The Garden Thread - August, 2025

August 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.

[Pollard]

My brother is bringing his pole saw up & after mom sees that, we might be getting one of those, too!

I was eyeballing those as well and need one around here and also had a thought. I could lop off most of the branches of a downed tree without even bending over.

Also had another idea.

For all the years I've owned an air impact gun and thought about it when changing a flat or needing one to do something else not near an air compressor.

This is what I was looking for 4-5 years ago when I wanted to revive my old Ryobi stuff but the one they had back then got bad reviews. This one gets good reviews.

Just put my Stihl chain saw and string trimmer on the tailgate of the truck and will work on them in the morning. Couldn't start the trimmer a couple of months ago but it ran 3-4 months before that. Last time I used the chain saw, it would fall flat when I pulled the trigger. It started just now but died pretty quick. I'm sure a thorough fuel system cleaning will fix them and will look at the plugs and get them if needed. I've got fresh 91 octane gas too. Get those running and the cordless saws and trimmer can take a back seat for a while.

After the impact gun, a pole saw might be next as I do have an immediate use for one. I've got branches nearly scuffing the roof. $130 and comes with 2.0 Ah batt plus charger, 9.5" reach.

I've owned and used nothing else for drills at home and when self employed for 30 years now. First the Ryobi 18V ni-cad and then a Porter Cable 20V lithium, both with 1/2" chuck and using 4.0 Ah batteries. Hammer drills were the corded exception. When I was younger, I might have to swap batteries before I was done but these days, a battery will wear me out before I wear it out.

[Qiviut]

No worries about the little Nigerian Dwarf goat being lonely. She is getting a 2nd Nigerian Dwarf from a friend locally, so there will be two.

[MomwithHope]

Nice. They’ll be happy.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

So glad it was JUST a dream!

Pretty sure it was a combination of my LACK of tomatoes this season and my imagination of whatever is going on at Bear Training Camp with my ‘Baby Girl’ Blackfoot and her not being here, lounging on the porch, while protecting me from bears. :)

[Paul R.]

Darn, I’ll have to walk a good bit to see this one. Lots of tall trees to our east...

[Paul R.]

Does anyone know why 4 cu. ft. of Perlite is considered 103 (or thereabouts) quarts of material by some sellers, while others go with the “straight” conversion of 4 cu. ft. to 120 quarts? I see the 4 cu. ft. = 103 quarts stated for vermiculite, from some sellers, as well.

[Pollard]

It's a fake sizing. Quarts is a liquid measurement. Granules should either be volume like cu ft or by weight.

Kind of like cooler sizing game. The only coolers that should be in liquid measurement are the orange 5 gallon water dispensing coolers but they use quarts even for big chest style coolers even though no one fills them with liquid. Then the small coolers are sized by how many cans they'll hold which is at least based on reality to a degree, even if some people drink bottles or put food in them.

I guess one exception for the extra large chest coolers is that sometimes they end up with freshly caught fish in them and the fish is held in water. 96 quarts of fish?

CU FT or lbs for granules. Everything else is meant to confuse. I guess maybe they figure people can visualize the size of a quart container.

Viagrow goes all out(insert Viagra joke here) with cu ft, liter, qt, gal, kg and lbs

Meanwhile, Elliot Coleman uses parts or volume; 3 buckets of this, 1 bucket of that etc for his soil block mix. Mother Earth News' soil block recipe uses cups but since the ingredients are not liquid, it's also a volume or parts measurement. In either case, any sized container will do. Same as using a scoop, 3 scoops of this, 2 scoops of that.

That begs the question, if 1 cu ft of brand A weighs more than 1 cu ft of brand B, is one more or less effective at soaking up and releasing water?

The above Viagrow perlite is chunky but they also sell one that's not chunky. Same volume, different weight. Normally bigger chunks means more air space between them which means a given volume should be lighter. A bucket of rocks should be lighter than a bucket of sand that originated from the same rock. Viagrow is the opposite so the chunky is more dense - mass. Their descriptions give no explanation as to the weight difference for the same volumes. Might be something to do with the processing. One was heated and popped more. Could also be a different source material. Darker color = more dense?

Well that was not a very helpful random brand/example I stumbled on. Glad I could be of help. LOL

The quart is based on the gallon, the definition of which has changed throughout history based on the commodity being referenced. The current definition of the US quart is based on the English wine gallon.

