The Garden Thread - April, 2025

April 1, 2025 | 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.

[Paul R.]

A question for all:

Given the problems we have with our well water (lots of particulates), what has the experience been of those of you with filtering water that quickly “loads up” the typical 10” x 2.5” filter cartridges. I’d really rather not be replacing filter cartridges so frequently! Which filter type, pleated, string, or porous foam, actually has the most capacity to collect sediment in the water, before “loading up”?

Note that I’m asking about a “first stage” filter. We have “2nd stage” (finer / activated charcoal) filtering for our drinking water, and 2nd stage (10 or 20 micron) filtering for our washer, which latter has a hard to deal with inlet filter that clogs easily with water not filtered down to 20 microns or so.

This last time around, I’d purchased a 6-pack of what are, essentially, hard polypropylene foam “melt blown, grooved sediment water filter cartridges”. These are said to have longer life due to a 3 layer design — essentially, the water passes through first coarse, then medium, then fine filtering, to extend cartridge life. The grooved design is claimed to “increase filter surface” area. However... the outer surface of these seems less porous than the 30 micron rating, and, these seem to “load up” with fine sediment faster than string or pleated filters. Indeed, in a couple listings on Amazon, the string filters are claimed to have “4x” the holding capacity of the melt blown filters. Some of the string filters are also claimed to have graded density too, looser on the outside and denser inside.

A new wrinkle I saw on Amazon were pleated and string filters made of polypropylene material. I never saw in the past what the filter element material actually was, in “brand name” pleated and string filters we were using, but I do recall the pleated filters would tear once they loaded up and had to bear more pressure. With the string filters, it seemed we were getting little tiny fibers off the string itself, if the filter was left in place a little too long. I would think polypropylene material or string that does not get exposed to light (UV) would last a much longer time?

Some pleated filters are also claimed to be “washable”, and I’d think if the polypropylene cloth is reasonably tough, they’d be re-useable. ??

Thoughts? Experiences?

[FamiliarFace]

Congrats!

[Liz]

Asian Garlic Noodles
Made famous by Thanh Long restaurant, San Francisco. Big garlic flave.
Add fried egg, broccolini for a quick meal. Nice side w/ an Asian meal.

Ing 5 oz dried ramen or 2 noodle cakes; Sauce: 2 tbsp unsalted butter, 6 cloves garlic, finely minced (yep, a lot!), 2 tsp ea oyster sauce, fish sauce (sub soy sauce, 1 1/2 tsp Maggi seasoning (sub soy sauce) 1/4 cup or more noodle cooking water, 1/4 cup (tightly packed) finely grated parm, 1/4 cup green onion, thin-sliced.

Steps Cook noodles as directed. Save 1/2 cup cooking water. Strain noodles; set aside. Sauce: Melt butter on med. Add garlic and cook/stir soft. Add oyster sauce, fish sauce, Maggi seasoning and 1/4 c cooking water. Stir/combine. Add cooked noodles, Parm and green onion. Toss to coat, sauce is not pooled in pan. Add cooking water 1 tbsp at a time, if needed to loosen noodles. Serve immediately!

Serving suggestion: fried egg and broccolini cooked with the noodles*, tossed with Asian Sesame Dressing you always have in your fridge. Broccolini takes about 3 min, put it into the water before/after/with the noodles depending on the noodle cooking time.

Recipe Notes: best with ramen; garlic bits and sauce cling better. Fresh egg noodles, Angel hair pasta or spaghetti can also be used (same amount); pasta doesn’t have the same “chew” as ramen noodles. Fish sauce is best but soy sauce (light not dark soy) is fine.

Maggi Seasoning is a savoury sauce in the Asian aisle of large grocery stores or Asian stores. Sub with soy sauce (light or all-purpose, not dark soy).

Cooking water creates sauce that coats the noodles; starch helps thicken. Freshly grated parm for smooth melt that disappears into the noodles. Store bought finely shredded grated won’t melt as perfectly. Leftovers keep 3 days in fridge, loosen with a touch of water to reheat.

[Paul R.]

Yes, I usually get them “sopping”, to use your word, before “separation”. Not too long of course! Just a few hours, and then the plant has a little “reserve” to work from, hopefully. Then they do pull apart more easily. In a couple cases where roots have REALLY grown together, and I can’t get them apart without risking the stem of the plant, I’ve cut them apart, as you say, but it seems like the survival rate was less. I don’t recall what those plants were, though - not tomatoes, I think...

