From Gardens
I’ve always enjoyed growing things. My paternal grandparents lived in New Lexington, Ohio…not quite a couple hours from London where I grew up. I remember staying with them as a young lad during the summers. I’d explore the garden every morning looking for fresh veggies and munching on the ones I did find. They grew up in a time where having a garden was a necessity and helped keep the cabinets in the basement full of jars of delight. They also enjoyed the activity and rewards a garden gave them. I will never forget the taste of grandma’s tomato juice and dill pickles. I’m pretty sure my love of growing was greatly influenced by them…and I’m richer for it.
My maternal grandparents tended a garden as well. I don't remember much about them though. This was where the entire Penix clan would gather and us grandkids and cousins would be roaming the country side playing instead of wondering what was growing out back. I miss them and think of them all to this day. What adventures we had.
It wasn’t long before I had my own garden. I laid claim to a corner of dad’s backyard and started growing tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce, and even corn. I made fresh salsa and spaghetti sauce, stuffed peppers, and a host of others with my fresh veggies. I soon began to can my own salsa and pickles.
Canning is a lot of work and requires dedication to see it thru. I remember my grandmother and her uncle spending entire days in a cramped little room with a single stove burner. They would prep and can veggies from sun up to sun down. Hotter than hell too. A lot of work.
In May of 1995, I bought a house on the west side of Columbus which was only about 20-25 minutes from “home”. One of the very first things I did was by a tiller and put in a garden. Little did I know thru those years what was in store for me.
Thru gardening, I learned about varieties of this and of that. I would experiment with different kinds of tomatoes and peppers each year. I also grew everything from seed so I could pick out what I wanted to grow instead of the one or two varieties being sold at the grocery store or K-Mart. Once the big box home and garden centers started popping up, things got better.
It wasn’t long before I had my own garden. I laid claim to a corner of dad’s backyard and started growing tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce, and even corn. I made fresh salsa and spaghetti sauce, stuffed peppers, and a host of others with my fresh veggies. I soon began to can my own salsa and pickles.
Canning is a lot of work and requires dedication to see it thru. I remember my grandmother and her uncle spending entire days in a cramped little room with a single stove burner. They would prep and can veggies from sun up to sun down. Hotter than hell too. A lot of work.
In May of 1995, I bought a house on the west side of Columbus which was only about 20-25 minutes from “home”. One of the very first things I did was by a tiller and put in a garden. Little did I know thru those years what was in store for me.
Thru gardening, I learned about varieties of this and of that. I would experiment with different kinds of tomatoes and peppers each year. I also grew everything from seed so I could pick out what I wanted to grow instead of the one or two varieties being sold at the grocery store or K-Mart. Once the big box home and garden centers started popping up, things got better.
To Deck Plants
Things eventually settled down and I was able to put a huge deck in the back. Decks are boring places without plants. Sure, I had the various tropical foliage plant out there. But something was still missing. It probably wasn’t until early 2003 when browsing around Lowes, that I came across a bunch of citrus plants…oranges, grapefruit, lemons, and limes. Just what the deck was screaming for! I started off with an orange. A grapefruit soon followed and then a lemon and lime after that.
The south facing deck was the perfect spot for these plants. Full sun from morning to night. This was all fine and dandy, but summer unfortunately, does not last all year round up here in Ohio. The weather is a crap shoot come October. Anything can happen and does. We’ve had 90 degree days and we’ve had snow and everything in between.
So this is the year I officially started to hate October. It meant that the freedom of the deck was nearly over. It meant moving plants inside the house overnight and moving them back outside the next morning because it was supposed to be nice and sunny. But this soon grew tiresome and there was only one place in the house for these plants. An upstairs spare bedroom. The citrus plants had one window to share. Lugging up just a few plants was no big deal. But even then, I had a nagging thought that this was not how things would end.
Man...I think back on the words above and wonder what my life would be like and what I would be doing if I had just stuck with those few citrus plants. Hard to imagine really. All of the wonderful folks I've met and spent time with over the years would never have happened. The friendships that were made. The fantastic trips. Nope. Can't see it happening any other way and very thankful for it.
The south facing deck was the perfect spot for these plants. Full sun from morning to night. This was all fine and dandy, but summer unfortunately, does not last all year round up here in Ohio. The weather is a crap shoot come October. Anything can happen and does. We’ve had 90 degree days and we’ve had snow and everything in between.
So this is the year I officially started to hate October. It meant that the freedom of the deck was nearly over. It meant moving plants inside the house overnight and moving them back outside the next morning because it was supposed to be nice and sunny. But this soon grew tiresome and there was only one place in the house for these plants. An upstairs spare bedroom. The citrus plants had one window to share. Lugging up just a few plants was no big deal. But even then, I had a nagging thought that this was not how things would end.
Man...I think back on the words above and wonder what my life would be like and what I would be doing if I had just stuck with those few citrus plants. Hard to imagine really. All of the wonderful folks I've met and spent time with over the years would never have happened. The friendships that were made. The fantastic trips. Nope. Can't see it happening any other way and very thankful for it.
