained soil and fairly acidic. 5.5-6.8.