The Garden Thread - January, 2026

January 1, 2026 | 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.

[MomwithHope]

My Dad always swore by throwing a handful of uncooked barley in with his chili when he started it. Not a lot, As it cooks it adds texture and thickness. Barley is also good for physical strength.

[Pollard]

Just pulled out my seeds but cannot find any tomato seeds. I think I'm just going to do a couple of varieties of cherry this year and all of those seeds were 6 years old so I likely tossed them but I did have a few larger varieties from the last two years but don't see them either. Found all my other warm weather stuff in the container they should be in but no maters in there.

Weird.

Johnny's has 7 cherry varieties for greenhouse/tunnel growing but packs of 15 seeds at about $8 aka $0.50 per seed. Here I thought the Salanova® price was bad. I'll pass.

I think I'll try Amish Paste as well. Haven't been having much luck with maters larger than cherry but have never tried a paste variety. Added those, a couple of cherry, a crisp but not heading lettuce, plus a romaine type to my rareseeds cart to try. Rosella cherry I've already tried and like the taste but they had poor production. It was one of those high 90s temps for months on end Spring/Summer years. New one I'm trying is Riesentraube.

Johnny's seed starting/planting calculator

I'm setting my last frost date for April 5th instead of May 5th this year and will start the first month off as succession. If I lose the first batch to a frost, I'll have another ready to follow.

Soon as it gets a wee bit warmer, I'll start back on the tunnel. I have all the poly film I need and then some. Bought enough to recover the top since that film is already two years old.

I'm finally goat free, albeit not in the best of ways. They just quit coming back one day. Didn't notice for almost a week. Happened during my work week. With any luck, someone stole them but it might be more likely that they went out too early or stayed out too late and the coyotes got them. Sad but freeing. I was sick of the "this is why we can't have nice things" but sad to think about them suffering.

I get my shop back but it's going to take a days to clean it out, including the built in shelves, and I doubt it will never lose the smell unless/until I get some concrete.

[FamiliarFace]

I can’t imagine what that might’ve been used for, but sounds like a mini shot glass, used as a commemorative piece.

Someone had them for sale on eBay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/135323257992

Looks like a lot of NFL teams had them.

[MomwithHope]

Get some Campari cherry tomatoes at the store. Squeeze out some seeds and dry them on a paper towel. When dry stick in an envelope and put someplace cold not freezing until time to start them. We have been growing camparis this way for about 10 years at least. Best cherry tomato ever.

[Pollard]

Campari is a type of hybrid tomato noted for its juiciness, high sugar level, low acidity, and lack of mealiness. Camparis are deep red and larger than a pear or cherry tomato, but smaller and rounder than common plum tomatoes. They are often sold as "tomato-on-the-vine" (TOV) in supermarkets, a category of tomato that has become increasingly popular over the years. Campari tomatoes can be produced from different varieties with similar characteristics, the standard being Mountain Magic.[1][2][3][4] As a hybrid, the seeds cost around $150,000 per pound.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campari_tomato

Interesting that you got good results from the seed of a hybrid.

[MomwithHope]

Interesting, I don’t know what to tell you. We have been doing this for so long and never looked into if we could. The fruit are true and big and sweet and plentiful.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The Chervena Chuska peppers are sweet and I have grown them before, but not for many years. I have not grown out the Lina Sisco’s beans before, but I have two beds that are filled to the brim with spring bulbs (Tulips & Daffs all for cutting) and then they sit idle while all of that foliage dies back to make strong bulbs below for the NEXT go round. I’ve just been mulching them with straw because they ARE kind of an eyesore, but they are away from the main garden beds.

I asked Beau and Foster Son Mick to add the beds there for me a few years ago because I was tired of mowing that steep area, and also - Bouquets of Tulips and Daffs in the spring! Yay!

Anyhow, I though I would plant a Bush Bean in there over top and then they could just stay there until well into the fall and they could just dry in place.

They’re just. so. pretty. :) But they’ve been around since Seed Savers was founded, (Lina Sisco’s Great Grandma had the bean seeds to begin with) so obviously they make a good soup and ‘Boston Baked Bean’ type of dried bean. :)

We shall see! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"I'm setting my last frost date for April 5th instead of May 5th this year and will start the first month off as succession. If I lose the first batch to a frost, I'll have another ready to follow."

That's smart!

Your tunnel, once you get the hang of it, is going to give you an embarrassment of riches!

I have some things that need to go into my greenhouse, but I need to shovel it out to get the doors open. Also - since it's full of straw from last season (remember - it RAINED ALL THE TIME on me last year) so I'm sure every mouse in the Tri-County Area is LIVING in there this winter. It was 66 in there today - while about 10 degrees outside.

I'm taking Eva Grace, my 'Killer Queen' cat with me - she'll have some fun, LOL! She's been a total JERK all winter in the house so far.

"MAMA! Work your magic and make it Summers-time again!"

[Qiviut]

More efficient than a cat:

https://www.backwoodshome.com/build-your-own-repeating-mouse-trap/

This is as basic as it gets - there are many DIY models, just look on YouTube. Some use cans instead of a ‘flip’ setup.

Let Eva Grace have some fun, then set a repeating trap for what she doesn’t catch.

[Qiviut]

So EG is a calico. I had a tortoiseshell (Murphy). She was a real character. My vet has done research in vet school on those color patterns & told me they were almost always female (a male with that coloring would be rare). She also said those genetics gave the cats very interesting personalities as well. The only way I could describe Murphy’s personality is that she played chess & every other cat I had with ‘regular’ coloring (tabby mostly) played checkers.

