The Garden Thread - June, 2025

June 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.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

I am sorry you have been having Crazy weather lately. Its no fun!

[MomwithHope]

I’m sure Ithaca could give you a nice toothy pose. It would be a winner.

[MomwithHope]

Yes and it is well worth it to get 100% heavy cream with nothing added.

[MomwithHope]

Pemmican is a good idea, or donate some ground to a food kitchen for a big batch of chili. I have a nice Hudson Bay blanket in excellent condition.

[Qiviut]

It's a world of difference now living between 2 mountain ranges (1/2 mile from the base of one) as opposed to being a flatlander as we were previously. It's colder in the winter & Spring is at least a month later. The mountain range tends to funnel weather up the west side (we are on the east) and there has been 2 years of drought, bad enough we lost some large trees. This year, the pattern has changed & we are getting too much rain thus far, but it would not surprise me if starting in July, we stop getting rain.

The weather changes rapidly here, much more so than the previous flatland weather. The mountains can make their own weather to a degree & they also hide weather that's coming ... next thing you know, you see a black cloud starting to come across the top of the ridge ... ruh roh! You can see rain on the mountain & progressing our way. I sort of know now when I should quit watching & run for the shop or the house. We do get quite a few rainbows which I always love to see. Spring of last year, there were wildfires on the mountain. There is always something beautiful, exciting & sometimes scary going on around here!

Rain incoming:

Crazy clouds hiding mountain range after a big storm:

The latest rainbow:

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Ithaca is nothing if not a HAM, that’s for sure!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Those are some great shots from your new ‘home.’ I love where we live, too, if for nothing else than you can SEE the ‘weather’ developing and watch it head your way - right before it kills ya, LOL!

[FamiliarFace]

Those are excellent shots! That’s probably one of the prettiest rainbows I’ve ever seen captured.

[Pollard]

Even though my tunnel is just the roof right now, it did prevent rushing water and pounding rain issues and we've had so much rain, it hardly ever dried out. Sooner or later, I'll be trying to keep up with watering under it.

Old Iowa U article says cucumber seeds are good for 5 years.

Seed Saving Handbook by Jack Rowe says up to 10 years

I've got some bean seeds that were packed for 2020 that I probably need to ditch. Beans I planted last week are also 2020 so I'll see about those soon. Everything else I planted last week melon/squash were 2022 and should be fine. Several years ago, I tossed some grocery store white beans out in the yard that were long term food storage but were 10+ years old. Half of them sprouted just sitting on top of moist dirt.

The beans I planted are bush type but I have a few types of pole beans, also for 2020. Hate just throwing them away. Might stick a few of those in the ground and if they come up, drop some baling twine from the tunnel frame and let them climb that.

[Pollard]

bloom booster?

[Qiviut]

Much better rainbow pictures here:

https://postimg.cc/gallery/vGK4tV0

The last 3 were taken after a storm while leaving my cousin’s house - the ‘widest’ rainbow I have ever seen. The rest were taken at our place - the first 3 were a double rainbow, you can barely see it - most visible in first pic.

While I’m posting, here are a couple of sunsets from our place:

https://postimg.cc/gallery/qNVQG1j

[FamiliarFace]

Truly spectacular! I love rainbows and sunsets. Thank you for sharing your beautiful views!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

There are knock-off brands, I think I have 'Schultz' brand on hand. 10-52-10 formulation. I used it on my hanging flower baskets and they look GREAT all season. I use it on Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Peppers - anything that blooms and sets fruit. Usually one dose when they start flowering is fine, then I go back to the 10-10-10 as needed the rest of the season. Good stuff!

[Augie]

I hope to have the tunnel I’ve been building covered up by the time winter arrives.

At the rate I’m going I’ll be lucky to have it closed in by this time next summer.

[Paul R.]

Heh - ‘tis not gonna be cool around here any time soon. This weekend looks good for not much except a trip to swim at a clean lake. But, at least we should finally dry out a bit. (I was awakened a bit earlier by thunder and a few small hailstones hitting the awning over our back porch.)

