The Garden Thread - May, 2025

May 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.

[Liz]

Baked Springtime Asparagus in Cheese / A side that puts your meal over the top.

Ing 1 lb trimmed asparagus, 3 tbl ol/oil, 1 tbl minced garlic 1 cup shredded fave cheese, 1/4 c Parm

Steps single layer asparagus on sheetpan; s/p. Pour on combined garlic/oil; turn-coat completely. Bake 425 deg 15 min. Sprinkle w/ cheeses; bake til cheese is melted; top begins to brown.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Roasted Asparagus is DA BOMB! I’m on the tail-end of my harvest for the season, but we added 10 additional crowns to beef up the patch for the future.

I love it wrapped in BACON and baked. Yummy!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Master List of Additional Harvests in a Kitchen Garden

Welcome to my master list of plants commonly grown in kitchen gardens that give you more than one edible harvest. The purpose of this list is to show you how your garden is even more productive than you may realize, and I guarantee you will learn about an additional edible harvest that you haven’t yet come across!

It is my hope that with this list, all gardens become 20-30% more productive with no extra effort than simply knowing all the edible parts of a plant. This is a perfect example of the permaculture principle of stacking functions which is about understanding every single utility of an element on top of its primary function.

https://huwrichards.substack.com/p/master-list-of-additional-harvests

Garlic
Leeks
Onions
Shallots
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Kale (Yay!)

...and the list goes on! I found this list very handy/helpful/useful.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Well, I use T fence posts, the type that you can string barbed wire on, but I do not think what you are working with.

Maybe it would be worth talking to one of your local relatives and see if they have something like a chain or pipe clamp that could be used? There may be something that you can buy cheaply that would make it easier?

Clamps

Other suggestions... soak the earth around the posts to make it easier to pull them up. Try it on one first. Perhaps get a large masonry drill and drill around them to loosen the compacted soil on either side before you try to pull them up. Again, talk to relations who might have a 1/2" drill and bit and would enjoy a visit and some of your cooking! Good Luck!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

I was at the local "International" grocery store and purchased some bulk rose hips, which I think can be brewed into tea or used to make something like Rosehip preserves. (Probably apple preserves with rose hip flavoring!) Of course, in northern places like Scandinavia and Russia they are a good winter source of vitamin C.

I found this online article from Gardens Illustrated on growing roses for the rosehips for winter display. (Diana, Sissingham gardens in England mentioned.)

Top roses to grow for rosehips

And another link to the Spruce that discusses how to use them in cooking (Looking at you Liz!).

How to Harvest and Use Rose Hips

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Diana;

Thanks! Its a great list for a kitchen Garden (Soup and salad garden)! Some of those are very good starter vegetables for beginning gardens. ( Radish, turnips, herbs, beets, tomatos, carrots.) A good list for "Pensioners" like me and probably a lot of others on this thread! (You Augie...You have tractors and a small farm!!! :0 )

[Liz]

Rose Hip Jelly............a great ing on a tray of
sandwiches for an elegant English afternoon tea.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

* Sissingham BUMP * Thanks! :)

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

OK; Pictures of my Mid-May "Kitchen Garden".

The white dollar store wire baskets are protecting recently planted tomatoes from squirrels and providing some shading after being moved to the outside. They are also protecting some french marigolds I had to actually buy this year. (Gathered seeds did not sprout. Probably too old.) I have one row of true indeterminate Black From Tula tomatoes, but have tried to use 5-6 foot semi determinate varieties for the reset of my plantings.

Far back right, planting of Estonian Garlic, large heads with mild flavor. Top setting red onions in front of the garlic , and japanese mulitplier onions right and on this side of the path.

Blu D Soleil leek that I did not harvest and will allow to set seed.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I liked that the list used every part of the plant. I try so hard not to waste a speck of food - and it’s easier with scrap-eating chickens, a Mule that will eat anything that won’t eat him first, a Beagle that agrees with the Mule, scraps saved for making soup stock and a big compost pile. ;)

Even something as easy as pealing the lower end of an asparagus stalk to make it more tender. Same with broccoli stalks, but I REALLY dislike it when I buy some frozen broccoli and it’s nothing BUT stumps! GRRR!

Liz! I’m making the Bacon Wrapped Asparagus for supper with the last of what I just picked out of the garden. Also BBQ Chicken (no one I know!) in the crock pot and some (cheater from a box) Cornbread, but the Krusteaz brand is really good, IMHO.

https://www.allrecipes.com/bacon-wrapped-asparagus-6572419

[Qiviut]

All 7 T-posts are OUT! Cost of project= Zero since I already had the jack, wire & scrap 2x4. Here's the setup I used - turned out to be easy peasy once the 2x4 was wired to the post(s):

Thanks to all for advice, videos, etc.

PS - the lean-to is a mess, courtesy of the previous owner. I have a lot of work to do yet, but I will post before & after pics when the cleanup is done - the difference will be dramatic!

[metmom]

Got a question.

I’m trying to find a decent size bag of bone meal. I know it comes in 24# but I can hardly find it anywhere and most places that do carry it are extortionately priced.

Any idea where to get some at a decent price?

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Qiviut.....you got it! Wow! Easier that I thought! (And YOU remembered what your father did and were able to apply it to your situation!) Now you also have some salvaged fencing stakes that you can use in your garden! (Was that originally a loiter shed for cows or horses?)

(**Tomato trellising idea using your recovered stakes. Pound the stakes 8 or so feet apart in your tomato plot. Tie a 10' long electrical conduit at the top of 2 fencing posts, plant 3 or 4 semi determinate tomatoes, mature height of 5 or 6 feet tall underneath. Pound in a stake at the base of the tomato, paracord from the state to the crosspiece, clip the tomatoes as the grow with no need to tear up hundreds of strips of cloth to secure your tomatoes to a stake.)

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Rose Hip Jelly............a great thing on a tray of sandwiches for an elegant English afternoon tea

Along with the bread, butter and cucumber sandwiches.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Pigs would make short work of any scraps, but I lived about a mile from a pig farm growing up and you knew when the wind was from the southwest so I am not so sure pigs are a good idea for most home gardeners. Chicken and quail, and let the Corn and Hog operations grow your bacon for you!

[Qiviut]

All I know is what the previous owner (lived here 7 years) used it for & that was for storing firewood. I guess he sold the wood - certainly more on site than he could use. It appears he split it under one end end of the shed - lots of bark, wood splinters, etc. There’s even a big old piece of stump he probably used for a base when he split a log.

At least 3 of those posts are going to another project. The woven wire fence along the boundary line with the neighbor is falling over on us due to some rotten fence posts. We’re going to push the fence upright, put a post in where it can support the rotten post & wire them together.

Since this is the first year at this location, I don’t have a garden except 2 raised beds for a medicinal herb garden & 8 jalapeño plants (I have a huge demand for jalapeño pepper jelly). There are another 3 raised beds I made for my mom for cut flowers. For vegetables/produce, I am buying local from several small markets in the area - we’re very much in the country & there are quite a few folks selling produce, including our next door neighbor.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"there are quite a few folks selling produce, including our next door neighbor."

Its a good way to meet people and share information. Good opportunity to find out ways to help your community I suppose.

[Paul R.]

I found this online for bone meal presently @ $24.99 for a 20 lb. bag from Ace Hardware, with free shipping to the store:

https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lawn-and-garden/gardening/plant-food/7309685

but I don’t know if that applies to an Ace Hardware store near you...

[metmom]

Nice!

I’ll look for one. If not here, maybe in NY near where we have our cottage.

Thank you!!