Carl Wayne’s Weekly Columns and Newsletter   August 15, 2008

 

 

 

 

 

Civilian Fitness BOOT CAMP! For more details and 2 free workouts, Call Sergeant Les (901) 592-7097

 

 

This week:

 

From the Collierville Victory Garden:

Year-to-date 969.2 + 102 Monday + 78.2 today new YTD total 1149.4 lbs!!!

WE’RE OVER A THOUSAND POUNDS. ONE MORE THOUSAND TO GO!!!

 

These birds are flying all around town eating dragonflies per John Walko:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Kite

 

Our precious granddarlings are back in school. It’s good to see them happy and busy.  Soccer and baseball practice are in full swing and roller hockey registration is next week.

 

I don’t understand the problem with Russia & Georgia. Just get BHO to call Putin and tell him to quit it, or call the UN and tell them to handle it. That’s how he says he’s going to do it when he gets in office.

 

A friend posted a much appreciated VOTE FOR CARL note online:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FedExLegends/message/377

 

Corey is number 5 in these team videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5BLp4bPtVg

 

Mimi and I will be at the Bodock Festival next weekend in Pontotoc MS. Come by our Bodock Post booth on the square on the Post Office lawn.

 

 

 

Column / Short Story:

 

Tainted Tomatoes                                                       June 17, 2008

 

“We are usually hit not in the side of the head, but squarely between our eyes.”

~ anonymous

 

What? No tomatoes on my hamburger? No salsa made from tomatoes? No BLT? What is the world coming to?

 

You can’t buy a tomato in our town. News channels reported just yesterday a new case of poisoning of a poor unsuspecting soul by salmonella bacteria after eating a tainted tomato.

 

Apparently even a generous dose of salt or thick slathering of Hellman’s mayonnaise will not kill that potent a bacterium.

 

We’ll all have to wait, and except for we backyard gardeners, have to do without our favorite veggie, actually a fruit: a berry. We should have seen it coming.

 

One can hardly imagine the scope being the same as the Asian bird flu where millions of chickens have been killed and disposed of, mostly just to be safe.

 

And worse, one can imagine the unthinkable. Terrorists may have found a way to poison Americans or at least scare the heebie jeebies out of us.

 

Well, I better stick with what I know something about and can do something about which is tomatoes. I raise fifteen varieties of mostly old timey heirloom tomatoes in my backyard. Me and Mimi and our granddarlings will not have to suffer for lack of tomatoes.

 

We as a society need not have this problem either. We choose to eat food produced who knows where by who knows whom and transported thousands of miles to our stores. My how convenient. But how dangerous!

 

To paraphrase a famous quote: Imagine whirled peas, in a local farmers market. We could buy locally grown produce from known sources. You can know the farmer who grew the fresh produce that will be on your table tonight.

 

It will be so fresh and at its peak of flavor that children will be tempted to partake and discover they actually like veggies. And raw is better. You can thinly slice a bowl of most veggies and serve chilled along with ranch style dressing or my favorite: bleu cheese.

 

 

 

 

 

Locally grown produce will also be in season, will be multiple varieties of each kind of veggie, and will be nutritious heirloom varieties instead of anemic hybrids. It will have ripened naturally instead of being picked green and shipped for days, and in the case of tomatoes, turned red (not ripened) by being gassed with ethylene.

 

The market will have not only local farmers but ordinary backyard gardeners like me who come to sell and swap and chat and renew the old time sense of community.

 

While we have no such market in my town, the age old concept is coming back and spreading widely across America. The concepts of eating local and living sustainably are catching on. It’s a matter of health and nutrition and national security. We must do it.

 

Ain’t God good!

Carl Wayne Hardeman, Master Gardener

mymaters@yahoo.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An OLD column/newsletter:

 

A Midsummer Stroll In the Sun at the WTC                           Aug. 14, 2007

 

“Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.”

