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.

[FamiliarFace]

I do love them with plain, with butter, s&p, too, but when I make fried green maters, I make cheesy grits to go with them. They are a fine southern delicacy.

Now you’re making me want to have some! I will need to walk 10 miles to take off the calories that I’d be taking in though!

[AFB-XYZ]

Unbelievably, the turnips that I had started by seed and then transplanted to a large pot on the porch have survived! It was touch-and-go for about two weeks, but I think they may make it. The parsnips are getting their second set of leaves, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

The only thing that’s not doing well is the carrots. They’re not doing squat. The recent extremely heavy rains (and we’re supposed to get more all weekend), have taken a toll.

Thanks to you Fiana — and everyone else on this thread — for all the knowledge you’ve given! :-)

[AFB-XYZ]

Arch! “Diana”, not “Fiana”. We need an edit function!

[FamiliarFace]

I’m surprised it didn’t autocorrect to Fiona!

[Pollard]

Made it through the week. I hate the first couple of weeks at a job trying to figure out the atmosphere and personality of a place, where things are, how things are done etc. This place seems generally normal. A far cry from the last two places I worked that overdid the rules and regs and treated adults like children in some institution. Last place just loved making you reference your employee number as much as possible. I don't even know if I have one here.

Last place had a safety coordinator who doled out and would keep track of safety glasses, ear plugs etc and would let everyone know that those ear plugs cost $1.20 a pair.

This place has a mass dispenser of 3M ear plugs. Grab them when you need some. They have a vending machine with Sharpies, highlighters, rubber palmed gloves, safety glasses etc. No cost or tracking who gets what. Just hit a couple of generic keys and the item number.

No notes hanging everywhere like the last place bitching about little petty things like "To reduce costs, use only two sheets of paper towel to dry your hands". It really takes three and they're a GFSI participant so hand washing, and drying, is a major thing. Besides, who wants to grab a wet door handle because people can't get their hands fully dry?

PTO rules changed three times while I was there. So many little things to drive a person crazy and then they wonder why there's a high turnover rate. Well gee, when the owner says in a newsletter that "people change jobs more often than their underwear", I can't imagine. There was one girl who worked one day and up and died. He mentioned her as being hired "with the expectation that they would work here for some time". He was upset that she had cost him money with the hiring process and lack of ROI. The nerve of her dying like that. I almost walked out that day when I read that. Cold hearted bastard.

I've been remembering all kinds of things like that this week that I must have mentally blocked out. Recovering from Stockholm Syndrome.

My boss here, at least while I'm on the weekday shift training, seemed like a hard nosed old redneck, my way or the highway, type at first but is actually open minded and has humility and humor. The guy who will be my boss on the weekend shift is kinda wired but other than that, seems easy going.

I understand the process, math and mechanics of it all and just need to learn X, Y and Z(plus and minus) and the keypads and various screens on this thing. Then they'll stick me on a different model to learn that one and then probably another and so on. :)

They're also handing me training literature that they're in the process of writing and want feedback from someone that's going through the learning process and has no preconceptions. Problem is, I do have preconceptions on copy writing and formatting. "It looks great - only thing I would do different is completely change it". That'll go over well. :~) I'll just make one suggestion at a time every other day or three.

[MomwithHope]

That all sound good. Glad it is working out.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

PM

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Thanks for the wake up and hope your day is as Extra sparkly as your wake up graphic! (Just cloudy here...will UKs sulfer dioxide contrails plan plunge us into 8 months of unintended vegetation free darkness? Globalist scum!)

Time to strain my green tea / ginger tea. (Decocted with smashed frozen aronia berries for a mild purple kick!)

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

I think they eat rattlesnakes too, so good to have around the yard.

Keeping them nearby...leave a lot of corn around, attract rats and mice and give them a nice rock covered place to hide during the day and maybe they will hang around?

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Kernel Corn on a hook if you are trying to catch hatchery fish.

[Pollard]

How gardening is going for me: It’s not, really. I planted a bunch of cold hardy type seeds a month late just to give me something to do while waiting on phone calls or emails for a job. Same with reorganizing the shed and my tools last weekend. Busy work but in that case, something that needed to be done anyway.

