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Malcolm Mann
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Recent Entries to this Blog What's up in that yard.
Posted: 03 Jun 2013

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What's up in that yard.

Category: Urban olericulture | Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 8:44 pm

I am a recent inhabitant of The Toledo area and still trying to adapt to my new environment. My wife and I now live with her mother in a much bigger house than I am formerly accustomed to and a MUCH smaller lot.
The soil is a lot sandier and the shade a lot denser.
Judy(my M-I-L)has graciously allowed me to remove the yews from the south side of the house to make room for an intensively planted strip of tomatoes, peppers and greens along with ornamentals such as sunflowers and flowering tobacco.
I have 40 years of experience in the hort industry and after factoring in my upbringing on a dairy farm in SE Indiana, I feel it safe to say I am a lifelong gardener.
I have held jobs with the lable Horticulturist which I always corrected as Gardener. Just because you shlep encyclopedias doesn't mean you can put things in alphabetical order.
Dad grew tomatoes and his goal was to have a row of Better Boy Tomatoes trained to stakes as pretty as a picture.
In other rows were Mom's choices, not as tidy, a mish-mash of favorite varieties, among them were the 'Purple Cherokee's I thought beat the 'Better Boys' all hollow.
Today my tomato pallette is decidedly darker. 'Purple Cherokee','Black Prince','Black Cherry','Anannas Noir', 'Indigo Rose','ISU Blue','Purple Russian','Berkley Tie-dye'are the black & blue varieties. 'San Marzano','Beefsteak','Tumblin'Tom' are my red varieties,'Hillbilly' and'Red Zebra'finish out the list as bicolor red/yellow types.
My peppers are mostly super hot types. I really like green and red sweet bell peppers, so I have a few.
But as I reached the end of my Forties I had more and more arthritis in my joints. Capsacin increases the natural endorphins in your system, so I have found a really spicy dish a couple of times a week helps me maintain better pain control. I am sure there are pills out there i could try, but I have found that EVERYONE knows some macho type that "never has had a pepper too hot". I have made many believers in the last couple of years, 'Bhut Jolokia','7-Pot(red&yellow)','Chocolate, apricot,& white Habanero',are all pretty steamy. The after taste of habanero is mor fruity than other types of peppers so this year I have included 'Trinidad Perfume','Rocotillo',and 'Aji Dulce', these are near heatless habaneros that stress the flavor over the heat. Toledo has a lot of greenhouse growers that have a diverse choice of heirlooms, so I think my veggie pallette will get bigger.

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