And here I thought it was based on water. Silly me. Why worry about the life giving substance of water when we can get drunk?

All the online conversion tools say 4 cu ft = 19.68831 qts.(119.68831169 on another site)

So I guess I would stay away from the 103 quart people or just ignore quarts and go for the best cu ft price. Looks like on homedepot, the smaller bags are in qts while the larger bags are in cu ft, even in the same brand. Meanwhile garden soil and compost in bags are generally sold by the cu ft so it makes sense for perlite to be the same since all your soil mix recipes are by volume, parts or buckets as it were but still a volume. Shop around and use the calculators to convert from qt to cu ft or visa versa for brands or bag sizes that only list one.

cu ft to qt -- https://www.unitconverters.net/volume/cubic-foot-to-quart-us.htm

qt to cu ft -- https://www.unitconverters.net/volume/quart-us-to-cubic-foot.htm

I even see Dry Qts. Is that like 1/4 gallon of a dry English wine? Crazy. Just some modern made up thing that's wrong and meant to confuse imho. Might as well sell it by the Pollard Scoop. (.47592846291 cu ft)

---

Just noticed how much later sunrise is. Days aren't exactly short yet though at 13:56 long. Create a 1 year day length chart for your location - https://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/Dur_OneYear

Nov 19th through Jan 22nd are my days of 10 hours or less day length. Right at two months.

[FamiliarFace]

November 15 - January 26 for me. Neat chart though.

[Liz]

TUNA PATTIES
Transforms a plain old can of tuna into a company dish.

Ing 1 egg 6 1/2 oz can tuna 1 tbl wh/wine 1/2 tsp mustard 1/4 cup panko butter-ol/oil for cooking

Mix well egg, tuna, white wine, mustard, and 1/2 panko crumbs. Leave tuna flaky, not mashed; shape four patties. Roll in rest of crumbs. Brown in heated butter/ol/oil on med 3 to 4 min. Turn gently and brown 2nd side. Garnish. Serve w/ lemon wedges, dollop of spicy mayo and fave veggie.

Notes---Cook solid before turning--they crumble, if turned over too soon. Or use canned salmon

[Pollard]

Good deal. Two goats three times as happy as one.

[Augie]

I picked another three gallons of cukes yesterday. And another three gallons of tomatoes - less than half of what was ready to pick and all of my buckets are full now. My kitchen looks like a sale stand at the farmers market. lol

My old Jack LaLanne power juicer let its smoke out the last time we used it. I’ve burned up three of those things so I decided to go with a different brand this time. We’ve had good luck with Ninja brand countertop appliances so I bought one of their masticating juicers. That thing arrived yesterday so I’ll find out soon enough if it’s any good.

Roofer guy is supposed to show up around 4:00pm today to go over statement of work and get me on the schedule for a crew to show up. If he doesn’t waste too much of my time I’ll get a head start on veggie prep so I can get some canning done over the weekend.

We’ve used all of the marinara sauce that I made last summer so I think I’ll start off making some more of that.

[Qiviut]

New roof? We have a 60+ slate roof - pretty big leak last Friday, but at least we could see it. Between the costly repair & very costly maintenance, which it looks like it will need annually, it’s time to replace. The other super bad thing is that no one can get on the roof to do anything else (check/fix my stove vent, add insulation to the attic crawl space, etc.). When slate shingles get old, they get brittle & even ‘qualified’ slate roofers break or displace shingles just trying to get to one that is broken or slipped. Anyway, signed the contract this morning, will have a new roof in 2-3 weeks - I can hardly wait!

[Paul R.]

Yes, the discrepancy is dry quarts vs. liquid quarts, and the sellers using liquid quarts are probably hoping no one notices that by actual volume a dry quart is 16.4% larger than a liquid quart. If I apply that correction to the sellers claiming 4 cu. ft. / 120 quarts, I come out with 103 dry quarts. Both brands I am looking at online state 4 cu. ft., so then it’s just a matter of price and possibly density / weight, where the desired lighter perlite should show up with a smaller shipping weight (assuming a significant difference in density.)

Silly me — I should have spotted the dry vs. liquid issue. Well, it was early...

