The Garden Thread - September, 2025

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

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Yah, in retrospect I probably should not have posted that one. There are a number of these that are very similar and I suspect that these were assembled with AI.

[Paul R.]

Ah, BBQ! I got my bad molar filled today (part of it had broken off!) and afterward wifey and I drove to Paducah (KY) for their “BBQ on the River” festival. I think this is the 1st time we’ve gone on a Thursday, or even this early in the day (got there ~ 5 pm). The benefits turned out to be “not so crowded” and “no seller was out of vittles yet”! We tried a new BBQ seller, as wifey usually picks whoever has hooked up with “The Knights of Columbus”, and we didn’t see a sign for the Knights. (The whole event raises money for various area charities nonprofits, with all vendors required to donate at least 5% of their sales to charity.) This vendor was named “Juicy Pork Butts” or something like that — not totally sure I have that exactly correct, but I remember “juicy” and “butts”. Well, hey, I was distracted by the right 2/3 of the lower part of my face still being numb! Anyway, that numbness finally faded a couple hours ago, and, heh, yeah, these people cook up some good ribs... :-)

We stopped by the local NWS Office booth and I got to argue my case to their chief meteorologist (I think) for including mention of frost in forecasts even after the 1st “killing” frost:

For one thing, a lot of gardeners around here (7a) cover their plants and / rotate some in and out — heck, one year I had tomato plants still going after Thanksgiving! And, for another, for anyone who has a car outside with clear sky above, knowing whether one needs to go out 10 minutes early to warm the car to clear the frost off the windshield go to work in the morning (or whatever), is pretty useful. So, the NWS guy allowed that maybe my suggestion of at least putting mention of frost into the forecast discussion even well after the 1st “killing frost” (they go by reports from their local ag partners) might not be a bad idea. We’ll see if it happens!

The one thing that’s not been at the last couple “BBQ On The River” events is a big aquarium with various fish, small to large, from the Ohio River in it. This year, also no dice. Bummer!

[FamiliarFace]

That’s my kind of cooking…and eating! I use a lot of pots, pans, cutting boards, and knives in my meal prep. It needs to look appetizing when I serve it, too.

I have rubbed off onto my husband apparently, too. A few years ago, we made dinner for my brother, who is divorced. He remarked to Mr. FF, “I see you’ve forgotten how to cook like a bachelor! Only one pan is needed!”

I say, if you’ve got the tools, use them! I know it’s weird, but I really do enjoy meal prep and cooking from scratch. Like gardening, it’s therapeutic for me. Just don’t rush me. It’ll be a much better meal if I’m not pressured that way. ;)

[Paul R.]

Lobster cakes can be pretty good too... :-)

A local fishery (they mainly export back to China) used to have Silver Carp Cakes. Deboned of course! They were actually quite good. I was (am) just a little “suspect”, because they didn’t keep track of where the carp were caught. Even though they are filter feeders and low on the food chain, I have my doubts about eating fish straight from the Ohio River.

That’s ironic, because one of these companies’ main selling points to customers in China is how their product comes from waters much cleaner than most of China’s!

[Paul R.]

Lots more great clearance deals @ Wally World this last week, both the store nearest us, and the one near my Mom’s old place. The latter had a few garden items including that “Trek” repellent based on “natural” oil and such, that seems to do better at repelling gnats and small flies than DEET or Picaridin. (It’s not quite as good vs. mosquitos and ticks, tho’.) Anyway, $6 a can - not bad - I bought 4!

They also had Avia (brand) “Quickflash” sneakers for $5, originally $25. I’ve had reasonably good luck with “Avia” shoes not falling apart in 5 months, in the past, and these are comfortable and a sort of slip on design, but pretty “secure on the foot”, which I wanted (say for when I hear the chickens raising a ruckus at 3 am, and I’d better rush out quickly to see if a predator is about!) The design is strange, as these are slip-ons but also with std. laces. The laces were, well, laced incorrectly, apparently @ the factory, as all on display were the same. So, I guess that’s why the “blowout” price. I can just remove the laces if I wish.

The store near US was blowing out “nutrified” (and sort of “light”) garden soil for $2 / cu. ft. I bought 12. I wanted to pick up some raised bed soil too, marked at the same price, BUT, here’s where you have to be watchful:

Sometimes the local manager marks down stuff for clearance, and the home office thinks the price is too low and marks it back up! That goes into the local store’s computer, but may not make it back to the shelf or pallet. I ran into that with both the raised bed soil and a couple other items. SO, watch carefully as you check out @ the register!!!

