Posted on 03/01/2026 5:58:25 AM PST by 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.
LOL!
Archie Bunker was right about England, it really is a “Fag Country.”
I incautiously clicked on an MSNBC link and ended up spending 2 hours looking at articles, some of which were relevant and good. (Good advice about never going camping or hiking in the wilderness alone, Which I already knew. Another about turning off the lights in your hotel room and checking for lights or hidden cameras, monitors, and funny mirrors and stuff.)
There was one on good Spring flowers that I backtracked to find but had disappeared into some swirl or eddy of the internet!
**The internet did just tell me that Robert Mueller died, a man that knowingly left innocent people to rot in jail because he was more concerned about protecting a source, and who knew on day 2 of his Trump Russia Collusion investigation that there was no crime but continued to investgate for what? 2 more Years? He will be pushing up daisies shortly.
Finally made it outside to do some work. The Plan was to pick up all the tree debris because I will likely be mowing next week. I started on the area between the shop & barn. There is a huge dead chestnut tree and another, much smaller half dead chestnut, right next to the shop. I took two cart loads of debris from those trees alone.
This is where The Plan jumped the tracks. I’m looking at those stinkin’ dead trees & seeing where I could do some cutting ... next thing I knew, I had the pole saw & chain saw out & rotten limbs were coming down! Now I REALLY have a mess to clean up, but those branches won’t be coming down in the future. I am waiting for my brother to visit with his larger chainsaw to help take down the main tree. I think I can get the smaller one down myself.
Good news: the peach tree is blooming so Monday night’s 19° didn’t kill all the blooms. The rose bush, lilac, helleborus & boxwoods I planted last year have all made it. The Rose of Sharon bushes don’t come out until about May so I will know then if they survived.
It appears the lavenders I transplanted are deceased. They were in sad shape when I moved them so I’m not surprised. The echinacea (sale rack at Lowe’s) & red hot poker plant (a gift) are showing some green so they should be ok.
It’s ‘only’ 73° today, but still warm enough to work up a sweat. The planes are really coming into the airport - I saw 3 on approach paths within 10 minutes. The motorcycles are out & about - lots of scenic roads in the nearby mountains. Vehicles are headed to the river (public landing 1/2 mile down the road) with canoes & kayaks. Early “touron” season has begun ... the local businesses will be happy for the extra customers.
Beau had a blast, today! They let him help with the burning of 3 acres after their safety class. Once he has one more burn under his belt, he is certified to burn it all and let God sort it out. ;)
He is one Happy Camper and is currently ensconced in his La-Z-Boy watching boys HS Basketball Finals and college WRASTLIN’. He’s tired. Didn’t even want to beat me at Cribbage after supper, LOL!
(I am UNDEFEATED, today! Yay!)
Hahahaha!
We hit 86 deg. F here, today! That might be a record for March (all of it) for our location. I had to change from a dark color lightweight short sleeve shirt to a light colored one! I’d have put on shorts if I’d had any handy, but they’re still in a cedar chest upstairs.
The worst part is that stinkbugs are everywhere. Maybe we need another freeze!
Maybe I’ll do a web search later for stinkbug traps (if they even exist).
We have stink bugs, too. Here ‘ya go:
Stink bugs beware! Homemade stink bug traps squash store-bought models, Virginia Tech researchers find
https://news.vt.edu/articles/2014/05/050714-cals-stinkbugtrap.html
Another cheap idea that works late season when the bugs are looking for a place to spend the winter:
Trapping Stink Bugs by the Box
https://www.gurneys.com/pages/ybyg-trapping-stink-bugs-by-the-box
Still...Diana...we are all happy you are there to provide a bit of oversight!
Ok...humor slide over. :o
I am glad he had a good time! From all that you have told us about him without a doubt he will do a great job! (Death to the chiggers Death to the Ticks!)
My grandmother grew up on a ranch in NE Colorado. She lived in a sod house and they did heat with Buffalo and cow chips. (Approximately 1897 to 1903.)