Thanks!

[Paul R.]

Oooh, that sounds good!

I wish I could get my wife to write down some of her better* Filipino(a) recipes. She makes IMO the world’s best Spring Rolls, when served with one of the better sweet chili sauces and “sticky” rice w/ a veggie side, IMO.

*Then there are a few repugnant ones (bitter and / or super salty or smell like something has been dead FAR too long...)!

[metmom]

It’s still snowing in our neck of the woods in NH but definitely tapering off. Monday is supposed to be sunny and in the 60’s!!!!!

I got my lettuce in and it’s covered now but will uncover it tomorrow and let it go.

Onions are ready but the beds need digging and turning before I plant, so I know what I’m going to be doing for the next few days.

[Pollard]

We had 6.25” of rain in 2-3 days and it wrecked the gravel road but they came out and graded it a couple days ago. I think the school bus drivers complained because they sure don’t listen to the land owners’ complaints.

I was seriously worrying about the job thing and was thinking about pulling the travel trailer up here and cleaning it up to possibly head towards the city for work and to live during the week and coming home on weekends. I’ve been turned down for a dozen jobs that didn’t even require any skills. Been kinda soul crushing.

I was thanking God profusely yesterday.

This place has been hiring young guys fresh out of high school and students at Missouri Science and Tech university but they’re not reliable and/or don’t stay long.

I’m on the opposite end and it seems no one wants to hire a 59 year old who’s not far from retirement age but I guess I did really good on the math and machinist aptitude test. The guy I interviewed with seemed taken aback that I’d never been a machinist and wasn’t sure what to make of it.

I also told him I’m looking for a job for the rest of my working life and that I have no intention of retiring at 62 because the monthly amount is too small, which is true, and 68 or 70 are my other age options. They’ll get 10 years out of me or close to it. Maybe more depending on how I age in 10 years.

Seems like a pretty laid back atmosphere. They use a local bail bondsman for drug testing LOL. Said they don’t worry about alcohol or marijuana(recently legalized) on your personal time and that he likes to drink a few beers himself. The way things are out here, I’m sure it’s meth and opioids that are the concern.

Four 10 hour days and weekend shift. Can’t recall if it’s Fri-Mon or Sat-Tues but it’s a 20% shift differential for Sat/Sun. Same base hourly pay as what I ended with at the previous job and less than half as far to drive.

Literally the closest place to work, not counting the new Dollar General out here, 16 miles, 23 minutes as opposed to 37 miles, 47 minutes(2 hours to get home one snowy day). Fuel was costing $10 a day when I took the truck which was every cold day because the crappy heater in the car sucks for nearly an hour’s drive. I can handle crappy heat for 20-25 minutes. Hours at this place are 5:00 am to 3:30 pm which means some daylight time when I get home, no matter the time of year.

---

I haven’t done one bit of gardening because I wasn’t sure if I’d be here. Went out to the tunnel yesterday and a few lettuce plants evidently made it through winter and are growing again. Seven month old lettuce plants LOL. They didn’t look alive a during winter but I guess the roots survived.

According to the seed starting schedule, I’m a month late on the cool weather stuff and can start cucumbers, peppers and maters now. I’ll still do some tatsoi because it can handle a little heat. That and the one bok choy I like because it has wrinkled leaves that hold up in a salad and plenty of stalk to saute/steam, making it dual purpose. Yellow Heart Winter Choy

I’m sure the moisture from that rain seeped all the way through the tunnel so I ought to be able to fork it up and add goat manure. I’ve still got two bags of seed starting mix and plenty of seeds. Guess what I’ll be doing this weekend.

With three weekdays off and money coming in, I’ll be able to bring in a bunch of compost too. That and finally finish the tunnel and get more cattle panels to make a fence around the tunnel plus an area for some outdoor growing.

Paying off bills and doing some vehicle maintenance and repair comes first. Both are way behind on oil change, could use a tune up and the car needs an alternator.

[Pollard]

Our well is very deep 160 feet I think.

We have to go 300+ feet here in the Ozarks and even then, it's a bit limey. Just ran vinegar through the coffee maker a few days ago because it was taking an hour to brew. Now it's back down to 25 minutes. People go through water heaters out here because they fill up with lime. I made my smoker from discarded water heaters.