~Noel Coward & Joe Coker

 

Maybe because I was born and raised in the hot humid South, I am supposed to say something like “heat don’t bother me” when asked why I am out in today’s 100 degree noon sun . A record high 106 is forecast for Memphis, but we are twenty-two miles in the hinterlands and in a smaller heat island. It was 73 on my patio this morning when the Memphis airport registered 77 degrees.

 

But today it is not too humid, a light breeze is blowing, and I’m feeling guilty about that Almond Joy I ate to chase the hot plate lunch from the cafeteria. I had been so good at breakfast and ate the fruit and cereal Mimi had for me.

 

There was a small crowd and an unusually low average IQ at the Table of Knowledge in the cafeteria today, basically just me. So I had time to spare to walk back to building 80 after circumnavigating the lake.

 

Exiting building 50 to the north I saw a skink. Since they are carnivores like me, there must be enough bugs and worms nearby for them to eat. I imagine it lives in the English ivy, which covers the wall under the windows on the southeast corner of building 20.

 

One wonders if we could be more colorful and name the buildings. If this were Colorado, the buildings would be named for mountains. I suggest bird names, and may start calling building 80 Kingbird.

 

It is very dry, but most of the WTC is irrigated. I saw very little wildlife. Besides the skink, I only saw a few dabbling ducks, a cardinal, a juvenile robin with its yellowish breast, an eastern kingbird, a sulphur butterfly, a painted lady butterfly, and a swallowtail butterfly. Wikipedia says dabbling ducks are “…so named because its members feed mainly on vegetable matter by upending on the water surface…”

 

The lake level is so low the irises are above the water line. I imagine the catfish have ticks on them.

 

The morningglories are doing well on the bamboo trellis over “the rock.” They could use a drink of water today.

 

 

 

The great swards of monoculture grass are closely cropped. The creek banks in the southeast corner are chemically scoured and eroding badly. One wishes for pleasant meadows and creek banks and biodiversity and more of Nature’s beauty to enjoy.

 

The fields behind Kingbird (building 50) have been cleared for the extension of Shea Road and the future Porter Farms subdivision. We may never again see the small herd of deer grazing there. But they cleared the land to build my house, so I cannot complain.

 

On a different subject the sun and rain and soil have yielded a beautiful bountiful harvest in our volunteer garden on South Rowlett next to the railroad tracks in Collierville. We volunteers have raised and donated 1,723 pounds of fresh produce to the Food Pantry and the Page-Robbins Alzheimer’s Adult Day Care Center.

 

The people who patronize the Food Pantry seldom get fresh produce, and the Food Pantry had never had any to give away before. A lady at the Food Pantry told us about a client who was given one of our watermelons. He broke it open, sat down on a bench, and ate half of it right there. That’s what keeps us going!

 

We harvest twice a week. The biggest harvest is Thursday mornings when we take it to the Food Pantry. On Monday mornings we take it to Page-Robbins. They take the peas and beans and spread them out on a table. One by one the people who had been sitting alone drift over to the table and begin shelling and snapping and talking.

 

Herbie Krisle of Page-Robbins says:

“Though none of our clients are physically hungry, they are hungry to be productive and active. And that is where this fresh produce has come in. We have enjoyed shucking corn, cutting it off with plastic knives; shelling peas and snapping beans; making homemade salsa. All while talking and reminiscing about days gone by.” This, too, keeps us going.

 

We have begun our fall garden, and soon will have more okra, squash, cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, and crowder peas. Next we will start greens and cabbages and turnips and rutabagas.

 

Fresh produce essentially comes from the sun as plants use photosynthesis, water, and soil nutrients to produce sugar to grow the produce. So who am I to complain about the sun?