This week, all my mental attention has been on the new job and I didn’t bother going out to the shed for the past few days and it’s been warm. Between neglect and signs of a little mouse friend, the seedlings are mostly wiped out.

Will try and save the tatsoi and salanova lettuce and few other things that survived and will set a couple of mouse traps. Will have to search the shed for gaps that a mouse could fit through but it’s also just getting too hot in there at this point. Might bring them and a couple of grow lights up here to the house.

Another year of what seems like a 30 degree jump of avg daily temp in a few weeks. April is the new May.

Bought some tomato and pepper plants Monday and will get them in the ground today. Just a few of each and that might be all I do for Spring/Summer.

As for the tunnel, I’m shooting for having it closed in and operational by cold weather — again.

[Pollard]

the keypads and various screens on this thing

the keypads and various screens on one of these things.
Pic is from the web of the same make and model as the one at work.

Makino PS95 (15 year old model with used machines available for just - $75-90k)

Pic is just the control keys/screen/computer, Makino Pro P Control.

[left that other site]

Good Morning to You!

[daniel1212]

Thanks 4 the ping. Not much to show, but about 100 tom seedlings and a few B. Sq. awaiting planting while being hardened off in about 45-55 weather at night. Last frost date here is May 15, but temps went to warm after a frigid Sat. 2 weeks ago, and I only see on one 40 degree night forecast in the next 10 days.

I planted 3 test toms already 3 days ago, doing fine so far. I may plant many this week, God willing, thank Him.

[daniel1212]

That is simply too clean (thank God).

[Pollard]

Nice

[daniel1212]

Back in the 70’s my brother came to visit. He walked down to the river and caught a big catfish. About 3 feet long. That thing would just not die. I remember giving him a pair of those big pruning hooks to cut the head off. We planned on eating the fish. Once cut off, the head kept walking along the sidewalk for several minutes. Brother turned white as a sheet.

Suspected that this was a fish story, but

The Invasive Catfish That Walks Across Parking Lots The walking catfish, as its name suggests, can move quite well on land. It can cover up to 1.2 kilometers and can survive up to 18 hours out of water. And this tends to freak out some people. Will anyone believe this? Noah Bressman will. He knows that catfish walking across parking lots isn’t out of the realm of science fiction. It’s happening in Florida. Bressman, currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Chapman University, researches amphibious fish – fish that can move on land. https://blog.nature.org/2020/07/23/the-invasive-catfish-that-walks-across-parking-lots/

[FamiliarFace]

Report from our county 4-H Master Gardener Show. “Gardening For All Ages” was terrific! I found a lot of what I was looking for. Alas, we didn’t quite get the early start I’d wanted, so I missed out on a paw-paw tree! That’s my biggest regret. Hubby wanted to eat breakfast out first, so we were a little behind what I had hoped for. Maybe next year?

Anyway, I scoured the whole place first for the lady that had the great herbs that I’ve purchased before. She was in almost the same spot as before, so I got almost everything I was looking for. I purchased French tarragon, two types of oregano, one that should be winter hardy, but not the Greek kind (which has little flavor in my opinion), a variegated sage, lemon verbena, catnip, garlic chives, sweet marjoram, and lovage. She had chervil, but I haven’t had much success with that so I’m going to try these from her.

No Virginia Bluebells but I got some advice on when to see if I can divide the ones I have. In a few weeks as they start to die back. Plus, at least now I have a contact for next year.

I was also told by one vendor that there’s a native wildflower show next weekend, so I’ll have to look out for that.

Lots of fun items for yard art or in a garden area. I didn’t buy any of that this year.

I also got some advice on how to get rid of the Amur Honeysuckle which is invasive around here. Ten year long project, just keep at it. It’s all over the place in my yard. I pull up the little ones, but they said to trim back the bigger ones and to use roundup applied with a sponge tip paint bottle.

It is a very pretty Spring Day here. High will get to mid 60’s maybe. Lows tonight will get near 40, so I’ll bring in some of the tender things.

Gotta get to work!

[MomwithHope]

Nice pics! Are those cottage cheese containers I see? Been using them for years and have converted Diana. Especially good for tomatoes, they can get good sized before you sticking them in the ground.

[MomwithHope]

Neat story. Imagine the surprise at seeing just a head walking.