Another loss.

More bad news about the Persimmon Trees.
As I mentioned earlier I discovered that one seems to have been killed by a lightning strike. Well, during the inspection of the strickened tree I noticed this........................

....at the bottom of one of the two remaining trees. Some kind of rot, similar to that which has affected two of the Redbud trees in other parts of the garden. I don't know whether it's caused by termites, the fact that the land is particularly wet, lawnmower damage from past years allowing disease to penetrate or a combination of all three. All I know is , at that point I had a feeling that this tree too would soon be lost.

But, I didn't know just how soon that awful moment would come.


Last Wednesday evening around 5-30pm we had a particularly bad thunderstorm, preceded by about 10 minutes of "Straight Line Winds" blasting from the South. I stood in the doorway and watched as every tree in the area took a terrible thrashing from this frightening blast and sadly after around 5 minutes the Persimmon could no longer stand the force and fell.

It was heartbreaking to see all those years of growth swept down before my eyes. These trees with their majestic canopy were a delight for us to view from our dining table and gave shelter and a regular supply of food to the birds during the harsh winter months.

Perhaps the strain from the ice storm of December 2007 shown here................

......was a contributing factor. We will never know.

We ended the year 2008 with 3 of these delightful additions to the garden and now we are down to one.

Lets move on.......................................................

Plot 6 is slowly coming to life.

The Yolo Bell Pepper plants are quite away behind this year and have suffered a lot of leaf loss in the thunderstorms and high wind. But they seem to be finding their feet now. I mulched them in an effort to keep the soils temperature more even and to retain moisture in the coming hot months. From left to right at the front the Dill, Basil and Curly Parsley plants look great.

In Plot 1 my "Cup runneth over" with Egyptian Onions.................

....so I gathered a jug full of the bulbits and made some...............

Pickled Onions.

I also got a roasting from my wife for forgetting to turn on the extractor fan and stinking the whole house out with the strong aroma of boiled Rice Vinegar. Eeeeek!

But I must have been forgiven because she made us a super Potato Salad using some of the Red Potatoes from Plot 5, Onions from Plot 1 and fresh eggs from our neighbours hens.

What a colourful and tasty feast!!
Enough.