Here’s the genetics:

... almost all calicos are female cats, with their coloring linked to having two X chromosomes.Since both tortoiseshell and calico patterns result from having two X chromosomes, male cats with these colorations are incredibly rare.

Male tortoiseshells or calicos almost always have an extra X chromosome. These rare males are usually sterile and may have health issues related to their genetic anomaly.

[Pollard]

I figure I'm always a month behind. Sometimes it's procrastination, sometimes I just run out of cool temps because it gets warm early. Plant cool weather stuff and a month later, over 80 degrees. Just like some Winters we don't get snow and hardly a day of single temps. This year 10-12 inches in one shot and single temps for two weeks. That doesn't mean a cool Spring or Summer though. Just plant early and often and don't buy seeds that cost 50 cents each.

Just bought a set of four tires for the truck and a new type of chinese tire changer machine. It runs on air instead of the manual one I have from Harbor Freight.

Tire shops don't like when you bring them new new tires you didn't buy from them and ask them to put them on. Paid $100 to get the last set put on and it took half a day with travel and a little wait time. This $360 tire machine will pay for itself pretty quick. Got this set of tires for $400 and if I bought them from a tire shop, it would be $6-700 installed.

Last tire shop I used had a dim helper and I had to redo the torque on the rim he tightened up. Two lug nuts weren't tight enough and the other three I had to put 4 foot of leverage on them to break them loose. Came loose with a big snap. Would have been screwed if I was on the side of the road with a flat and didn't have a four foot pipe with me.

Bought the truck before the tires and tire machine of course so there has been no extra money for a while.

I missed out on that 3 foot PTO tiller due to vehicle issues. Probably be years before I find another used one but at least I know they exist. I thought 4 foot was the smallest which is really too big for my tractor but Kubota makes a 3 foot. The ad for the $1000 used one said $2000-2200 new.

A good rear tine walk behind is $900 and up but I don't want to wrestle with one of those or have another small engine to deal with. Time for my little old self to remove manual labor. I'm getting a pneumatic jack too, Moving a 3 1/2 ton floor jack around that weighs 80 lbs isn't fun on gravel. Doesn't roll very well.

I'll be able to buy pipe and lumber for the high tunnel before the end of February. Then I need gutter stuff and more IBC tanks. Fresh drip setup.

Gonna venture out there today and see what the ground is like, look at things for motivation. Probably frozen now but once it's warmed up, see if it's moist/wet throughout under the film. Should be with the snow melt.

[Pollard]

Bucket of mice. Instead of KFC, KFM.

[FamiliarFace]

Now that’s a better mousetrap! I’ll show hubby. We should make two. One for the garage, and one for the basement.

[Pollard]

The magic drip fitting

They're called push-to-connect fittings. Push 1/4" plastic tubing in and it locks and seals.(I tested on 1/4" drip) Push the orange part in and you can pull the tubing back out. They have plugs that will push in to cap off the flow. Since they go on the outside, they don't restrict the flow like a barbed fitting, plus you don't have to cut the tubing off with a utility knife. The end will get worn after being inserted and removed enough times so then you cut a little off the end. Safer than trying to cut tubing off a barbed fitting while trying to save the fitting.

Since they're mainly used indoors, I don't know about UV rating. The white with orange release rings were best for show and tell here. They do make black ones and black plastic tends to hold up to UV better. They also make chrome plated brass, unplated brass, stainless steel, with plastic or metal release rings etc but those get pricey. They're also made with pipe threads on one end and in different shapes like Tees, 4 way, 45/90 elbows, reducers. Anything that has threads is also a swivel fitting

Those steel pipe brackets are used for laundry services for racks to hang clothes on. Large uniform companies use them as a custom built rack system hanging from above. They also put small rolling racks in work places to hang this week's clean uniforms on which is where I spied them.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Do you think Eva is a Calico? I always thought she was a tortoiseshell and white. She does have some reddish brown on her. Does that count? She and Boyd, who truly IS a Tuxedo Cat, are just barn cats from the neighbor. Same litter, obviously different Cat Daddy's!

Boyd. One of the TWO reasons I can't have nice things!

[MayflowerMadam]

Pretty little tuxedo. Looks like my Fiona (RIP).

[Diana in Wisconsin]

He’s all that and a bag of chips - well, in HIS mind anyway, LOL! Good mouser in season.

My Best Cat Ever EVER was a gray and white Tuxedo Cat. Timothy Two-Tone. So smart! He loved to play fetch; whatever you threw at him, he would bring right back to you.

He loved playing with the Cat Dancer. He’d play with it until he pretty near passed out from exhaustion, so that wasn’t an everyday thing!

He would wear a harness and leash and loved being in the back yard, under the trees. He caught a crow once, but didn’t know what to do with it, LOL!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Sweater Weather Hot Cocoa Cake

Snuggle up with this warm winter treat and a hot cup of coffee or tea.

https://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/a62922384/sweater-weather-hot-cocoa-cake-recipe/

[Qiviut]

Usually. With a ‘torti’, it’s an all over mix of black, brown & orange. I did see a comment in an article that if a torti has white, then they are calico. Mandy, a very early barn cat (long before Murphy) had a torti body that was mostly black, a white ruff & paws, white & orange nose (half & half). She was gorgeous. Murphy was more ‘regular’ torti. BTW, personalities of tortis are such that the phrase ‘tortitude’ is a thing! Definitely applied to Murph!

Here’s a reference that might help you figure it out:

https://animals.howstuffworks.com/pets/tortoiseshell-cat-vs-calico.htm

Scroll down for more articles, too. Fascinating stuff :-)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thanks. I did not know any of this - but you know I’m a Dog Person over a Cat Person. ;)