 

Carl Wayne Hardeman

rowsofbuttercups@yahoo.com

 

 

 

 

 

Web Gleanings:

 

Humor:

 

People whisperer:

http://www.postpaper.com/rapples080408.htm

 

 

 

Science & Ecology & Medicine:

 

Chicago “Green” objectives and specifics:

http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalEntityHomeAction.do?BV_SessionID=@@@@0932422139.1218464745@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccfadeelhhfgfjcefecelldffhdfhk.0&entityName=Environment&entityNameEnumValue=13

 

Chicago water management:

http://egov.cityofchicago.org/webportal/COCWebPortal/COC_ATTACH/wateragenda.pdf

New all electric Nissan car:

http://www.physorg.com/news137216197.html

 

Dutch town trying new air-purifying concrete:

http://www.physorg.com/news137230645.html

 

Invest in health by budgeting for nutrient-rich food:

http://www.physorg.com/news137233734.html

 

Broccoli good for reversing diabetes damage:

http://www.physorg.com/news137255750.html

 

Organic is best: a contrarian view:

http://www.physorg.com/news137324269.html

 

So maybe Uncle Fred is just weird:

http://www.physorg.com/news137334959.html

 

A very do-able energy savings technology:

http://www.physorg.com/news137416839.html

 

Easy way to hack a networked home or office:

http://www.physorg.com/news137469996.html

 

 

 

 

New book on effects of climate changes on civilizations:

http://www.physorg.com/news137779513.html

 

Mining pavement:

http://www.physorg.com/news137769988.html

 

Extreme carbon footprint reduction living:

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/houses.htm

 

Nursing Home Ratings: Click on State then County:

http://www.nursing-homes-ratings.com/

 

Organic insecticide Neem oil shown to reduce nitrogen fixation by legumes:

http://www.agronomy-journal.org/index.php?option=article&access=standard&Itemid=129&url=/articles/agro/abs/2008/02/a7139/a7139.html

 

 

 

Conservative News:

 

The wreckage BHO will do if elected:

http://bsimmons.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/jerry-molen-on-obama-pass-it-along/

 

Short video of BHO mocking the Bible:

http://www.youtube.com/v/4FCNKwHRCQM

 

 

 

 

Gardening & Eating:

 

Bolivar TN farmer’s market and local Asian farmers:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/aug/15/local-flavor-demand-strong-for-homegrown/

 

Tennessee Master Gardeners Handbook:

http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/wfiles/W099.pdf

 

Memphis Area Master Gardeners website and link to monthly newsletters:

http://www.memphisareamastergardeners.org/

 

Community gardening and best practices:

http://www.communitygarden.org/learn/best.php

 

Cut energy use by eating better:

http://www.physorg.com/news137776425.html

 

U of MS Home Gardening Handbook:

http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1091.pdf

 

 

 

Miscellaneous:

 

Strange creatures:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgv6yuhikB8&feature=email

 

On patternism theology:

http://www.zianet.com/maxey/pattern.htm

 

Big beautiful a capella sing (Diana):

http://www.dianasinging.com

 

Awesome work environment:

http://positivesharing.com/2006/10/10-seeeeeriously-cool-workplaces/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7290322.stm

 

Beware of old tires:

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897

 

Remote controlled Predator plan pilots suffer stress, too:

http://www.military.com/news/article/predator-pilots-suffering-war-stress.html?ESRC=airforce.nl

 

 

 

 

…the end…

Carl Wayne’s Weekly Columns and Newsletter   August 08, 2008

 

 

 

 

 

Civilian Fitness BOOT CAMP! For more details and 2 free workouts, Call Sergeant Les (901) 592-7097

 

 

This week:

 

It’s hot but at least we had a nice rain on Thursday. All the plants in our yards and gardens need rain – more than just town water. We are gathering lots of tomatoes, not as many as my in-laws. Mimi went to see them (her parents, not the tomatoes) on Wednesday, and they sent some home by her so we can see what a basket of normal size tomatoes looks like.

 

Our community victory garden is making loads of tomatoes and peas and squash and peppers and zucchini and butternut squash and a few watermelons. We have big beautiful plants that have never been touched with insecticides. The good bugs and the bug busting birds keep the bad bug population in check. Our total harvest year to date is just short of 900 pounds with worlds more to pick. Our Friday morning purple hull pea bounty will be taken to Page Robbins Adult Day Care Center where the clients will shell them and interact and have a good day.

