Posted on 03/01/2025 7:23:36 AM PST by 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.
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(Did you know that there are 50+ varieties of Clover? )
What about Crimson?
Over and Over!
Now you’ve done it!
LOLOLOL 🤣🤣🤣🤣
It’s here! It’s here! Tomato starting day is finally HERE! Now the hard work of ‘who makes the cut’ is before me this morning. I have room (indoors and out) for 32 plants. Here is a list of contenders. I will give you my final cuts later in the day:
Slicers:
Harvard Square
Grandma’s Pick
Delicious
Mr. Stripey
Beefy Purple
Belle of the Ball
Chef’s Choice Bi-Color
Chef’s Choice Orange
Italian Goliath
Bush Blue Ribbon
Celebrity Plus
BushSteak Hybrid
Paste:
Sabelka & Sabre (Thanks, Mom!)
SuperSauce
Fresh Salsa
Roma VF
Cherry:
Black Cherry
Valentine
And I almost always buy a ‘Sungold’ or ‘Sunsugar’ plant (Bonnie Brand)
Plans for this season are more paste-types. I have plenty of Salsa, but the pantry needs more V-8/Bloody Mary Mix as well as Tomato Soup and Tomato Jam.
Any extras just get canned for soups and stews in the winter months. My Mom and her ‘Girl Gang’ will be out to raid the slicers a number of times this summer-into-fall. I’ve trained them to NOT pick the paste-types! ;)
Well, you tried!
The Boy Scouts clean up/bag Mom’s leaves in the fall. She has three enormous Maple Trees in her yard and they can really put out the leaves!
And then one of her tree-less neighbors takes most of the bags and uses them on the Community Garden beds. Everybody wins. :)
That’s quite a list. My Sabre seeds are so many generations old I think we will just go with the Sabelkas this year.
Thanks for the clover and other information.
I grew up on Cloverlawn St. Great memories.👍
Once upon a time, life expectancy was less than half of what it is now. Previously unimaginable prosperity permits the luxury of pretending organic food is more healthful because it is organic.
The greatest cause of death from nonorganic food is going to occur in say Lagos Nigeria or maybe Mexico City where the onset of a serious contagion wipes out millions of people living well on non organic food.
An interesting intellectual exercise is guessing what third world country with a Deca million population city will be the one
Goodness Bert, are you pretending that the conventional practices of disposing of municipal sludge for use as fertilizer is without any risk! Thanks, I prefer organic regenerative farming whenever possible.
https://thenatureofhome.com/pfas-farm-fertilizer-issues/
You might be shocked to learn just how common this risky practice is. The government has promoted spreading sewage sludge on agricultural fields as fertilizer since the 1990s as a disposal method (ref).
In 2018 alone, over 2 million dry tons of sludge were dumped on 46 million acres, which is 20% of all U.S. farmland (ref).
Nearly half of the sewage sludge generated in the country ends up on fields, with the rest used in landscaping, on golf courses, in forests, and even abandoned mines.
Sewage sludge poses serious health risks to people and animals alike:
Hundreds have fallen ill after exposure, suffering respiratory distress, headaches, nausea, rashes, and even tumors.
Heavy metals increase cancer risks (ref) and cause high blood pressure, anemia, and lung issues when inhaled or ingested.
PFAS build up in the body over time, linked to cancer, birth defects, and other health problems.
Sludge contains nasty pathogens like bacteria, viruses, and parasites that make people and animals sick.
Contaminated sludge has sickened and killed livestock on farms where it was applied.
(More at link)
I agree. I hope that “gras” goes to a demonstrated as safe system.
Good Saturday Morning Diana and thanks for sponsoring this thread!
Good Saturday Morning Diana and thanks for sponsoring this thread!
I can actually remember back to the time when I was really young and had time to look for 4 leaf clovers!
How did it go last night? Tornado in Rolla, so sort of close to you.
It’s more hilly here and tornadoes generally can’t stay organized in hill country. It was windy, rained and a little hail. Electric went out in the afternoon but they had it back on in a couple of hours.
Chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle. I suspect the guineas were collecting bugs drawn to the sweetness. Dogs like pumpkin/winter squash once cooked. Rabbits do it in a funny way through the winter, they scrape the “zest” layer of the outer skin off and then once they find which of the types you have are best they begin to eat their way in.
Apples are another near universal food. Sheep should only have small snacks, not free feeding. The fowl know they want it but dont know how to start it and some dont have the tools so its necessary to rock your foot on those to crack them first otherwise they lay around until they start to rot and then the chickens may get around to it.
Horses and donkeys can supposedly have both too but Ive never owned those and never tried giving them pumpkins.
If you plant enough to intentionally us as feed come winter remember that pumpkins attract all kinds of wildlife to eat them also. Bringing in free meat sources may be nice when the weather gets colder again but at the same time that brings in the predators that eat those things. (Foxes stand on both sides of that.)
LOL. Ya, obviously foxes arent for eating but they are predators, when they arent nibbling the pumpkin, and like other predators you might not want to draw them to areas that you cant see when your animals are out there.
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