The Garden Thread - September, 2025

September 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.

[Liz]

Ghirardelli Caramel Brownies
Combines deep chocolate Ghirardelli flavor w/ luscious caramel for an indulgent treat.

Ing 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted 6 oz chp Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate 3/4 c sugar 1/4 c br/sugar packed 2 lge eggs 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 c flour 1/4 c plain cocoa 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 c caramel sauce plus drizzle

Instructions---melt butter and Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate over a double boiler (or micro-melt), stirring smooth. Whisk in sugars til fully combined. Add eggs and vanilla, mixing smooth and glossy. Sift in flour, cocoa powder, and salt, folding gently until just combined. Pour 1/2 batter into parchmented pan and spread evenly. Drizzle caramel sauce over batter, then top w/ remaining brownie batter, spreading carefully to cover caramel. Swirl the caramel into the top layer with a knife or skewer. Bake 350 deg 30-35 min, pick in center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Don't overbake. Cool completely before slicing. Drizzle w/ additional caramel sauce before serving.

Notes Store airtight at room temp 3 days or fridge a week. Serving Tip: Warm in micro a few sec;
serve w/ scoop of vanilla ice cream, a sprinkle of choc/chips, for an indulgent dessert treat.

[MomwithHope]

This blessing has been over 20 years in the making it seems. 98 so far and still many on the trees. I am sharing with a few friends who have been anxious to try them. I am glad they are ripening slowly in bags, no rush on peeling, mashing and freezing.

[FamiliarFace]

That’s wonderful! Your friends are being blessed with your bounty. How exciting for all of you!

[Qiviut]

The potato salad is a little ‘different’, but very good - I’ll make it again (I did follow the recipe exactly, including the cucumber). The BBQ is from a friendly, local stand & we like it very much. The Cole slaw is an easy recipe I found & modified - forgot the Dijon mustard, but I didn’t notice the difference. The cobbler ... Sally’s Baking Addiction recipe, so you know it’s good. Her recipe calls for buttermilk - didn’t have it the first time I made this a while back (still good), but I did have buttermilk for this batch - yum! The apples were from a local orchard, too .... they smell like apples when I open the pantry (store bought don’t).

Recipes, if anyone is interested:

The Best Potato Salad
https://www.recipetineats.com/potato-salad/

There are several other potato salad recipes I want to try at this site, such as the red potato salad with roasted corn, the German potato salad, & a couple of the sweet potato ones.

The Best Apple Cobbler I’ve Ever Had
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/apple-cobbler/

[FamiliarFace]

Both of those look so yummy! Thanks for the links!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Beau will be back from Bear Camp this week, so I’ve got to get my Cooking/Baking Vibe back on after goofing off for a number of weeks!

He’d like that cobbler, for sure. Now, where will I find apples this time of year? ;) LOL!

[FrozenAssets]

Howdy folks! I just came up for air for a minute and thought I’d drop by. It was a busy summer. Now we are in the throes of madly harvesting the garden. The domestic goddess has been canning up pickles. We got a lot of cucumbers. If you get in the way in the kitchen you will wind up in a jar! We got a lot of tomatoes also and they are ripening on shelves under lights. We had a number of BLT’s. Yum. I got the potatoes Sunday. About 200 pounds. We are lifting carrots today. So far ten gallons from about 4 feet of bed. Have also spent a certain amount of time picking up after all the arboreal litterbugs in the yard. We had 32 and a light snow this morning. Powerful encouragement! Take care, be safe and be happy!

[Qiviut]

We FINALLY settled on a menu this morning for the could-be-large (yikes!) group coming for lunch Oct. 1. This is the Seniors group from our old church. I don’t expect less than 10 - could be 20 or more! The only deterrent is having to drive the 2.5 hours to get here. There is a church bus if they have a driver ......holds a dozen maybe? Mom is supposed to get a number Thursday.

Menu - sort of fits in with Fall:

Bratwurst & buns
Chicken salad rolls (for those who don’t like brats, but I know some folks will eat both).
Bavarian Sauerkraut*
Cole Slaw*
Baked beans*
Cinnamon apples*
Three bean salad
Meyer lemon cake
Brownie bites
Chocolate chip cookies
If it turns out to be a chilly day, I might do a hot, non-alcoholic wassail.
Tea/lemonade/water

Everything, except the baked beans, can be made a day ahead & reheated, if serving warm. Cole slaw & 3-bean are cold, cinnamon apples are fine room temp. We’ll put the chicken salad rolls together day of so they don’t get soggy or dry out. Baked beans go in oven 3 hours before lunch time.

*4 things I have to make - all very easy recipes. Peeling & cutting up apples is the most time consuming.

Our guest bathroom & a closet door are next to each other & people get very confused. I am ordering this cute sign for the bathroom door LOL:

https://www.amazon.com/Hilonret-Bathroom-Yourself-Farmhouse-Seasons/dp/B0C623G5TC

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I was wondering if it snowed on you yet! I am SO looking forward to cooler weather - hot again today and HUMID, but all the huge (and I mean HUGE) storms that passed through yesterday and last night? Not a drop of rain fell on us!

Mom invited an Aunt over to ‘see my garden’ toward the end of October. Not going to be much to SEE, but it’ll get me motivated to have it all cleaned up.

I put the canning things away, yesterday. Once the Applesauce is canned, I’m DONE for the season. Yay! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

LOL! Cute! :)

Menu sounds good!

[MomwithHope]

.

