Spring planting

By Bebe and Sissy Fenstermaker

It's vegetable garden time. The seed I bought is still safely in packets. I ordered a lovely cold frame made in England which arrived before Christmas. But I didn't get it put together until the first of March, far too late to start many kinds of seed. I will try a few things like poblano peppers since it is impossible to find starts of them in nurseries here. I did hit a bonanza today. I got a call from a nurseryman who promised to let me know if he got pink brandywine tomatoes. An heirloom tomato, it is an old, open-pollinated type and has a real tomato taste. Last year a neighbor gave me a taste of one from his garden, so I can vouch for the wonderful taste. I drove up to get the tomato plants and of course came back with two more kinds of tomatoes, cayenne, anaheim, and serrano peppers, and tomatillos. Imagine finding tomatillo starts. I divided with Manuel, whose early tomatoes were frozen in the 17º weather San Antonio had a week ago.

Martha came up for spring break and she and Sissy planted the garden. We have put in some golden bantam corn, sugar pumpkins to run through the corn, blue lake green beans, eggplant, onions, cilantro, flat parsley, and basil. Rounding out the edges are bronze fennel plants for the butterflies and a few provance lavenders for me. Mr. Gutierrez, Manuel's father, gave me some unknown pumpkin/squash seed to try, warning me the vines would climb into the big oak tree and over the fence. It will be the mystery plant this year.

There is a ton of cleaning up to do in the garden after the cowherd raid last summer. Many of the old hay bales were tossed around and they played havoc with my raised herb bed. The chickens have to be thrown out several times a day. They love the soft, freshly turned earth, nicely damp from watering the plants in. They are making holes to dust in and crouch low in them when they see me coming. They flee screaming at the last moment just before my clod of dirt explodes in front of them. We did all this last summer. It's hard to train a chicken, harder still for them to retain it over the winter.

In the old days here at the Ranch the Mavericks shared a garden down at the spring with their neighbors, the Frommes. It sounded like it was successful; the children kept things watered by carrying cans of water from the stream. Many years later Mama had a happy surprise, which reminded her of that garden. As the youngest child of the family, she was given a goat and pretty light blue cart for it to pull. She remembered this wistfully as an adult and often wondered what happened to her cart. Since things seem to remain here at the Ranch, it was unusual the cart wasn't around. More than 40 years after the shared garden Mama and Papa bought the old Fromme homestead when it came up for sale. One day looking through the old Fromme barn Mama found her little goat cart. Apparently it had been used to ferry vegetables back and forth between the families. It must have made the last garden's last delivery over to the Frommes.

Bebe Fenstermaker

We had cousins from the northeast visiting recently and the weather and temperature performed magnificently. The three young children who were part of the group were game for about anything we adults (seven of us) rolled in their direction. Charging, tongue slathering dogs didn't even faze them as they arrived the first day. Bugs of all sorts were right down their alleys and there certainly were plenty out for them to ooh and aah about. I cannot remember when I've been around such delightful youngsters.

There seems to have been an explosion in the rat and mouse population around here. I had noticed they were enjoying the chicken, guinea, and peacock grain. But I certainly was surprised, when investigating all the guinea noise one night back in early April, by a rattling accompanying the bird racket. And there it was just waiting for me along the wall. I called a neighbor who raises exotic waterfowl to ask what he did to keep snakes away from his birds. He said he "rearranged" rattlers and really didn't say what he did about the rat/chicken snakes. He also assured me the former were not endangered. I told him I knew that. He said he was experiencing a rodent over-population and knew that Primarily Primates (our southern neighbor) was also being overrun with them. The kittens, Brassy and Russ, have been hanging out around the bird house the last few nights trying to nab a few of the critters. I'm afraid they'll not make much of a dent in the population.

I have one crazy peacock. He will not leave Panchito (the fighting rooster) alone. They tussled all the way down to the coop the other night. I suppose a swift spur in the seat of his pants might help convince him to go about his business and leave the rooster alone. The deer look seedy right now as they exchange their winter coats for cooler spring and summer ones. My own wardrobe has changed. The long sleeves and layers have given way to short sleeves and no layers. Everyone is enjoying the 70-80 degree temperatures, often accompanied by a breeze. The doors and windows can now be left open at night and the covers thrown to the side. We've had some rain, enough to green up the landscape and make some good grazing for livestock. May the rain continue throughout summer and all over the state.

Sissy Fenstermaker