Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Sunday, January 5. 2020

Groundcherries


One of my daughters likes to give me cool seeds for Christmas. Connecticut Field Pumpkins, Heritage Cukes, etc.  Of course, the hassle is starting them indoors without a greenhouse. (I need one. My friend's wife had a nice one with heat, light, etc and she kept tropical lizards in it too, to eat bugs and spiders. Problem was, the small ones tended to escape outside in the summer when the vents opened so they had a good adventure of freedom until the first frost.) 


We told you about Mouse Melons (aka Mexican Gherkins) in a past post. They are great, grow like weeds, perfect in salads or just to munch in the garden.


It seems the fun trial for this year will be Ground Cherries. We'll see. I guess they are in the nighshade family. 


Posted by Bird Dog in Gardens, Plants, etc. at 14:50 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Ground Cherries, also know as Japanese Lanterns, will over run a garden.

If planted in a garden, put them in pots to contain the root system.

It took us years to eradicate them from a fairly small plot.

But they are pretty to look at in the fall.
#1 browndog on 2020-01-05 18:37 (Reply)
I second that. Very invasive.
#1.1 fjord on 2020-01-06 08:43 (Reply)
The philadelphica variety is called tomatillo here in the Borderlands, and sold in nearly every grocery store. Great for green enchilada sauce.
#2 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2020-01-05 19:09 (Reply)
I have had some on the shady side of the house for 10 years--don't know where they came from. They have not taken over but it is shady there.
#3 cc on 2020-01-05 22:08 (Reply)
Tomatoes are in the Nightshade family too.
You might be surprised that almost no one
can identify nightshade berrys and flowers
when I show them a picture on my phone.

nightshade grows all over the place here in Seattle.

My picture on the phone was taken by my sidewalk.

Three berrys can kill a kid.
#4 Ron Spins on 2020-01-06 01:40 (Reply)
Not just tomatoes, potatoes as well.
#4.1 JTW on 2020-01-06 07:24 (Reply)
Ha! You fooled me once with the mouse melons. Not a single one survived. You will not trick me again!
#5 Gene on 2020-01-06 20:46 (Reply)
Coming late to the day but, in the year after our marriage, we moved down to Vancouver where husband was to attend UBC as a first year student in geology. The PNE was on when he arrived, so we went down and picked up some odd woody things for my father, who really enjoyed growing weird stuff.

Bottom line is that one of those woody things sprouted; Mum kept it at her place for many years after Dad died. We have it today and are wondering just which offspring should be gifted with same.
#6 Frances on 2020-01-10 00:23 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.