 

Our precious granddarlings start back to school next week. It’s good to see them happy and busy. The Olympics start Friday. And it’s supposed to be hot and dry all week. But the veggie gardens love the sun and we will water them well. I started teaching another nine week course at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University last week: Advanced MicroSoft Office.

 

Life is good!

 

 

 

Column / Short Story:

 

Early Morning In My Garden                                                June 18, 2008

 

 

“I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses;”

~ from the hymn by C. Austin Miles

 

Early morning is my favorite time to walk about in the modest suburban yard I call my garden. My senses are sharper and my mind clearer from a good night’s rest. Plants are not folded up to avoid the hot sun, and critters are stirring about. And I am without excuse, the Good Book says, as I see His glorious handiwork.

 

A fat toad leapt from my thongs (the shoe type) kept on the patio for quick access. He lurks by the door to catch mosquitoes poised for the chance to dart inside whence the delicious scents of human heat and carbon dioxide emanate.

 

One fennel plant, a butterfly host plant, has been largely consumed by a large striped swallowtail butterfly caterpillar, having escaped so far the eyes and beaks of  birds which visit my feeders daily.

 

The hummingbirds are back, but seldom seen until they finish nesting. My home sparrows are busy at the feeders eating and discussing current events. Mourning doves feed on the ground. They perch on rooftops and coo loudly until I put out feed. The cardinals visit at dusk, knowing I put out more blackoil sunflower seed for them after most birds have gone to roost.

 

Early morning is when my inlaws, Ralph and Opal Graham, do their heavy garden work. Not only do they avoid the effects of the hot sun, but they can rest for the day.

 

This morning I savor the delights of new blooms: rudbeckias (brown eyed susans), redhot poker plants, lilies, gladioli (Aunt Cora’s favorite), my new dwarf hollyhock, verbena, zinnias, and my veggie plants.

 

This mid June morning I picked a zucchini, a Rosa Bianca eggplant, a yellow squash, a bush cucumber, and my 11^th-13^th small but welcome Early Girl tomatoes.

 

I gave my plants a nice shower of water this early morning to help protect them from the debilitating sun and avoid creating damp places for fungi to thrive in darkness.

 

As Master Gardener Bill Colvard taught me to do, I shake each tomato cage to augment their gravity pollination. The last 24 hours have been ideal for tomatoes to set fruit, which only happens when daytime temps do not exceed 86 degrees and nighttime temps are below 70 degrees.

 

 

 

All is good! Now I can go to my job in a beautiful campus for one of the best companies in the world.

 

Ain’t God good!

Carl Wayne Hardeman, Master Gardener, mymaters@yahoo.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

An OLD column/newsletter:

 

Summer Rewards                                                                        Aug 1, 2007

 

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

~Zora Neale Hurston 

 

We are in the hot and humid days of our beloved South. It’s humid yet dry. Much effort, mostly mental, is needed to get out of the house and into the garden.

“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

 

Little work is needed in the garden midsummer other than a little weeding, watering, harvesting, and enjoying the reward of the hard work earlier in the year.

 

The damage from the Easter Sunday freeze is evident. The hydrangeas did not bloom. There are dead ends on some of the branches on Hester, the hawthorn tree. Thornton, the pyracantha, and Finbar, one of the Japanese maples, died.  I don’t know whether from the freeze, or the cumulative effect of the drought and my inattention to watering.

 

We’re eating tasty heirloom maters from the back yard. The Mortgage Lifter maters lived up to the seed catalog description averaging 1.5 pounds each with two to three per vine. Two late vines have two large fruit each yet to ripen. Just the right size for one of Mimi’s delicious bologna sandwiches with real Hellman’s mayonnaise.

 

My two tater vines in straw-filled containers yielded two tasty messes for me and Mimi. I just dumped the containers in my yard cart. That’s easier than digging taters.