I probably “could” have forced the point that the displayed price should be honored. In fact, I’ve done that in the past, but, I was short on time, and just “cancelled” those items. Who knows - the WM employee who explained what had happened also said “you never know, next week the home office might make it half that “erroneous” displayed-on-the-pallet price, next week.”

[Pollard]

We got 3 inches in the past week but never enough at once for a ton of runoff. Just a good soaking which we needed. The drive down the gravel roads is not dreary like it was with all the foliage coated with road dust.

[Qiviut]

The local BBQ stand is 7 minutes away. They are open Friday - Sunday (limited hrs on Sun.) and late Spring into November. They also do catering all year round. There is another BBQ restaurant 30 miles away that is not seasonal - you can eat in or they sell by the pound & cater. Aside from the convenience factor, we like the taste of the closer BBQ better - both are good, but the distant one is overly ‘smokey’ in my opinion.

BBQ is a perfect easy meal when we have certain guests & we may have to buy a couple pounds of the local BBQ & freeze it to get us through the winter.

The ice cream stand is seasonal as well (2 min. from the BBQ stand). You know it’s Spring when they open up!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“The ice cream stand...You know it’s Spring when they open up!”

Spring has arrived here when the A & W Root Beer drive-in open up!

I think we have one of the last remaining true ‘drive-ins’ in the state. No indoor dining, but they do have picnic tables if you don’t want to get ketchup and spilled root beer all over your car interior. ;)

[Qiviut]

When I was a kid 6-8, maybe a year or two older, there was a root beer place AND it was right next to a pony ride place! The ponies were small and walked around a small ring. A man would lift kids on and off the ponies while they pretty much kept walking. It was a very rare treat to get a pony ride.

The root beer & maybe a root beer float from the place next door - another rare treat. No root beer has ever tasted as good as what we got at this place - again, a rare treat, but not as rare as a pony ride!

A pony ride story involving my first pony:

My first pony was medium sized, very sweet & her name was Twinkle. At some point in her life, she had been harness trained & would pull a cart & had also been used for barrel racing. The smaller the person on her back, the slower & more careful she was (perfect for little kids) while the larger the person, she was ready to “go”!

Since Twink was so good with little kids, I took her to the church picnic one year & gave pony rides. The little kids loved it & we probably gave rides for 2 hours. I needed a rest from leading Twinkle & lifting little kids off & on so we were standing around, not too far from the food tables. Twink’s former owner fed her stuff like toast & peppermint candy so she had an orientation to food other than grass.

A church member came over & was telling me he had a pony growing up named “Billy”. This guy is the loud, thinks-he’s-funny, braggy type & to hear him talk about his adventures with Billy, you would have thought this guy had the skills of a rodeo cowboy! Before I knew what was happening, this guy grabbed the lead rope out of my hand & threw himself up on the saddle! Twinkle thought: hmmmm, big guy, leaping into the saddle & kicking me in the ribs .... barrel racing time!!! She was OFF at a dead gallop with Mr. ‘Cowboy’ hanging on for dear life. Twinkle only had a halter & lead rope so there was no control & being a medium sized pony, the guy’s legs were too long to get into the stirrups & were just dangling maybe a foot or so off the ground so not only did he have no control, he had to hang on for dear life.

The picnic was at an old plantation house ... Twink disappeared around the house, then reappeared on the other side, where everyone was set up with lawn chairs & blankets. Still at a full gallop, she was weaving through the obstacles & screaming people like the old barrel racer she had been & once clear, she came to a screeching halt in front of the food tables & proceeded to munch whatever caught her fancy while the ‘food ladies’ screamed and tried to shoo her away by flapping towels in her face. Mr. Cowboy had bailed at the food table & made himself scarce. Twink’s munching slowed about halfway down the first long food table when she hit a bowl of potato chips (she loved potato chips) & I was able to recapture her lead rope & drag her away. She had potato salad & potato chip crumbs on her lips & hanging on her whiskers LOL

Whew, quite the exciting day - you had to be there to fully appreciate the scene! Mr.’Cowboy’ never talked ponies with me again & I never took Twinkle to another picnic for pony rides. She passed away from natural causes in her twenties and was the.best.pony.ever!

[Liz]

Peach Crumble
Dessert's almost ready w/ a can of sliced peaches in the cupboard.

