The Garden Thread - July, 2025

July, 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.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I had one that belonged to my Grandpa. All wood and metal and hand-made. I donated it to The Seed Savers Exchange when I worked there - we used it in window displays at our Monroe Street store and now Diane uses it at the Welcome Center at the farm in Decorah, IA.

I’ve visited, ‘my plow’ twice so far. :)

[Bon of Babble]

Maybe your next project can be a greenhouse?

I’m dying for one myself - and there are some you can put together yourself - then you can have your tropicals.

My brother has one and I’m green with envy every time I visit -he has beautiful tropical orchids and carnivorous plants inside.

I’m thinking of asking Santa this year for one - and my son is really good at putting things together...

[Bon of Babble]

Yes, there is a lot of depression around here in California - gas prices, high taxes and more so I do anything I can to cheer up the area. I get a ton of compliments on my seasonal yard decor, lights, blow-ups, etc. - each and every day someone tells me how much the decor cheers them up and how much they appreciate it - little kids, elderly, people who barely speak English, dog walkers and more.

A mother four blocks over told me her kids demand that she drive past my house every day to see my Snoopy flags and if I’ve put up anything new - another neighbor told me he makes his wife walk past my house every night so they can see my “fairly lights” and the pink string lights I have up around my fence.

I wish more people would put up yard decor - and, I’m glad to bring joy wherever I can.

[MomwithHope]

Our old chiropractor went to Palmer. We loved his methods, all the reflexology and all. He moved to Colorado years ago.

[MomwithHope]

Ah I knew it. You’ve got a real ministry.

[Pollard]

It seems I have a powdery mildew issue. Saw it first on the tatsoi which I figured was a summer heat issue, then on celery and thought the same plus the stalks are fine and that's the edible part anyway and now on the baby cukes and melons which can obviously take the heat.

So I asked perplexity.ai - diseases or conditions that cause white or light colored spots on the foliage of garden vegetables including brassica greens, cucurbits and melons but not tomatoes or peppers.

One or more of 11,000 different types of Powdery mildew was #1 and most common. I have no purple so it's not downy mildew and all else were obscure conditions.

My maters and peppers are unaffected. The #1 cure is to plant resistant varieties and by my reading, I'm kinda stuck with it now that it's here. Pull all affected plants and trash or burn them. That would be everything but the tomatoes and peppers. Treat as soon as you see -- too late

And now I feel like pulling all my mulch out so things can dry up and also wondering if I didn't bring it in with the hay I'm mulching with. I just started mulching but the hay has been sitting in the tunnel for a few months now and I've never had an issue with any sort of foliage condition until now.

I can see why some people don't bring in "resources" from outside. I brought horse nestle here with a load of horse manure and now possibly downy mildew with some hay.

Resistant Varieties rules out Baker Creek for seeds since they don't rank anything by resistance to common issues. Just did a search on rareseeds.com for "powdery" and got a whopping 12 results including 6 squashes and 2 flowers.

Well this sucks.

[Augie]

It’s hotter’n a popcorn fart here in the Middle of Misery today. Power outage hit the orifice building where I hardly work so I’m finishing the day from home.

Pulled weeds as long as I could stand to after work yesterday. Another 30 minutes will have the 75’ asparagus row finished up. Finished around the rhubarbs/squash/cukes yesterday after work.

Still no sign of the sweet corn. I guess the seeds must have cooked before they sprouted. Oh well...

Howard is good help in the garden. He lays in the shade, snaps at flies, laps water out of his dish, and barks at me while I work.

[Paul R.]

Good link. :-)

In fact, the info. says that catnip should see some afternoon shade if in the deep South. I’m “mid South”, pretty much like you, and I have areas ranging from about 3/4 sun to full shade, and sun in the morning vs. sun in the afternoon, so, I have lots I can try. I just have to get the darn things to germinate in the 1st place. :-)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I have a greenhouse. It’s unheated, though. It’s great in the spring for getting a jump on things and great for extending ‘crops’ into the fall. It’s pretty useless after the end of May - on a sunny, 70 degree day it can hit 100 degrees in there!

This year my ‘experiment’ is with tomatoes that I’m rooting now and will pot up. I’m going to see how long I can keep fresh tomatoes and salad greens going in there. My record is December 25th, but that was a VERY mild winter that year. ;)

I would like electricity to the greenhouse so I could heat and cool it - but that just means more work for me. By the time I’ve canned the last jar of Salsa or V-8 Juice and all of the Fall apples are processed, I’ve about HAD IT, LOL!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’m sure you’re getting it in spades this season with all of the WET.