Now, I may have to fight the battle of the surviving plants all having shallow root systems. All the stuff I planted deep has died or is in horrible shape.

BTW, it looks like the wood bees in the wellhouse have bitten the dust. Both active ingredients in the fogger spray ARE rated as highly toxic to bees: Tetramethrin (0.20%), and Phenothrin (0.20%) are not at particularly high concentration in this product*, but, apparently they persisted long enough to do the job, eventually.

* https://www.cutterinsectrepellents.com/en/products/backyard/backyard-bug-control-outdoor-fogger

Both are pyrethroids and thus, used properly, relatively safe for humans. But, keep the cats away...

[Paul R.]

NWS had us forecast for a pretty serious severe weather outbreak yesterday, but, it didn't happen. As they put it, regarding follow-up storms:

but given the way the models have handled this event, confidence is quite low.

And then we DID get storms later: Non severe, but with HEAVY rains. There's a flash flood warning just to my south. 'Tis not quite so bad here, but, about 1/3 of our yard has (shallow) standing water (ie., big puddles) in it. Again. The thunder woke me up - hopefully I'll get sleepy again shortly. ;-)

At least the severe stuff didn't materialize. I'd just removed another sizeable (~ 8" diameter where it broke off) branch from our ditch when we got back from our short camping trip. I cut it into 3 pieces and dragged those out of the ditch / away from the shoulder of the road, into the yard. Tomorrow morning I'll get back out there with the chain saw & try to co-opt daughter-san to pick up "small" pieces. Assuming we don't sink in...

[metmom]

We’re in for HOT next week, Mon and Tues (94)n both days. VERY unusual for us here in NH.

And we could use some drying out as well.

I was out in the garden yesterday and noticed the soil quality is showing signs of jumping worm damage. Very granular, like coffee grounds.

I keep a bucket with me of soapy water and whenever I see one, drop it in. I must have killed about 200 yesterday alone. I know there’s no end to them but every one less is a win. Fewer eggs for the winter.

We have a weed burner gadget that works on propane and since heat is known to kill the eggs, I thought come fall, we can treat the soil by flaming it. It would take care of other things as well.

However, the asparagus bed is off limits.

I tried a mustard drench for the soil and they really don’t like that. Nor do they like chili powder. The areas where there’s not lots of compost or wood chips, but it
s typical NH clay, seem to be devoid of them. Small wonder. The stuff is packed hard and tough to break up.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Cross Post - ‘A Passion For Fruit’

The histories of many different fruits.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4323964/posts

[Paul R.]

How deep would that weed burner’s heat go? When I dig up a jumper, it’s usually several inches deep.

Here, their casings (along with the other earthworms around) are a considerable improvement in any soil I’ve not dug up and replaced. But, we never seem to have a lot of them. In the leaf compost area / “worm bed”, at their height, there might be one, small to large, in 1-2 cu. ft. of soil. In other areas that’s more like every 10 cu. ft. of soil, and usually smaller garden worm size juveniles. Even so, the leaf pile is usually mostly gone by summer’s end if I keep it slightly damp under the surface.

The big jumpers are great fishing bait, but, it is a lot of work to dig up very many, even in the worm bed. Luckily, I find more in the way of more or less std. garden worms (at least 4 different species) that are fine for bluegill and redear sunfish, or used in multiples, even moderate size (2 lb.) channel and blue catfish.

Anyway, back to the weather, that follow up last night did pan out, with heavy rain just to our south*. We got only about 1/4” - ok with me. But now it looks like the spigot turns off for a week and the heat and humidity turn up considerably, more like a late July forecast, indefinitely. Yuck. But... this IS the mid-South here.

*And over toward Osceola, Arkansas, and Covington, Tennessee, holy smokes. The 24 hour rain estimates are literally off the (current) chart!

https://www.kfvs12.com/weather/ (Scroll down to the radar and enable “24 Hour Precipitation in “Layers”.)

[metmom]

I figure that I’ll just dig in their casings.

The eggs are supposedly closer to the top of the soil.

All we can do is try.