The Victory Garden Thread - March, 2026

March 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.

[Paul R.]

Noted! A couple things in that article don't make sense though:

they prefer homes with light-colored siding, which warms up the most during the day.

Huh?

(Emphasis mine)

Light color siding should warm up LESS during the day. It might lose less heat during the night, or the brightness of reflected sunlight may attract the stink bugs.

Also, The stink bugs that suddenly appear inside your home in the spring aren’t making their way indoors at that time—they’ve been living with you all winter.

That's likely true, but, we get lots of them outside, gathering on outside surfaces of windows, near doors, porch lights, etc., and some invariably get in as we go in and out. That's one reason both of our porch lights are now motion sensing lights.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Good work, Q! I lost my steam, today. It was only 40 degrees or so and no sunshine. I went from running a fan in my bedroom last night to turning on the heat today!

The remaining sticks can wait - but I got all the BIG stuff hauled to the burn pile. Beau was impressed, so I guess I’ve earned my keep for another month. ;)

Also got my tomatoes started and some Kale. Yay for Kale! :)

[Qiviut]

88° this afternoon! Decided to not work up a sweat & also rest my back which is very sore from yesterday. There’s a pretty good breeze & along with the heat & low humidity, there’s a ‘special advisory’ warning of elevated fire danger today.

Took a 45 minute walk on the Greenway which is at most 10 minutes from the house. It’s along a large creek with lots of benches for sitting a spell. Mom had to rest twice - her feet start to hurt, but otherwise, she does very well for 92! Lots of people, kids & dogs out & about.

[MomwithHope]

Two words to consider - Dexter cattle. Our old vet had them. From google -

Yes, Dexter cattle are considered excellent dairy animals, particularly for small farms, families, and homesteads. They are a true dual-purpose breed that produces high-quality, high-butterfat milk (4–5%+) along with good-quality beef. Their smaller size, docile nature, and efficiency make them an ideal “family cow”.
Key Dairy Characteristics of Dexter Cattle:
Milk Production: A typical Dexter cow produces about 1.5 to 3 gallons of milk per day, though some can produce up to 4 gallons.
Milk Quality: The milk is high in butterfat (4–5%) and protein (3.5%+), often compared to Jersey milk, making it great for butter and cheese.
Ideal for Small Operations: Because they produce less than a commercial Holstein, they are perfect for supplying a family with fresh milk without the immense, demanding output of full-sized dairy breeds.
Efficiency: They are small (38–44 inches tall), hardy, and require less food than larger breeds, allowing them to produce more milk and beef per acre.
A2/A2 Protein: Many Dexters produce A2/A2 milk, which some find easier to digest.
Their calm temperament also means they are often easy to train for milking, and they are excellent mothers, according to Mountain Heritage Farm.
Dexter Cattle Society
Dexter Cattle Society

[MomwithHope]

Great post and loved the part about Howard and Mrs. Augie.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

And they’re CUTE! I’ve looked into that breed. I think it’s still an uphill battle, though. I mean, I rarely go anywhere other than to run errands and people LOVE coming out here to spend the day on The Farm, so I have the TIME for a milk cow.

I’ll keep working on it! :)

[MomwithHope]

Plus they are A2/A2 and high butterfat. Makin’ some cheese. You’d have plenty of milk with just one.

[Pollard]

Bought some things for the truck plus a belt and oil filter for the tractor from RockAuto.

Need to go get some more top rail to build one tunnel side frame and get it put together and working as a proof of concept.

I found a place to get those weatherproof electrical connectors cheaper, plus they have rubber boots to cover the area of a multiconductor cable where the outer jacket is removed for inserting the individual wires into the connector.

Bought a 20x20x6 electrical enclosure. It's a Hoffman powder coated SS outdoor type and that size is normally about $700. Got this one for $100 because it had been customized but never picked up by the customer. It's new but has a 9" x 12" rectangle hole plus four 3/4" round holes in the door.

It was going to be a control panel with touch screen and four switches/knobs/lights to control a machine or something. I have that industrial touch screen to put in this but I might still be left with the four round holes. Is so, I'll find a use for them. Indicator lights, manual override switches etc. (four emergency close buttons for the sides?)

It's not going outdoors or even in the tunnel. It will be in the shed on the NW end of the tunnel. The shed will have a dirt floor and won't be tight but will keep rain out. The enclosure will keep my electronic components dry and dust free.

They use these outdoor type enclosures for control panels in factories for the same reason. Keep dust, fumes, humidity etc out and away from the high dollar electrical/electronic components. I'd been looking at 14x16 boxes because that seems to be a common size and the point where there's a huge price jump for anything bigger. This thing was such a deal. $100 includes shipping which will probably cost them $25.