They moved into town (Holyoke) once her mother's TB got worse. She told my mother that she never understood why anyone would want to live in drafty timber frame homes. (No insulation at that time.)
Great job on a successful gardening day!
We are in California today and go to Oregon tomorrow for a few days. It’s been non-stop action around here. (We arrived Wednesday afternoon.) These grandsons are wonderful, but a HANDFUL!! They are 2 and 5, with the older having his birthday yesterday, and birthday party today, plus a T-ball game RIGHT before the the party.
I was successful getting a shishito pepper plant (Amazon has them, and they were packaged very well for shipping), a nice sized pot, and organic potting mix, so the 5 year old and I worked on that project today. Too much fun!
When we got home from the ballgame and then party, he jumped out of the car, ran over to the potted shishito plant, and yelled to me, “Grandma! Come look! I think the shishito has grown a little bit already! It’s added some new leaves!” Well, I do think it started being happy in its new home and already started stretching to reach the sun a bit more.
So I just wanted to report that he is a pretty happy camper, and went to bed very satisfied that he is in charge of the plant. We will see how it goes.
The two year old is an observer, and very sweet little boy, but a real sneak. I’m going to miss everyone so much, but especially these 2 very active little boys. It will be awful to say goodbye.
I either need a milk cow OR a dragon - still deciding...
Central Missouri is back to unseasonably warm and dry after last week’s freeze. Mrs. Augie and I have been chipping away at getting ready for growing season.
I ran two tanks of gas through the chainsaw cleaning up fencelines Friday evening. We hauled most of the spoils up to the bonfire pit yesterday. There’s another four or five loader buckets worth that we’ll pick up today.
The tiller tractor wouldn’t start last week when I tried to get it out of the barn. Battery was dead as a hammer. One of the cable ends broke when I pulled the battery to charge it. Fixed that yesterday but it still wouldn’t fire. I had to take a file to the rotor button and breaker point contacts to get it running. The local NAPA store will have a new distributor cap, rotor button, points, and condenser for me tomorrow.
After I got that one going I got Nanner out and hauled four loader buckets of topsoil to the new garden patch, added some compost, then mixed it all up with the tiller. I picked most of that up and set it aside in a heap, then ran the tiller over the entire garden to mix in the compost that I applied last fall.
Today we’ll be working on chicken yard fence and cleaning up the brooder house to get ready for a new batch of chicks in April. We’re going to try to keep this flock confined for at least a few months to allow Mrs. Augie’s flowerbeds time to recover from all the digging and scratching the old birds have done over the past couple years.
I was thinking that I’d dig out the ground beds in the greenhouse today and refill them with the topsoil that I amended yesterday, but I noticed that the freeze didn’t kill all of the spinach. I’m going to take a closer look and see if there’s enough left alive to leave it as is. Probably be best to replace the soil now and replant but we’ll see.
I’m getting the next round of shots in the back on Friday. I didn’t take any time off work when I got the last round and that wasn’t a great idea. I’m going to take advantage of my short-term disability insurance this time. I can take up to 12 weeks of FMLA time and I intend to use all of it. I’ll go back to work at the end of that and be on the home stretch to retirement.
Howard had another good week. He didn’t get in trouble even once. He has just about grown out of the silly dumb puppy stage. Mrs. Augie has fallen absolutely in love with him. It took awhile but she is now smitten. lol
Thanks - yeah, I turned up the VA Tech trap in a Brave search too:
The “light traps” make sense, because I’ve noticed that the stink bugs are really drawn to light.
The plastic soda bottle light trap sounds good for feeding the bugs to our chickens. (They do eat them - live bugs are downed so quickly I suspect they don’t get a chance to set off their little chemical bombs.) I’ll probably try both.
I also found interesting info. here about UV and bug zappers (the latter usually not effective.)
One thing I have noticed is that warm white LED lights really seem to attract stinkbugs. However, I’ve not tried to directly compare different LED lights. The “bright white” shop lights over my plants sure bring ‘em around...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.