The Garden Thread - June, 2024

June 1, 2024 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The MONTHLY Gardening Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.

If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located.

This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.

It is impossible to hijack the Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table Recipes, Preserving, Good Living - there is no telling where it will go - and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to/removed from our New & Improved Ping List.

NOTE: This is a once a MONTH Ping List, but we DO post to the thread all throughout the month. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest to Gardeners are welcomed any time!

[Liz]

thx.......will try.

[MomwithHope]

I only use it in chicken soup. If I need beef, garlic or chicken or vegetable I like those Better than Boullions. I get good vac sealed chicken backs from a chicken farmer. Two of those in a pot and some vegeta and other seasonings and I don’t need to ass any chicken stock. If I am doing a spatchcok chicken on the grill I mix up a seasoning rub with olive oil and I use vegeta in that too. But thanks for promoting it, great product.

[MomwithHope]

Whoops! ass = add

[Diana in Wisconsin]

LOL! I’m reporting you...to The Grammar Police! ;)

[Augie]

I have a buddy that’s a lay minister. I’ve given many coolers full of freezer beef to him over the years. He shares it with folks that are truly in need.

He’s been having some health issues lately so I haven’t contacted him about it yet.

I won’t let it go to waste.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

My garden is completely planted, thanks to some help from Mom and our friend Kathy. Yay! It's gone straight to HOT now, so I've watered a few times this week, but we got a lovely, long shower yesterday afternoon - only 1/4" but it was perfect on top of the watering I did. Raccoons dug up a few things freshly planted overnight, but all were saved! The ONLY thing left in the greenhouse are re-potted winter squash that are waiting for Beau to plant in his plot; Acorn Squash, Honeynut and Moregold, and my two potted Rosemary plants. First SUCCESS this season has been my 4x8' strawberry patch. Four pickings of a generous quart each so far and looks like at least one more picking to go. Last year we got nothing due to no rain and cool temps. Grapevines are FULL with grapes again this season - wasn't sure with all the rain if they would produce well. Life Is Good! So relieved to have all of that out of the way!

[Augie]

AGS symptoms present in a lot of different ways.

For Daughter it mimics chronic fatigue syndrome. If she gets too much mammal protein she will be flopped out on the couch within a couple hours.

Mrs. Augie gets extreme nausea to the point of hurling if she gets too much. She had tested positive for beef allergy many years ago. She re-tested a year ago and the beef allergy was no longer present so she started eating more beef. It didn’t take long at all for her to get really bad sick on it so now she just doesn’t eat mammal meat. Very likely it was always AGS causing her issues.

Just to be on the safe side both are now carrying an Epi pen everywhere they go. It’s a very good idea for anyone with AGS to do the same. Apparently AGS can cause hypersensitivity to bee venom, which can kill you (or worse than kill you) if you’re allergic to it.

One of my buddies at work would go into convulsions if he ate more than a teaspoon of beef fat. He spent five years eating incrementally larger amounts of very lean beef and has mostly gotten over it, but he’s still very careful not to over-indulge.

I need to get tested myself. Several years ago I had a sudden onset of severe spongiform dermatitis. The derm clinic doc said “oh you’ve just gotten too much sun over the years and now your skin can’t take it.” They gave me TAC cream, told me to stay out of the sun, and sent me home. We switched to hypo-allergenic bath soap/laundry soap/dryer sheets/etc. Didn’t make much difference.

What did make a difference was cutting down my intake of mammal protein. I was getting a bit heavier than I like so I started doing intermittent fasting and practicing better portion control. I didn’t completely change what I was eating, but I substantially changed how much I was eating, and how often. A year after I started that the dermatitis was almost completely gone. To me that points in the general direction of AGS.

I’ve had half a dozen bites from lone star ticks this spring, the most recent was stuck to my right pinky finger when I woke up this morning. We keeps our pets vetted but I’m almost sure they bring the ticks indoors. I don’t like going scorched earth on bugs for a lot of reasons but when it comes down to me or the bugs I’m picking me every time. This might be the time to treat the house yard/garden/etc. with seven and/or triazinon and try to at least reduce the numbers of the cursed things up around the house.

[MomwithHope]

CONGRATS on getting everything planted. I cut a dozen huge broccoli leaves and wound up giving them to our neighbor, her kids have 5 rabbits.

[MomwithHope]

Recycling this from a few years ago.

[Qiviut]

Progress is SLOW ... I had all 4 slabs set, but the ground sloped off so bad I had to use a lot of shims on 2 for them to work ... big no no on trail rock work because shims can shift. I decided to buy some dirt & build up where the ground sloped off, which was the right way to do it. The first 2 slabs against the foundation are good so I had to wrangle the 2 on the end back off, get dirt down, try to level it off, & reset the rocks. The last rock is 24" x 30" instead of 30" x 30" so I will have to close that gap. I intend to extend the stone to the right with some smaller pieces, so that will give me an opportunity to close the gap.

Three down, one to go! I must say that stepping out of the door on the big slabs is a world of difference & a real pleasure after what was there before!

A reminder of "before":

PS - I will be forever grateful for the 'shingles' tip!! No grass will grow between these slabs!

[Pollard]

We're headed to mid 90s by weekend so I'll be watering soon.