[Pollard]

I would think something with a fine stainless steel mesh screen would be the best first filter. That way you can clean it instead of replacing. Might look at websites that carry irrigation supplies. https://www.dripdepot.com/irrigation-supplies-filtration-filters

[daniel1212]

Thank you for the ping.

I have not worked on the garden since last year, and we had ice overnight here in MA, and mostly rain so far this month and more to follow, but temps into the low 60's are predicted for next week. And about a week ago I stated seedlings from tomato and Butternuts quash from last year, using a mixed of store-bought above ground garden soils and top soil that a couple neighbors bought for me (and most of the produce is for the neighborhood, by the grace of God.), and which are growing under a very improvised contraption of cheap (about $2) grow lights.

Almost all the seeds germinated (I let harvested tomato seeds stew in the juices and pulp for 2 days to remove enamel, before washing them in warm water, and letting them dry on paper bags until planting). But I have yet to pare the seedlings down to one in each cup, and I then often try to remove the ones I remove and plant them in other cups.

The Dunkin Donut cups came from a whole box a neighbor threw out years ago, and the local shop did not want them back (I asked), but i ran out this year. I likely will transplant the ones in small cups into larger containers.

Then there is the water supply.

Composite image:

[daniel1212]

Related: Longer Growing Season, Longer Allergy Season in 172 U.S. Cities [positive effects of warming trend vs. Climategeddon]

[Paul R.]

I’ve looked at several filter units with replaceable (or cleanable) SS Steel screen elements, but, the surface area of the screen is not all that large.

So... I was actually thinking of using one of my remaining polyprop filters as a “base” to wrap exactly that, fine SS Steel screen, around.

That SKU: 1255 @ your link looks really good for the hose out to my garden, for misting. The mist element constantly gets clogged up. However, the description of the #1255 says: “This filter is not designed for constant pressure...” Maybe “constant pressure” deforms the gaskets due to no time for “recovery” of the gasket material?

[Paul R.]

Kinda seems like a mixed bag there...

Aaahhhh...Choo!

[Qiviut]

My youngest brother came yesterday (4 hour trip) & spent the night. He is fishing tomorrow with a friend who is an hour away from our house.

Anyway, he is super mechanical & excellent at figuring stuff out so he:

Fixed the PU truck lid that was stuck 1/2” from closing & wouldn’t go up or down.
Fixed the hose bib on one side of the house that had no water flow.
Figured out a “hack” for a damper on some of my HVAC ductwork (HVAC wanted $600 to put one in)
Got a large pine branch down that had broken off & was hung up in the tree.
Consulted with him on putting rails along the basement steps & reversing the gate at the top (my idea will work :-)

Great visit!

[FamiliarFace]

It was a great success! I used a sharp cheddar, Swiss, and gruyere blend for the cheese (from Walmart). If you didn’t have bacon on hand, I’m sure ham would be a lovely substitute. A keeper of a recipe! Thank you!

[Pollard]

Easy to use in residential applications but also durable enough for commercial or municipal applications as well.

https://www.dripdepot.com/manual-disc-t-filter-size-1-inch-filtration-130-micron-120-mesh

https://www.dripdepot.com/file/parent/15326/15326-1-in-Manual-Filter-Install.pdf

https://www.dripdepot.com/file/parent/15326/15326-Netafim%20Manual%20Filters.pdf

[daniel1212]

Kinda seems like a mixed bag there...

Or, mixed barrels!

[MomwithHope]

Our are the tubular pleated throw away kind. We get them at Menards. Link here.

https://www.menards.com/main/plumbing/water-filtration-softeners/whole-house-filtration-systems-accessories/omnifilter-10-pleated-sediment-whole-house-water-replacement-filter-2-pack/rs1-ds3-s06/p-1444450662889-c-8685.htm

All we get in it is black particulates. Cange it once a month it could probably go longer. We do have a little bit of iron but the water softener takes that out.

[MomwithHope]

Oy! We are fortunate. Our house is on a pretty big hill, right on top of where the glacier stopped moving south. Just north of the Grand River. We are sitting on rocks and boulders, big and colorful. Soil - no clay, mostly sandy and black loose soil from eons of composted forest growth.

[MomwithHope]

On the lemonade recipe I am assuming the seeds are discarded before you puree the cucumber?