Posted on 06/01/2025 5:48:14 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.
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.
The big alfalfa field across the road from the church just got cut. It should be a ‘hot’ (80’s) week & dry - great baling weather. Alfalfa mildews/molds easily so it needs to be dry before baling. I know the farmer (my cousin’s fiance) so we have interesting conversations at family gatherings, etc. He’s trying to talk me into getting a horse since I had horses for 40 years, but no dice so far. I can have an intelligent conversation on hay & we both have commercial size JD mowers (his mower is bigger) so he likes talking to me :-)
I will have my own ‘hayfield’ to deal with this week - grass shot up at least an inch just the last couple of days.
My favorite play was one my high school put on: “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” ... it was great!
I wonder how capsaicin-based repellant would help. Only mammals are affected, and they are affected fairly strongly.
Also, there are mice and voles. Voles burrow more more.
Leaves are fine as mulch, as long as they don’t form mats which repel water. (And aren’t walnut). Generally if they are scrunched or chopped up leaves are fine as mulch.
How do the onions taste? If weaker flavor they might need suffer.
These are lots of tunnels.
Perhaps they are voles. I thought they looked like mice. But I’m not well versed on vermin.
Congrats to your graduates! We had two in our family also this year. What a world they’re going out into. Hope they all learn to garden and grow their own food, as well as beautiful flowers.
When I got into my 70s, my sons gave me a 14-foot chain saw! They had high-pressure jobs and were also getting pressure from me playing my "ittle old lady" card concerning my trees. I love that saw! I can use it from the ground instead of a ladder and loppers, and also I stick it out of the upstairs window to do one of the trees that brushes the house!
Yep. Tomatoes don’t pollinate when over about 85F.shade cloth really helps them in the hottest part if you can get it above them.
My cherry tomatoes tend to stop producing new tomatoes for about a month in the July to August time period when it is hot even in early morning but still produce ones that already started.
Tomatoes are a tropical understory plant that doesn’t like excessive humidity or full tropical sun. We grow them in full sun in the U.S. because the sunlight here is less intense, but it still is native to warm but not hot mountains.
Tomatoes don’t like wet leaves, but they *really* don’t like splashed leaves. After they get tall enough, any leaves below a foot from the ground need to be gone. Like you said, any mulch which clumps enough to shed the water is a problem, but as long as you don’t get large mats, I’ve found leaves to be fine - and even better if they’ve been run over by the lawnmower a few times.
I’ve only used them for cooking so far, haven’t tasted one raw, so it’s hard to say if they have less flavor than average. Good point about the sulfur, though, and I’ll keep it in mind for future onion growing. Easy enough to mix a little into the dirt.
Down south you could well get by planting onion seeds in October. They handle cold just fine and burst into growth in early spring - though sometimes they’ll think they are two years old and send up flowers.
Oh, and make very sure you have short day onions that far south, or they will just sit waiting for long northern days before fully bulbing.
Yeah, we’ll try again in the fall. No point planting more onions right now, coming into the really hot and dry weather.
That might have been why our onions sometimes didn't bulb in other years. Although even here, the longest days are light for 15 hours or more.
We have one of those and they’re great!
There’s also a difference between long day onions and short day onions.
Here in the north, we do long day, but apparently they won
t bulb if the days don’t get long enough. Just what I’ve heard, not based on experinece.
Qiviut; I am sorry you had that storm, and am glad you survived (reasonably) intact!
I am a fan of columbine. I bought a yellow columbine last week. Also bought a Bluebird blue columbine and grew some McKana hybrid columbine from seeds. I need to get them in a partly shady garden so they don’t burn up.
high winds are usually cool here, not far from the ocean. I planted them from seed last year, and they are perennial, bless the Lord.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.