One end of my 16x16-ish front yard garden is angled so I have one less than 90 degree corner. I tossed weeds there all season and at the end of the season, tossed the pants pulled out for the year. I knew I'd be importing the Comfrey plants where the goats can't get at it and figured the pile would be good food for them.

Must have tossed a few split maters in that direction too because I have volunteers that just popped up in the last week or three.

There are several of them including another that big that were not there a 2-3 of weeks ago. They're all against the fence so I'm going to let them go and train them upwards and then sideways on the fence and get what I get for maters.

Comfrey is a nitrogen fixer so I imagine the mater right next to it ought to do good.

Weed you're garden day will have to wait until Sat morning when I'll weed and mulch around comfrey and volunteers.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

That is awesome!

I had found a limestone ‘slab’ in one of the outbuildings when I bought my other farm. It made the PERFECT ‘step up’ into the chicken coop and I loved that stupid piece of stone beyond all reason.

Mom & I did a lot of ‘gardening’ over the past few days and she and I discovered a stash of shingles that Beau brought back from the old shed they took down at our cabin up north. (They built a new steel building to replace it). We replaced some shingles in the garden rows between the raised beds. It makes SUCH a good weed barrier and gives you good footing even if things are wet out there as they’ve been all season for me so far.

You are doing an amazing job! Your new place is going to be a showplace when you’re done with all of your various projects. You Go, Girl! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

That was nice of you to share the broccoli leaves!

My hens are now old enough to eat veggie scraps, so I’ll be cleaning out the ‘veggie drawer’ in the fridge to see what ‘treats’ I can give them this week. ;)

I’m going to talk to the Produce Guy at my Piggly Wiggly to see if he’ll give me the box of veggie scraps that they normally keep ‘in the back’ for my hens in the near future. ;)

I had a young visitor last week and she has pet rabbits. We cut a few bunches of REAL Alfalfa for them to chomp on (before it was baled the next day - good timing!) and she reported back that her rabbits just LOVED it.

The current Alfalfa field comes right up to my ‘lawn’ in the house yard on the East side of the property. Sometimes it’s feed corn, sometimes oats. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

That is awesome, LOL!

Later this growing season we’ll play, ‘What’s Growing in Diana’s Compost Pile?’ I got five nice Butternut Squash last season with NO effort whatsoever!

Don’t know how it happened, but I have some NICE lettuces growing in there right now, and I purposefully planted a ‘Juliet’ tomato in there today that I had no other room for. She will be ONE Happy Camper, I’m betting! (small Paste-type great for drying) I planted her on the corner where she can cascade down and will be easy to pick.

Well, that’s the PLAN, anyway. :)

[MomwithHope]

If you want some real entertainment, take some big zucchini and put them through the Cuisinart with the shredding disc. Or if you have one or those zucchini noodle makers. Just make them long. It was hilarious watching the chickens scarf them up like they were eating spaghetti. We put them out on a few paper plates. Gone in a flash.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I love that idea! I have a hand-cranked ‘Zoodler’ which gets a lot of use every season.

This year I went with a basic green zucchini and a yellow patty-pan squash just for fun. :)

The ‘girls’ are going to love what I throw in their pan in the morning. Some carrot shreds, the ends of the ‘remaining Romaine’ and some sliced cherry tomatoes. Also the remaining half bag of some shredded cabbage mix that I earlier made into Coleslaw.

I know! It’s a SIN to purchase cherry tomatoes off season, but Beau loves them in his dinner salad. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[metmom]

You might want to try this stuff.....

Nature’s Good Guys
https://www.naturesgoodguys.com/

Beneficial Nematodes
https://www.naturesgoodguys.com/collections/beneficial-nematodes

There’s also this place, Arbico Organics, but it seems like Nature’s Good Guys is cheaper.

Arbico Organics
https://www.arbico-organics.com/category/beneficial-nematodes

[Pollard]

I read that a band of gravel 10-12 foot wide works like a moat for ticks once things are dry. Basically, it’s like crossing the Sahara for them.

My driveway is already a U shape half way around the house, so once a season, I spread Sevin granules on it and also the walking path that finishes the circle around the house. I’m going to go ahead and expand the walking path, gravel it, and do a full wrap around driveway. USPS/UPS/FedEx will be happy and it will be handy for me as well.

[Pollard]

The three varieties of lettuce from Baker Creek came in today. Two are Romaine type and one is Tennis Ball lettuce, grown by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, although probably not with the Tennis Ball name. It's a tennis ball size iceberg. Just thought it would be cool to have and grow.

I'm about to punish those plus several other varieties and see who can handle the heat. I'm bound and determined to have some kind of lettuce with a little crunch to it, plus nutritious leafy greens, at the same time I have ripe maters. I doubt the tennis ball will form a head in hot weather and might not grow much at all or will bolt quick so I'll only plant a few seeds of that.

Rainy season seems to be ending or has ended. I reset my rain gauge to zero and will water on a schedule and watch the rain gauge.

There's no simple way to automate irrigation based on rain amount and altering the schedule. The standard is 1 inch of rain a week. What is a week? Sun-Sat or a rolling 7 day period. I can auto-reset the rain gauge at 1 inch. I can water on a time schedule that's based on a calendar. Then there's variables like temperature, cloud cover that effect soil drying through evaporation.

I think it's time to buy a soil moisture sensor. Dead drop simple. Is it dry? Water it.