This would show up in recipes too: If a recipe calls for 3 cups of flour and 1 cup of milk, should one use a dry measure cup for the flour and a liquid measure cup for the milk? Or are all the measuring cups likely to be used made for liquid measure, and that is taken into account in the recipe?

Even more fun (HA!) is the example of trash cans and trash bags. They are rated in gallons, even though I would hope no one is setting out, say, 42 or 55 gallons of liquid waste of some sort(!) for pickup.* The trash container our new trash pickup company provides us is even bigger. (I should try measuring it.) One of that big size is faster than multiple containers for automated pickup, I suppose.

*Good heavens, if we had 100(?) gallons of liquid waste set out, I imagine we’d either see it left roadside, or we’d get a BIG surcharge for some sort of other pickup. (Send out a septic tank service truck?)

[MomwithHope]

Dad was the cook we ate salmon patties growing up. Always fish on Fridays, either salmon patties or fried lake perch that he caught.

[MomwithHope]

My champion from 1978 looks a lot like this. Link for picture only. It also came with a grain mill and bag that I never used. The big round part laying on its side is the motor. I swear it’s a water pump motor.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/226242884854?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28&google_free_listing_action=view_item

[Augie]

Yep, new roof - insurance job.

We used “50 year” architectural shingles when we built the house in 2007. The shingles have held up very well - I feel like I got my money’s worth - it’s been hailed on two or three times a year every year since it was built. Also needs a couple new downspouts and one new gutter, along with ALL of the window screens on the south and west sides, and a few sections of vinyl siding. Greenhouse needs all of the siding and roof panels replaced. One sheet of metal siding on the barn is damaged and there may be some roof damage there too. It was raining when insurance adjuster guy was here to inspect - he said it was too slick to safely climb on top for a closer look and that he’d do a supplemental on it if necessary.

It’s a big nuisance and won’t all be paid for by insurance but it’s got to be fixed.

Just another of the joys of being a homeowner.

There are very few homes in these parts that use slate roofs. I think maybe they don’t hold up to the ice and snow we get here during winter. I’m going to have roofer guy give me a price to put metal roofing on the house - if there’s not a huge cost delta between metal and composite I’m inclined to go with metal.

[Augie]

That’s a serious juicer.

As much canning as I do I should probably bite the bullet and buy a commercial unit similar to that one.

But for now I’ll use the Ninja juicer until I decide I hate it or until the smoke comes out.

[Pollard]

This would show up in recipes too: If a recipe calls for 3 cups of flour and 1 cup of milk, should one use a dry measure cup for the flour and a liquid measure cup for the milk? Or are all the measuring cups likely to be used made for liquid measure, and that is taken into account in the recipe?

1 cup, stainless steel, flat top -- 1 cup, pyrex with pouring spout. Exact same. SS cup also says 8 oz on the bottom, not 8 fl oz. Dry weights can't be measured in a container because one substance will be heavier than the next. Probably all figured into recipes as you say.

Meanwhile, there's a reason pro chefs go by weight and not volume for non-liquids. Even chopped veggies that will fit in a cup might weigh different due to variety, juice level, chopped size. I don't think they have dry measuring cups and for that matter, might even weigh liquids, not sure on that one but I'm thinking by volume, 1 gallon of the raw milk I can get from the Amish weighs different than one gallon of 2% from the grocery store.

The English came up with screwy systems of measurements and we inherited it. How many hands is that horse? Depends on the size of your hand. Dry quart is something I've never heard of until this morning.

There's a reason older women don't measure anything. Pinch, dash, dollop, good amount, good sized roast etc

[MomwithHope]

You can load peanuts in that thing and get peanut butter out the other end. Also a great snack. Peel and freeze solid some ripe bananas. Feed into the hopper right out of the freezer and you get soft serve ice cream out the other end. No dairy or sugar but you’d never know it. This is what I use for V8. Clean juice and the fiber residue I freeze to toss into a vegetable soup.

[Qiviut]

I checked into metal - was going to be twice the cost of regular shingles.

The roofer is in a town across the mountain from us - only two slate roofs left there. If we’re not the lone slate roof around here, there might be only one other. I had a dickens of a time finding someone who was experienced working on them.

It will be a happy day when this old roof is gone & I don’t have to worry about leaks!