Posted on 04/01/2025 6:11:07 AM PDT 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.
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On Saturday, there’s a Master Gardener event at our county 4-H center. There should be some classes AND vendors. I cannot wait to go! Hoping to find a few more Virginia Bluebells to add to the ones I bought a few years ago. You never know. Those are so hard to find.
Also hoping to get some amazing herbs if the vendor I’ve bought from before shows up.
Fingers crossed.
NWS-Paducah provided a link to a nice GIF of our heavy rains earlier this month. I can’t get it to post in FR (I just get stuck on “loading”, but here’s a link to the page:
I believe the proper term is “good grief”!
(Pretty cool page w/ many options, BTW.) :-)
Absolutely! Mushrooms are one of the best ingredients for pretty much every cooked non dessert recipe!
I can’t get onions, green or otherwise, to grow worth a darn except in pots. (I don’t have any raised beds.)
BUT, I discovered while removing a bunch of small trees and bushes springing up in the ditch east of our house that there are spots alongside the ditch (our property side) with really good looking, loamy soil. There’s a little gravel in it too, but, not too bad. I think this is soil thrown to the (our) side when the county comes through and (in effect) re-digs the ditch every several years. It’s NOT consistent - the “good stuff” is just in patches. The organic content surely is a bit high in juglone from all the hickory trees nearby. Sunlight is marginal, but, that sure doesn’t seem to slow down any of the stuff that wants to grow in or alongside the ditch. So... Onions are supposed to be resistant to juglone: I’m thinking it might be worth a try to plant some onion starts that I have extras of, out there, and see what happens. (My budget for potting soil and pots is shot!) I hit a couple spots today, with Roundup as “prep”, which should slow down the competition for a while. We are supposed to get some rain the next few days, so after that, I’ll plunk in a few starts
Pulling up my ‘big girl pants’ today & planting the remaining 3 boxwoods. One is in the ground, two to go as soon as shade hits where I am working. I am taking many breaks to keep the back loose & so far, so good.
I set the herbs & dahlias out in the sun a couple hours this morning. Once May rolls around, the dahlias should be able to go in the ground. The herbs are the happiest bunch of plants & will go out as soon as the raised bed is ready. The jalapeños look happy, too.
So yesterday, ALL day & into the evening, there has been a bull in the feedlot next door, bellowing nonstop. He keeps clanging something metal, usually before or after a bellow. At one point, a bull in the pasture across the street chimed in - sounded like quite the ‘conversation’!
No luck trapping the groundhog thus far. I am seeing BunBun a lot, morning & evening, sometimes in-between. I think the raised beds are high enough to keep rabbits out.
Report back on your 4-H Center Gardening event, Please! :)
LOL!
Beautiful job!!
Diana you could not give me the best battery powered weed whacker. I had a black and decker with two batteries. After a few years they would not charge all the way and just not enough power for what we have around here. Hubby bought a gas powered one but its too heavy for me. I have had a corded one for About 5 years now. Runs like a horse. Two 50ft long orange extension cords and I can go anywhere. No breaks. Best part is it is very lightweight. I just tossed a battery powered hand drill too. Worthless after a few years. Going to get a corded one.
Will do! A few years ago it was really great, and last year was a big disappointment. I hope this one is like my first time there. I found a great tool (the rotoshovel), Virginia Bluebells, and the best French tarragon I’ve ever had. All of those purchases are still going strong.
I’m getting the Spring planting fever! I will have to temper myself and hold back as best as I can. I’m a sucker for things that are beautiful but that I have no experience with. I also usually purchase more than I can reasonably plant in a couple of weeks. Notorious actually.
I have to be very disciplined this year. I will be away 3 of 4 weekends in May, and two of those are long weekends (Thursday to Monday). I must not overpurchase! When I get back in June, I will have a week or so to finish up.
I hope this event on Saturday is more like the one in 2022. I’m really hoping it all works out!
😍😍😍 Beautiful!
French tarragon is not easy to find. Mine died last year and I’m still looking for some. They have something called Mexican tarragon that isn’t even tarragon.
It’s not like French tarragon at all. I have 3 plants that have survived. 2 are robust. One is struggling but making it. It’s so delightful though!
I brought some last June to my sisters when I visited in my carry on bag. They both loved it, but my older sister was over the moon about the flavor. If I can get extra plants this weekend from the same vendor as before, I will bring her a small plant to keep at her house. It won’t be perennial there, but she can enjoy it for the season.
That approx. 3 foot snake I caught while working in our ditch a few days ago turned out to be, I THINK, a Prairie Kingsnake with unusually dark, muted top and side colors. The record is 43”, so this is a relatively big one. These are great mousers, not that I have any idea how to get it to stick around once released. ;-)
Chicken Roulade is a classic elegant French dish. Delicious thin-sliced chicken pounded flat, then filled with a mixture of tarragon, cheese, ham or bacon, mushrooms or spinach, then rolled and secured w/ kitchen twine. The roulade is then baked or sautéd til golden. Flavor can vary depending on the filling. A great meal served w/ a French side dish and roasted vegetables.
A fellow in TX who ran, essentially, a cabinet manufacturing outfit, and was a customer of the company I then worked for, bought a piece of land with many large oak and cedar trees on it, built himself a small sawmill, and proceeded to build a big house with lumber from his own land, featuring of course the beauty of the wood itself. Everything was varnished, not painted. It was SPECTACULAR. Given today’s cedar prices, not to mention construction costs in general, I can’t even begin to guess it’s present value. Except... It might not pass fire codes.
HaHa. Right after Paul’s post about the snake I see your picture. First thought - you were giving us a cooked snake recipe. Thanks for a smile to start my day.
Mmmmm…yum! Bacon, cheese, and tarragon wrapped with chicken! Thanks for the idea!
SNAKE? Yikes! We have Bullheads and they can get massive. Harmless, but they still give me a heart attack whenever I see one!
I admire people that can build things. I can GROW things, but not necessarily BUILD anything. Well, maybe a scarf or a hat or an afghan, LOL!
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