Posted on 05/01/2025 6:15:12 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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Yay...May. I am planting tomato and basil seeds under grow lights today. Here it really is not worth planting anything outsude except usual radishes, greens till about July 4th. I am babying two tomatoe starts outside with water walls.
Thanks for the 30 Day Forecast link.
Looking good here in North Idaho — 68 to 76 with most days 70-74 with some rain on half the days. Our rains usually pass through pretty quickly and we don’t get long, lingering torrential storms. Once the rains pass by, the sun comes out and we get the big white puffy cumulus clouds — wow! Sometimes we get four or five cycles of dark skies and rain, sun, more dark skies and rain, more sun, etc.
Can’t beat that forecast!
I have some neighbors here in central coastal Florida that have had lots of tomatoes and some cucumbers.
With unrelenting sun, it’s hard for me to keep plants alive. I’ll rip out my vegetable plants in about a week. I’ve only had a very modest yield of small tomatoes.
The rabbits are thriving. Fortunately, they are sticking to a diet of grass.
Good Morning! :-)
Is there a better month for beautiful flowers than May?
Irises and Henry Ford roses I brought into the house:
Hibiscus "Rum Runner" with geraniums in the background:
A cactus I've had for over 30 years that is blooming for the first time - I didn't know it even bloomed:
Double hibiscus, have no idea of the name, if came off the $1 table - back when Lowe's had a $1 table:
Rose, "Rock and Roll":
Exhausted after helping out in the garden:
Best compliment I ever got was from my ex-Amish neighbor. I brought him a box of tomatoes and he said, 'Girl, you sure can grow a tomato! They taste just like Ma's did when I was a kid!' I don't think I'll ever top that. ;)
'Rio Samba' Rose is one of the prettiest, IMHO:
Your MAY DAY post is still up - I commented on it, just checked and it’s still up - at least on my end.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4314391/posts?page=1#1..
No idea! I was posting a reply to you and saw that, too! You can post a condensed version of it here if you want.
(Maybe the Mods don’t want any ‘May Day’ schenanigans from our lurker friends at DU?)
Cool painting.
Hi all, in west Michigan here. Garden will be tilled soon. When it dries up. Lots of heavy rain today. Yesterday I went down there with my weedwhacker as there was a nice grass free winter cover of chickweed and some heal all over the whole garden. It was so dry yesterday, perfect to chop up that covering. It will be easier to till this way. Then we lay down the compost and till a second time. Planting time is usually later in May although I have three long patio planter boxes with lettuces and radishes coming up. I keep them covered with thin sheets of Plexiglas and a few heavy rocks. I’ve gotten the clemantis’s fertilized in time. Pawpaw trees got new plant food spikes last week. We are loaded with blossoms. We are using the reflective streamers again this year, only more of them. That seems to work the best at keeping the birds away. Nice to hear about everyones gardens.
I looked back on my browser’s history links and it was pulled for ‘No Link’..................in General / Chat???.......
They just started here, leaves are just barely starting to show. Will be black fly season as soon as they do... ugggh.
We had a lot of cool weather (for us) this past winter and apparently that's why the roses are blooming so great this spring:
Scentsational:
A 25 year old rose, Ebb Tide:
And a new purple rose I added last year called "Love"
That’s the replacement post. The original was pulled because of link missing.................
We have been growing cherry tomatoes of different varieties in upside down buckets that hang off the overhang of the garage. They really produce a ton of sweet tomatoes. 🍅 and are really easy to care for- no weeding or anything. Just water em. We were eating them well past the first frosts too.
Some pretty stunning flowers there- cool cactus too!
BTW, my cleaning lady was getting something from my garden shed and jumped back, screaming she saw a snake. She saw something skinny moving, for a second or two. No positive I.D. and I didn't see it. Maybe today we'll move some things which are against the wall and explore. I don't think there are any poisonous snakes in Baltimore.
Here is what we used to use (we just use buckets now with a hole drilled in bottom that the plant works down through)
That is a very good idea for me, I did cut a 55 gallon water barrel in half and use it for a pot for a Sun Sugar cherry tomato plant but I like to have things that are interesting, and your idea would be a simple variation that I could play with.
There is a video on the link that shows growing other plants like strawberries and hot peppers and some other things too in them. We are gonna try the strawberries in the buckets this year, maybe the peppers too.
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