To Mail Order
My wife is from Thailand…as you should all know by now if you’ve been keeping up. She would tell me about some of the fruit she ate over there. When we were at the grocery, she would point out mango, papaya, and starfruit. Huh? I’ve never noticed these fruit before and certainly have never tasted them. So…let the record show…my wife is the true cause and start of my obsession with tropical fruit! I must have started looking up some of these fruit and cultivars on the internet that she mentioned. I soon found that I could purchase these trees and that these mail order nurseries would actually send them to Ohio! What have I been missing?
My wife is THE chief finance officer of the family. Why? She is good with money and doesn’t spend it. Nuff said on that. So what better way to justify these new plants than by telling my wife that these plants, cultivars of Thailand, are really for her? You know…bring a little bit of Thailand here to Ohio. She was not quite as dumb as I was hoping. But in late April of 2004, I did have a couple mangos on the way!
My wife is THE chief finance officer of the family. Why? She is good with money and doesn’t spend it. Nuff said on that. So what better way to justify these new plants than by telling my wife that these plants, cultivars of Thailand, are really for her? You know…bring a little bit of Thailand here to Ohio. She was not quite as dumb as I was hoping. But in late April of 2004, I did have a couple mangos on the way!
While my first mail order may have been a milestone for my budding hobby, my first mail order arrival would turn out to be the start of a nasty relationship with our United States Postal Service. See those red and white stickers around the middle of the box? Those say “fragile”…not “beat the hell out of me”. May have been the first, but was far from the last box damaged or lost by these folks.
Now I was no mango expert by any stretch of the imagination, but even I knew that these plants looked like hell. Dried up and turning brown.
A few days later. Not a very good start I’m afraid. After arguing with the nursery for about a week, they refunded the money of one plant and sent me a replacement Nam Doc Mai. This plant looked much healthier out of the box. Maybe there is more to this mail order thing than I thought. I discovered many nurseries out there and learned that not all are created equal.
Soon the deck was alive and green with plants. Citrus and mangos blooming. I was in on my way man.
Soon the deck was alive and green with plants. Citrus and mangos blooming. I was in on my way man.
The Grow Room
Earlier in the year, while making some Thai dish that called for the rind of a Kaffir lime, my wife suggested that I plant the seeds. Yes…you all read that correctly. So not only did my wife turn me on to new fruits, teach me the names of cultivars from the homeland, she now suggested I start some plants from seed. I’m actually starting to feel much better about all of this!
So I started off planting Kaffir lime seeds. This stretched into mangos, starfruit, papaya, key lime, and more. The deck was full of plants from one end to the other…spilling over into the yard.
I was now aware that one of the local super markets actually had a tropical fruit section. There would be mangos, starfruit, and others that occasionally found their way to the market. Taste? The starfruit were far from sweet and the mangos more resembled tightly packed balls of dental floss than an actual fruit. But I bought them anyway and planted their seeds. I haven't yet had that ligh bulb moment when you discover planting fruit trees from seed sucks. Just takes way too damn long to start bearing fruit and there is no guarantee that the resulting fruit will be any good. But I was not aware of this little nugget of info just yet. Ignorance is bliss.
And the results of all those seeds?
So I started off planting Kaffir lime seeds. This stretched into mangos, starfruit, papaya, key lime, and more. The deck was full of plants from one end to the other…spilling over into the yard.
I was now aware that one of the local super markets actually had a tropical fruit section. There would be mangos, starfruit, and others that occasionally found their way to the market. Taste? The starfruit were far from sweet and the mangos more resembled tightly packed balls of dental floss than an actual fruit. But I bought them anyway and planted their seeds. I haven't yet had that ligh bulb moment when you discover planting fruit trees from seed sucks. Just takes way too damn long to start bearing fruit and there is no guarantee that the resulting fruit will be any good. But I was not aware of this little nugget of info just yet. Ignorance is bliss.
And the results of all those seeds?
The upstairs spare bedroom is now the grow room. In addition to the citrus and the mango tree, I now have all kinds of seedlings and hot pepper plants that need to fit in here. I did purchase a 1000 watt metal halide lighting system. It was like a small sun hanging from the ceiling. And boy did it put out the freaking heat!
It was obvious that something would have to give soon. The plants would continue to grow but the 10x10 foot room would not. Not only that, but I lost count as to how many trips up and down the stairs we made carrying all of these plants inside and back out. That voice inside my head was yapping again. Nagging at me that this cannot last. Maybe…the plants are still small right now…and look…there seems to be some space on the tables and floor!
Yeah...this was at best a very temporary arrangement. The temperature upstairs during the day would reach around 90 degrees due to that light. When the blinds of the single window were left open, the entire backyard would be lit up. Mandi, my golden retriever, and I could play in the backyard at night and see just perfectly! The neighbors all had to wonder just what the hell was going on in that room. And to this day, I'm surprised that I never once gotten a visit from local law enforcement asking what I might be growing upstairs.
Yeah...this was at best a very temporary arrangement. The temperature upstairs during the day would reach around 90 degrees due to that light. When the blinds of the single window were left open, the entire backyard would be lit up. Mandi, my golden retriever, and I could play in the backyard at night and see just perfectly! The neighbors all had to wonder just what the hell was going on in that room. And to this day, I'm surprised that I never once gotten a visit from local law enforcement asking what I might be growing upstairs.
RSS Feed