 

Our summer flowers are in bloom, including the crape myrtles, black-eyed susans, naked ladies (surprise lilies), dahlia, hollyhocks, parsley, milkweed, hostas, zinnias,

verbena, morning glories, encore azaleas, fennel, batface cupheas, tea rose, daylilies, stock, and wave petunias. One variety of my carnivorous plants has bloom stalks.

 

The hummingbirds hang around the feeders most of the day with a male guarding the feeders and chasing most of the others away. Mimi keeps the feeders full and clean, just like she does me and our granddarlings.

 

We’ve seen few butterflies and bees this year. Usually the bee balm is covered with bees, but not this year.  We’ve seen swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on the parsley and fennel, but sadly, so have the birds.

 

 

 

Summer will be over too soon. The granddarlings have completed their summer sports, vacations, and camps. I know I’m old fashioned, but it don’t seem right for

children to start back to school in hot weather. Youth is too short and passes too quickly.

 

Ain’t God good!

Carl Wayne, Master Gardener

mailto:mymaters@yahoo.com

 

 

 

 

 

Web Gleanings:

 

Humor:

 

More from my favorite Southern humor columnist:

http://www.postpaper.com/rapples072808.htm

 

Your patriotic duty:

http://nationalrantpage.blogspot.com/2008/08/patriotic-duty.html

 

Non frills airline 9:45 video:

http://www.youtube.com/swf/l.swf?video_id=QCz8he36hsk&rel=1&eurl=http%3A//us.mg1.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch%3F.rand%3Dfuoa1ctc09209&iurl=http%3A//i2.ytimg.com/vi/QCz8he36hsk/default.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskJxlkPFLecfyRNr7TySYYdb&use_get_video_info=1&hl=en

 

 

 

Science & Ecology & Medicine:

 

Toyota Winglet rivals Segway:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080801/ap_on_hi_te/japan_toyota_robot_2

 

Add a new “wing” to your home:

http://www.physorg.com/news136967671.html

 

The latest on ADHD:

http://www.livescience.com/health/healthination-adhd/

 

Could the earth be cooling?:

http://deltafarmpress.com/news/robinson-column-0807/

 

 

Conservative News:

 

US intelligence: Iran planning nuclear strike on the US:

http://www.newsmax.com/timmerman/iran_nuclear_plan/2008/07/29/117217.html

 

Hard questions for BHO:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134316/page/2

 

Democrats speaking good about John McCain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSpcxkKlEFA

 

 

 

 

 

Gardening & Eating:

 

I can dream:

http://www.farmersmarketla.com/

 

Tomato problem pix and links to descriptions:

http://www.hfrr.ksu.edu/DesktopModules/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=2062

 

Ithaca NY farmers market:

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=3115

 

 

Miscellaneous:

 

Beautiful pix:

http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=26321

 

Bowell-Hardeman debate on instrumental music:

http://drkenney.blogspot.com/2008/03/boswell-hardeman-discussion.html

also

http://www.network54.com/Forum/187069/thread/1107642712/last-1139965246/”%3BBoswell-Hardeman+Discussion+on+Instrumental+Music+in+the+Worship”%3B

 

Bogard-Hardeman debate on the Holy Spirit:

http://drkenney.blogspot.com/2008/03/hardeman-bogard-debate.html

 

Hardeman’s Tabernacle Sermons:

http://drkenney.blogspot.com/search/label/N.%20B.%20Hardeman

 

Gaither Vocal band et al pix:

http://www.marklowry.com/inside/ramblings/inside_images/2008_images/gvb-reunion/index.htm

 

Ms Cordell Jackson: Pontotoc/Memphis music pioneer:

http://www.steamiron.com/cgrrl/cordell.html

 

Free Windows XP tuneup:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9111531&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1

 

 

 

 

 

India is developing a $10 computer:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=careers&articleId=9110966&taxonomyId=10&intsrc=kc_top

 

 

…the end…

Carl Wayne’s Weekly Columns and Newsletter   August 01, 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week:

 

Last Saturday we and Michael and his family visited Mimi’s parents, Ralph and Opal Graham, in Hurricane MS area in northwest Pontotoc County.  I had to swallow my pride and admit they have a large tomato crop and bring a big bag of them home so Mimi will have at least one big ripe tomato to eat this summer. Lisa and her family visited them on Thursday, Raph and Opal, not the tomatoes.

