The Garden Thread - July, 2025

July, 1, 2025 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Glad you and your neighbors are OK! No, I know that Dodgeville is a about 1/2 a county away, just not sure the media knows!

Its raining here, which is good. I hate spending money on water. (My father paid about $15 a year for city water which came from Lake Michigan. Here that would be a week or two depending on the weather.)

A lightening strike and power surge and my Battery/surge protector shut the computer down, although not the lights in the house. Restarted with no problems. Happy cukes! I suppose I should start some. Tomatoes are coming in. Picking at color break and ripening inside. I removed some larger suckers from my tomatoes about 5 days ago and stuck them in glass jars in water. They kicked out roots and I planted them just before the rain. (Used some of the 70-75 day varieties so hoping for some Indian Summer tomatoes.) The volunteer pumpkins are growing aggressively and will be happy. Same for the Sweet potatoes.

I picked the 2 pound Old German (or maybe Pineapple) slicing tomato and it ripened perfectly. I decided to celebrate by going and buying an excellent rosemary sourdough loaf (3 days fermenting before bake) and we had that, the tomato, and basil for lunch and dinner. Primo!

Alas tomato queen! Perhaps you will be able to salvage something after everything dries off!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Alas! I don't remember that!

(I do have some Aunt Ruby's Green tomatoes that probably ripen green and probably fry up better than actual green tomatoes!)

[FamiliarFace]

You should watch it again. Great acting! That movie and Driving Miss Daisy are two of my favorites. Jessica Tandy is in both of them. She nails her characters!

I’ve never had a ripe green tomato that I know of, just the early red ones before they change color. As soon as they start to turn, they aren’t the same.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Expensive repairs! It does not sound like your arborist made any money on your tree removal.

You could also try a fragrance garden with things like lilacs and Mock Orange. Diane might have some other suggestions.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Thanks! In looking at it on the internet its a bit like a jungle!

I hope whatever you have growing is doing well!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Green Tomato....It does have some blush and softens up a bit to let you know its ready. While you want the red in tomatoes, I suppose it is not a bad thing to have a tomato that ripens without reddening if you have a lot of warm weather!

(Brave aggregator gives this info: "Tomatoes stop producing lutein when temperatures reach 85°F to 90°F. At these high temperatures, the plants do not produce lycopene and carotene, which are responsible for the ripe tomato color, and this likely affects the production of other carotenoids like lutein. Additionally, high night temperatures above 70°F can interfere with the ripening process and the formation of red coloration in tomatoes."

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Stay safe! Hope you do not lose power or your roads!

[Qiviut]

LOL ....power is out! Two hours after the storm cleared & no warning, just suddenly out. We belong to a cooperative & they usually do a pretty good job restoring power. Per the app where I reported the outage, 1,500 people are out in our area & a crew is on-site. Estimated time to fix is another hour & a half.

[FamiliarFace]

Sadly, they did not. We have worked with his gentleman and his family for years, so he gave us a really decent offer. We offered to pay in cash, and he accepted. When we handed him the cash, he said, you know, this is going straight into the night deposit slot!

I think going forward he will probably have to recoup some of his losses on this one. Honestly, I wouldn’t blame him. It wasn’t our fault, and it wasn’t his fault. It was just one of those things that happen. Normally, if another company had done this much damage to our lawn, I would be upset, but with these guys, I just can’t be. It will take us some time to recover the grass, but with time, it will be okay.

I think the idea of a fragrance garden is a good idea! Thank you for that idea! So much needs to change over there now, but I like that fragrances can help you be meditative and relaxed, which was the point of the old garden. It was full of native wildflowers, mostly because there were so many hickory nuts dropping in the soil that whatever was there HAD to get along with those nuts.

It was a lovely sitting area. The one thing about this that works for me is that sometimes you need to make a change. I tend to get stuck in my old ways. This is forcing me to rethink the design of the area.

I try to make my yard a bit like a country Victorian garden, since our house is Victorian style, and a little bit like a botanical garden. And a little bit rural and woodsy. LOL. I want a bit of everything, don’t I?

[FamiliarFace]

I hope that works!

We have a portable generator because where we are, there are so many mature trees, a branch or two is bound to fall on a power line with any storm that comes through.

Stay safe!

[Qiviut]

Power back on - yay! They beat their estimated time by about an hour.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Good deal!

[Liz]

Oreo Mousse Cake
So simple to put together, tastes as decadent as fancy restaurant desserts. Have fun garnishing it as you like, using crushed or whole Oreos, additional whipped cream rosettes or chocolate shavings. . Can you make Oreo mousse cake ahead of time? Oreo mousse cake tastes best when it's served within 1 to 2 days. Since you can make it ahead, it's great for parties.

Ingredients for 16 servings 1 package (14.3 ounces) Oreo cookies, crushed 1/3 cup butter, melted 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped 3 cups heavy whipping cream 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar Additional whole or crushed Oreos, optional

Directions Crust mix 2 cups crushed cookies and butter. Press onto bottom of a greased 9-in. springform pan. Refrigerate until ready to use. Mousse: Pour 1/2 c heated h/cream over chocolate to melt; stir smooth. Cool to room temp. In 2nd bowl, beat cream and confectioners' sugar to stiff peaks; fold 4 cups into cooled chocolate. Spread over crust. Spread remaining whipped cream over top. Cover/chill to set, about 3 hours. Garnish with additional Oreos.

[Paul R.]

Heweeyy-golly. Wifey still wants to go camping, and the humidity is going to be awful. Next week it gets even worse, with dewpoints around 78 deg. F, and the heat index is going to be brutal. Maybe as high as 115 deg. F.

Hopefully this won’t do in either me or the garden. I’ll try to be careful with both...