Ing--1 pkg yellow cake mix 1/2 c butter, 1/4 c packed br/sugar 1 tsp cinnamon
1 can sliced peaches (or peel 2 lge fresh peaches) 1 c sour cream 1 egg tsp sugar

Method--Mix dry cake mix, butter, br/sugar and cinnamon crumbly; reserve 2/3 cup mixture. Press rest on bottom of ungreased 13x9x2" pan. Add canned slice peaches (or sliced peeled fresh peaches) atop crumbs. Beat/blend sour cream, sugar, egg; spread over fruit. Sprinkle w/ reserved crumbs. Bake 350 deg 35-40 min til topping is set; cool. Serve w/ vanilla ice cream. Cover and refrigerate remaining dessert.

[FamiliarFace]

Best pony story EVER!!! 🤣

I can so picture this in my head. 😂

Thank you for making me LOL!!

[Qiviut]

I wish there was a video .... 🤣

[Diana in Wisconsin]

OMG! I can SEE that in my mind, LOL! That guy deserved what he got!

At least Twink got some treats for her efforts. The twin boys, next horse farm over, left for college a few weeks ago; they raised and sold ponies since they were little kids.

It’s probably paying for their college, LOL!

[FamiliarFace]

I made lots of work for myself today!

The young landscaper that’s being mentored by the retiring landscaper had their Fall plant sale today. No pre-orders, and limited quantities of several native perennials. Lowest prices in town. I was warned to show up before the gates open, or I might miss out! I arrived about 15 minutes before the gates opened, and there was already a LONG LINE to get in. Probably about 40 people in front of me!

Lucky me, though. I walked away with 16 one-gallon plants, and 4 three-gallon shrubs! I have picked out spots for each of them already, and have them placed. I will be trying to get some planted tomorrow, more on Sunday, but there are a few that I want the landscaper to advise if my placement plan looks good.

It’s hard to turn down a $10 perennial that’s native and hard to find. If I have to pay the boys to help us get them all planted, I’ll do that. The water feature will be started sometime next week. I hope they start Monday, but I don’t really know what their schedule is.

Anyway, the plant sale was so much fun! Gardening people are some of the nicest people, and generally helpful and happy. I attribute that to a love of “earthing” or “grounding”.

These are the things I came home with:
1. ‘Double Play Candy Corn’ Spirea
2. ‘Iron Butterfly’ Threadleaf Ironweed
3. ‘Berry Poppins’ Winterberry
4. ‘Mr. Poppins’ Winterberry
5. ‘Midnight Sun’ dwarf Weigela
6. ‘Blue Fortune’ Agastache
7. ‘Little Pye’ Joe-Pye Weed
8. Woodland Stonecrop Sedum ternatum
9. Christmas Fern and
10. ‘Anna’s Pink’ native Verbena - which is the one thing I was really hoping to find. The write up here mentions my landscaper! https://www.usperennials.com/verbena-canadensis-annas-pink-glandularia-canadensis-rose-vervein-annas-pink-zone-5-hardy/

On the Monarch front, things are going smoothly. I have 4 butterflies that emerged yesterday to greet me this morning. The first took off as soon as I unzipped the habitat. “Let me outta here!”. Then I left it open but got back to work, and placed the new plants in their new locations in the meditation garden.

When I got back a new one had emerged and was hanging in to its chrysalis. But then, surprise! The three that were practicing flying kindly waited inside the open habitat for me to return, and one after another started their journeys, nearly hitting me as they escaped. That was pretty cool!

So, to recap, 25 have emerged, and 24 have successfully flown away. There are 8 chrysalises left, and a couple look suspect, but I think I may have 5 or 6 of those develop properly. This next batch will probably be one at a time at this point. I expect in another week or so, the habitat will be empty and I’ll be on to another project.

[Qiviut]

We’ve run into the nicest, most helpful folks at the two garden centers where we’ve bought our plants/bushes. The 4 Helleborus I planted last Saturday are looking really happy - they were pot bound & ready for room to spread their roots.

I have not planted anything else this week, despite plans to do so. It’s either been raining (yay!) or I just haven’t had the energy. I’m doing the Annie “tomorrow, tomorrow” thing. There are potentially some heavy rains in the forecast & it would be nice to have everything planted or maybe those rains will soften the ground & make digging easier. Whenever I do get to it, I will do 1-2 a day .... no more 4/day!

[FamiliarFace]

Yes, we have to pace ourselves!

I had the boys bring several yards of soil that’s been pulled from the bottom of a river near here. Not sure which river, but that soil is really good stuff. Only needs a little amending. Mostly just a slow fertilizer. It’s really easy to work with!

[Qiviut]

The last 2 loads of dirt I hauled for my metal raised beds were river bottom dirt - good stuff! I added some bagged compost. So far, what I have planted in it is very happy.

[FamiliarFace]

Compost! Yes! That’s what I need a bit of!