[FamiliarFace]

I don’t think I ever posted about an update with our son’s car. When he first went back to the dealer that we had done business with for over 20 years, the person he spoke to basically called him a liar and told him to move on.

So he went on to their social media page, explained what had happened, and left a poor review. Within 24 hours he was contacted, and they asked him to bring the car back in for a look. This new person was much more like the experience we had always had with them. They gave him a complimentary rental while they sorted out the problem. They decided that there was a leak in the transmission fluid line! He still had to pay for some of that, but at least they cooperated and acknowledged their error, especially in treating him so poorly.

He hasn’t decided if he will still use them going forward, but at least they apologized and made things right. He amended his one star review to a 4.

[FamiliarFace]

Love love love the bathroom sign!

You are quite the entertainer! Your mom is one very blessed lady!

[Paul R.]

Ah, ‘tis great that worked out ok. :-)

The leak absolutely fits the symptoms you described. How it was missed by the shop I don’t know.

However, one of my best friends operates a single proprietor w/ several employees auto repair shop in the Chicago ‘burbs. Sometimes an employee just doesn’t perform or even (fairly rarely) “goes bad”. I think I’d be inclined to give 20 years of good service the nod over an obvious but single mistake / jerk, but, that’s not my call.

Our car’s transmission seems ok / has survived the ordeal. I realized after I got home I’d left part of a tool back at the cemetery entrance I’d pulled off at: So I went back up there a few days later with a big magnet (the part is steel). The spot to search was obvious — it had not rained yet, and the transmission fluid that had sprayed onto the near-bare surface was obvious. But, the part was gone. :-(

I also noticed “evidence” of multiple car repairs at that very spot!! I mean, literally withing 15 ft. of where the front of my car had been sitting for those several hours were: A ~ 15” piece of ~14 ga. wire, a very interesting large “washer”, 3 package labels for various car parts, a couple used zip ties... Apparently others have found that to be a good spot to stop when trouble hits.

Now, to figure out my intermittent engine overheating problem... (Eye roll!)

[FamiliarFace]

Yeah, I have a soft spot for that business. It was a family run affair for a LONG time. Whoever spoke to my son the first time obviously felt that our son was trying the pull one over on him, but he wasn’t. We had video proof from our local dealer of how dry that line was. Bone dry. He just wanted to have an inspection of that line performed, which eventually happened.

As to your part being gone a few days later, it sounds like it was a good spot to pull over for repairs! Good luck sorting out the other unresolved issue.

I hate car problems, because I know very little about them. I just want cars to work so that I can get from one place to another. I don’t need fancy. I need dependable.

[MomwithHope]

Congrats on your bountiful harvest!

[FrozenAssets]

Thanks! Owing to our short growing season we have biased our garden toward things we can put up in some way. This year we were able to run from May 15th to September 23rd. We have been snowed on in the second week of June, and frosted in the third week of August. Most stuff gets started early under lights. The only thing that goes right into the ground in May is potatoes, carrots, and peas. Tender stuff goes in in June, and tomatoes and cukes and things like that grow in seasonal hoop houses.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Diana here: I have no outside lighting, other than the front porch and some 'party lights' but those can easily stay off tonight. 21 MILLION birds through here overnight, tonight? Amazing!

Statewide alert issued asking people to dim lights for migrating birds (Wisconsin)

Businesses, residents, and municipal officials in Wisconsin are being asked to turn off non-essential outdoor lights on Wednesday night from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. to help protect migrating birds.

According to Craig Thompson, co-founder of Driftless Birds, approximately 21 million birds will migrate across Wisconsin overnight.

The glow from lights can disorient these birds as they fly at night, making them more likely to land in hazardous areas. Birds searching for food during the day may also collide with windows when they see reflections of trees and other habitats.

Light pollution has been growing globally by 10% each year due to urbanization and electrification. Research shows that light pollution—defined as the overuse and inefficient use of artificial light—significantly impacts both wildlife and human populations, according to the statement.

Additionally, Lights Out Alerts have been issued for eastern Wisconsin on Sept. 23 and for eastern and northern Wisconsin on Sept. 25.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Doing the 'Visual Merchandising' for Jung's was really the most FUN part of my job. I had such LOVELY product to work with - all locally grown, which was a great selling point. Of course, a lot of this beautiful stuff sold itself with no help from me whatsoever! And now that I'm Retired? Yep. I have TWO Mum plants on my front porch and that's it, LOL!

[FamiliarFace]

When my husband is out of town, I leave some lights on out in our yard, but out of respect for the birds, I will leave them off this time. I have never considered that birds migrate at night. I thought they all just go to sleep like I do!

Excitement from the butterfly habitat today. Last night when I went to bed, there were 4 that had emerged. Not long after I checked on them this morning, I saw 2 more emerged, then 2 more, and now one more. I expect I could have a few more emerge before the day’s end.

Once it warms up, they spend their time pumping their wings airing them out to dry. I opened up the habitat to see if any were ready, and before I was ready, a girl had flown onto my left forearm. It took me several seconds to get my phone out of my pocket, and get a quick photo. She took off as soon as I did that. I could hardly feel her once she had landed, but it tickled a little when she first got there. I was more surprised than anything.

I will keep checking on them periodically throughout the day. There should be one to three more that are primed for flying.

Oops, just checked before hitting post, and another has emerged! That makes 9 butterflies in the habitat, and 6 that have flown away! (3 boys and 3 girls have flown off and hopefully on their way back South.)