 

Mimi has been doing her best delicious downhome Southern cooking ever. Recently she made tomato-cucumber-onion-sweet_peppers in oil and vinegar. The tomatoes I grow are perfect size, I am sorry to say, for that dish. She has also fried zucchini, made super delicious sweet tomato soup with elbow macaroni, sautéed squash and zucchini and onions, fried okra, fried taters & onions, cooked fresh purple hull peas and butterbeans, peeled and sliced maters, made frozen fruit salad, and made hot cornbread. Next we are having fresh stuffed baked bellpeppers. I imagine most young people, and lots of Yankees, never had such a blessing and don’t know what they are missing.

 

This week we picked from the Victory Garden and delivered to the Collierville Food Pantry 45 lbs of zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, acorn squash, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, purple hull peas, and tomatoes.  Total year-to-date is 770.1 lbs. This includes 35 lbs we picked Sunday, which was taken to Page Robbins on Monday.

 

Pontotoc County MS has an annual Bodock Festival, since bodock (bois d’arc) trees are common there. Three of us Pontotoc writers have begun a Bodock Post free bimonthly email newsletter for us and others in that area or from that area to write stories in.

Wayne Carter and Ralph Jones and I will have a booth at the Bodock Festival. We are calling ourselves Bodockers. Subscribe to the Bodock Post at: http://www.bodockpost.com/ or send me an email.

 

The editor of the Collierville Independent has asked me to move to the Collierville Herald with her. I have agreed. I don’t know how that affects the other newspapers the Independent was associated with. I still am in the Pontotoc Progress most weeks. God is blessing me richly.

 

 

 

 

Column / Short Story:

 

Tomato Questions                                            June 10, 2008

 

“It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.”

~Lewis Grizzard

 

One reason a Master Gardener sounds wise is we get the same questions over and over. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy sounding wise for a change.

 

One question has nothing to do with tomatoes but is asked in May and June. Where are the hummingbirds? Usually the asker doesn’t remember the same question last year and the year before since he/she remembers them gathering around the feeders in April and from mid June until late in the year. The answer is they are nesting, and when they nest, they eat mostly tree sap and gnats to get the nutrients and protein they need.

 

The most common questions I am asked about tomato problems are:

 

What are those ugly brown spots on the end of my tomatoes? That’s blossom end rot caused by overwatering or under watering which causes too little calcium to be available to the plants. We senior citizens have that problem sometimes, too.

 

Why have my tomatoes stopped setting fruit? Tomatoes are self pollinated by gravity, which is effective only when nighttime temps are below 70 degrees and daytime temps are below 87 degrees. That’s a narrow range, but days like that occur at least once most weeks.

 

Why are the bottom leaves turning brown or yellow and have spots on them? We Master Gardeners are trained to look at the calendar and if it’s before July 1, say it’s the early blight, else we are to say it’s the late blight. Not much you can do but remove the diseased plants. Don’t touch another plant until you have sanitized your hands and any tools you used. Next year plant in a different place and use a fungicide the first month after they start growing.

 

Why are the bottom leaves turning yellow? There are several possibilities:

-         Too little or too much water. Heavy mulch can prevent moisture from getting to the roots. Too much water can leach away nutrients, and too little water can prevent nutrients from being soluble so the roots can uptake them.

-         Too little nutrients such as iron etc can be caused by too little fertilizer.

 -     Nitrogen deficiency.  Heavy mulch uses up available nitrogen as it composts.

 -     Too much nitrogen causes the canopy to outgrow the root system, thus the plant quits sending sugar to the older leaves.

 

I imagine many of you have these questions, and I hope this helps. Email me anytime with your questions and tell me about your gardening problems and successes,