When I have it (usually on Zucchini plants in a wet season) I use Copper Spray and that works like a charm. Zinnia seem to get it too, and a blast of copper usually helps them, though they make so many mildew-resistant varieties now that it’s not usually a problem.

I wouldn’t beat yourself up about the straw; it’s more of a moisture thing with MORE than perfect conditions for All The Mildews this season. :(

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thanks for the, ‘Howard Report.’ We expect one every week, now! :)

My Walker Dogs and some of the Plott Hounds will be heading up to Bear Camp with Beau after the holiday weekend.

It will be nice to just have 5 or 6 dogs to care for, versus the 12-13 on the grounds, now. That’s a LOT less chit to shovel every day! :)

‘Someone’ said he is cutting back on dogs and throwing in with his buddy and they will ‘share’ hunting dogs as they bear hunt together all the time, anyway.

PLEASE! Make It So! :)

I hardly know what to do with myself in this puppy-less season, but it IS nice to have the Front Porch to myself, I will admit that! :)

[Paul R.]

Yikes! Very bad boating accident down on KY Lake, this afternoon. Those of you going boating, esp. this holiday weekend, be careful!!!

https://westkentuckystar.com/News/Local-Regional/Marshall-County-responders-report-boat-crash-near

[Qiviut]

The last board (I think) is up on the lean-to project. I had one section of pieced together cattle panel & T-posts that the former owner had up & I decided to leave it. The last board was one to run along the top of the cattle panel to give me a solid edge & steady it up. I had 8 ft. boards (96”) & needed 104”. Hmmmm. After one false start (plan not working), I came up with a much better one that did work.

Mowers are moved & gas cans. Tomorrow is the heavy stuff: bags of gravel, sand, pack of shingles, 45 fire bricks, slabs of slate & some pavers. I have a pallet for most of it to sit on. Once I get it moved, I’ll post some before, between & after pics.

I will be ready to ‘celebrate’ on the 4th. I might try my hand at Omaha steak burgers on the 2nd hand grill I bought from a cousin & cleaned up :-)

[Pollard]

Snapped some pics. The odd thing is that from what I've read, downey mildew tends to be pretty plant specific although I did read that you can easily have more than one type at the same time -- favorable conditions and all that.

Italian Oregano (I still munch on a leaf every time I go out there)

Tatsoi (might munch on a nice green leaf)

Celery (Tried it - tastes like celery)

Squash

Cucumber

Bean

Watermelon

Seems like a lot of plant types -- mildew types or maybe it's something else. Tomato and pepper completely unaffected. Brassica, an herb, cucurbits, bean, celery.

Tatsoi is well past it's prime growing season so I may as well pull it. Not eating leaves that I spray with something. I can pull it, pick out all the good looking leaves to eat and burn the rest. Celery stalks not affected and they're growing good otherwise. I do have one crowding the Shishito plant so I'll pull it out and eat baby celery. If everything else survives and makes fruits/beans, that works.

Of course part of me wants to pull it all to help prevent it from loading up the soil with spores.

[Pollard]

Good Article - https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/controlling-or-eliminating-powdery-mildew/

[Bon of Babble]

Yes. A dear friend runs a grief group and asked me to speak about how gardening can alleviate grief and how to go about it.

[MomwithHope]

Its working for me.

[metmom]

The garden thread is my favorite because of the civility of it, plus hearing how others are doing and getting ideas for things to try.

[Pollard]

FarmWP site got hacked. Still had access to admin, just not front end. Was able to save/export all data. Cloned broken site to a subdomain in case I need to reference it. Installed new site at root url and am up and running WITH a security plugin this time. I always use one except for this one time.

Made a fresh subsite for my own use. The content type Plant Problems is my first content -- for Powdery Mildew (plant_problem_138).

On a PC, it's two columns with details and pics on left and Description and Solutions on right. This is a small tablet view.

I need to get some potassium carbonate.

[Qiviut]

Lean-to project pics (red trailer & sawhorses are mine):

The only thing left to do is put gravel down in front of support columns where it's now muddy. I hate the thought of shoveling (heavy!) gravel, but it will be worth it when it's done.