The Garden Thread - December, 2025

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

[AFB-XYZ]

Thanks, will do! If I have any success at all with doing winter sowing, I’ll post an update when the time comes.

[TheConservativeParty]

Early last February, I did a first time trial run at this thing called “winter sowing”.
I grew annual poppies for the first time this way.
I prepared 2 pots of soil, broadcast seeded them, covered lightly with vermiculite, did a light watering, and placed the 2 large pots on a top shelf in the garage. Come spring, I put them outside, and had excellent germination.

Can’t really be sure that same great germination wouldn’t have been exactly the same had I sowed the seeds in spring.

🤷🏻‍♀️

[Liz]

Iceberg wedge, clue cheese and bacon......what could possibly go wrong?

[Liz]

The iceberg wedge salad earliest printed recipe appeared in a 1916 cookbook. By the 1920s, restaurants began serving versions of the salad, and in the 1950s, it became a steakhouse staple, made with iceberg lettuce, blue cheese dressing, and bacon.

One famous restaurant family, the Tuccis, claims their grandfather, Oscar, created a version in the 1930s at a legendary restaurant called Delmonico’s, later renamed “Oscar’s Wedge” in 1955.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Pollard snow...we had about 4” here in the KC area. Radar says you should be enjoying some rain or snow right now! (Green so maybe rain?)

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Bon...Blooms out of season.... One of my lilacs was kicking out blooms and I clipped it and brought it in just before Thankgiving! (Mrs. Pete just shakes her head and is glad to have it!)

Nice pictures of beautiful flowers in your California December! (No jealousy! Happy for you!)

[Pollard]

It’s been back and forth between rain and snow as is normal here. Gravel road had an inch of snow when I came home from work yesterday. Rear tires spun easily. Gonna buy some bags of sand to put in the back of the 2wd Trailblazer for some weight. I see it snowed a little more overnight.

Wasn’t it like 70 with a 100% chance of bugs a couple of weeks ago? Why yes it was and now it’s 20.

I love to look at snow but don’t like interacting with it, especially here in the land of precipitate >> freeze where everything gets frozen to everything.

I also get; “Another year older; and what have you done?” syndrome. My To Do List is -— frozen.

38 today and 45 tomorrow so snow will turn to mud but again, that’s normal here and with high clay content, it’s almost as slippery as the snow.

[MomwithHope]

Finally psyched up to plow the long driveway with the atv. Friends offered to do it but I want to have a shot at it.

[metmom]

Well, I finished harvesting the potatoes and cleaned up the garden before the snow fell. It just started this morning. We’ll see how much we get from it.

Time to look at seed orders for next year.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Safety First! Wear your helmet! Let us know how it went. :)

[Pollard]

Oh boy. The guy with the 3 foot tiller just called. He left a message because I forgot how to answer a call on this cell. Hold green circle and swipe up I’m being told. Anyway, I have his cell number now. Not going to happen this week. Need another paycheck in the bank first. Pretty sure he’ll still have it as it’s too small for most tractors and who’s looking for a tiller in December? (besides me evidently)

I was watching a market gardening video and the guy was talking about how he decided on three foot wide beds instead of 30”. He was using a walk behind tiller which made me decide to search CL for tiller. Voila, 3 foot tiller.

The boy’s not getting much for Christmas. LOL That’s ok his birthday is the 28th and I get paid the 26th.

He just saw a couple of puppies wandering around the yard. I was able to catch a glimpse of one. White medium/long length fur with a couple of tiny black spots, stocky, almost LGD looking. Don’t know if they’re drop offs or belong to the neighbor. People have been known to drop off dogs out here in the middle of winter. Put shoes, coat and hat on and went out but they were gone. Probably the neighbors’.

[Bon of Babble]

Thanks for the well wishes! To you and yours as well.

Hope you planted tulips, hyacinth, crocuses and snow drops - beautiful bulbs that I cannot grow in California.

I have a friend that tries every year to grow tulips, follows the guidelines, freezes them for six weeks before planting - and they never work. Year after year! I always strongly suggest she plant bulbs and rhizomes that work in our climate - daffodils, irises, gladiolas, amaryllis - but she will never give up on trying for tulips.

The best bulbs I’ve bought have come from Michigan.

[Pollard]

Baker Creek catalog arrived here a few days ago. Inside the back cover, Sourdough Starter. Gets good reviews. https://www.rareseeds.com/old-world-sourdough-starter

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Bell peppers are done here (west of Tucson), still a few small jalapenos growing. We have more tomatoes on at the moment than at any time during the summer, but they’re all completely green.

I’m waiting until just before first frost to pick the green tomatoes, then we’ll see how many will ripen indoors. Kind of a warm fall so far, usually we’ve had at least a couple of frosty mornings by now. The NWS forecast is for highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s at least through the weekend.

[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

Bump for later! Thanks.

[MomwithHope]

Michigan is great for bulbs and we have many that are very old and still come up. I did plant miniature daffodils at the cemetery.

[Qiviut]

Mom seems fine today - not as black/blue as I thought her leg would be ... the early icing really helped. She says it doesn’t hurt so that’s good.

She’s busy in the basement getting out the Christmas decorations. At some point, I will have to tote the tree upstairs which will be a challenge, but it will happen. I did get the solar lights on each side of the front sidewalk back in place (had to remove them due to the roofers tromping back & forth), changed the Autumn leaf flag to a poinsettia flag & fixed the back doorbell which had quit working. We bought a new door bell, but can return it ... I figured out how to get the old one open & a new battery got it working again.

The search is on for oysters for Christmas. I have found a small grocery that will order them & there is also a seafood market an hour away in the ‘big’ city where we shop at Aldi’s. I suspect the grocery will be “cheaper” @ $42/quart because I am seeing them more expensive in some places ($45-50). Last year, I think we paid $38/quart. We have a fried oyster Christmas tradition that my dad carried on from his childhood and I hate to give it up. Last year, we got two quarts & when my brothers visited (at separate times), we had oysters. They will also be served at the dinner on the 14th for our family living in this area. It appears I will have to order them from the grocery option on the 15th for delivery the 17th ... not sure when the brothers will visit. I think the oysters (shucked, in jars) will last at least a week ... the fresher I can get them the better. We’ll probably take a trip to the ‘big’ city again this week (sigh) but I will have a chance to check out the seafood market & make an oyster buying decision then.