I don't know as mine will be quite this neat when done but this gives you an idea of what a control panel is. That gray track is wire duct and costs $50/ft, so yeah, mine won't be that neat. Cable ties will do. That white panel in the back is stood off the back by 3/4" or so and is for mounting things to without drilling through the back of the box. It's a standard accessory and is $114 new. ($40 incl shipping on ebay - cool)

[Qiviut]

Going down to 28° tonight so the hosta pots are blanketed. The plants grew about 2” this past week & are up over the pot rim. They are still in the ‘shoot’ rather than leaf phase so I hope the blankets won’t weigh too heavy on them. They’ll need blankets later this week & I think I have a way to keep the blankets off of the plants next time.

Super blustery all day & still blowing at 9:30 pm. High temps were in the 50’s today so quite chilly with the wind & too windy for outside work.

[Paul R.]

Well, darn. I tried the pan and bright light trap that was so well spoken of: In 12 hours of darkness (well, a couple were very low light), it caught only 1 stinkbug. In the day before there were lots on surfaces near the overhead light a few feet away, which I’d switched off after placing the trap.

Possibly the light spectrum of the light I used for the trap is wrong: It is a quite “warm” color, probably around 3000k, and a lot of these newer lights have better cutoff of UV above the visible spectrum, and / or no bluish or greenish tint. The overhead light is a “Great Value” 800 lumen LED bulb - also around 3000k, but, maybe it has more UV light leaking out?

For immediate results, I got out my hand (32 oz.) “Sevin” spray bottle and gave the bugs around my plants a good dose of chemical warfare.

Later, I began one of the 2 Liter clear sided soda bottle traps, which are almost the same as my small crayfish / minnow traps. I just need to add a light source, and I have a bunch of small (under 2 sq. inches area?), flat 12 volt LED light panels. They are more like 4000K, quite bright, and have been reliable in auto applications. UV “leakage” unknown. My LED shop lights (now plant lights) that draw a lot of stink bugs are also mostly around 4000k - although, again I do not know the degree of their UV light leakage. I have spare 12 volt power supplies and even a small 12v spare lead-acid battery (the kind that go in backup UPS units for computers) as potential power sources.

If that doesn’t work, I have numerous old flashlights with bluish light LED modules, but battery contacts, internal contacts, switches, etc., have gone bad, so I can salvage the LED modules and connect them to a power source or tab type 18650 battery pack, at least for initial experimentation.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Chilly here, too - but sunny! Running errands today, but tomorrow is my day to get my 10-10-10 granular down on all the fruit trees and flowering trees/shrubs as rain is predicted for Thursday and that soaks it in nicely for me.

Peppers are coming along well and the tomatoes have only been in for 2 days, but they’re keeping warm under lights until they sprout.

Still have a few more sticks to gather up, but it’s finally down to a manageable level.

Other garden-related items on the docket are:

Prune Lilac suckers

Move Rosemary plant to greenhouse - under cover with the spinach and lettuces

Talk to ‘Miss Peach’ (Thanksgiving Cactus) and tell her how PRETTY she is, BLOOMING again, though Beau tried to kill her this winter, LOL! She also needs re-potting - I finally have the cactus dirt she needs.

Rake leaves off of, and prune, Juniper shrub. Prickly job, but I’ve pruned it to look kind of ‘Bonsai’ so it’s also a creative and fun chore.

Rake pathways around raised garden beds (straw, leaves, etc. Good stuff for the compost bin!)

Set up the Rain Barrel.

Move rocking chairs to the kitchen porch.

Prune suckers off of Magnolia and fertilize. It looks like she made it through the freezing and warm-ups of this late winter. :)

Everything else on ‘The List’ is ‘Inside Stuff’ that I don’t feel like doing, LOL!

[MomwithHope]

Thats quite a list. I have another tarp to lay down in the big garden and arrange my big pots on the patio. The next 2 days will be much warmer. Might go to Menards tomorrow. Its been awhile. Only a few things I need and the milk store is nearby where I get my A2A2 milk for kefir and their heavy cream for my coffee. I’ve been out for a couple of months and switched back to canned evaporated milk. It’s what I was used to. All we ever used growing up.
I did not fertilize my paw paw trees last year and go figure I got over 200 fruits. I will used those fruit tree spikes in the ground this year. I already have them. I’ve started looking for someone local who cleans and services old pocketwatches. And does not charge an arm and a leg. Not having much luck. Happy gardening everyone.

[Pollard]

Drew up a 20x20 square and added the components that will go in it, all to scale. The V12 is that standalone PLC I programmed to be a simple irrigation timer. Set minutes - hit go. I have a small enclosure for it and was going to mount it in the tunnel somewhere but this big enclosure will be in the shed right off the end of the tunnel anyway and after adding everything else, I had a blank corner leftover in the top left that was just the right size to fit it.

When I drew the 20x20 enclosure and the first small modules, I thought 20x20 is going to be overkill/half empty. Then I drew the 8x8" PC. Enclosure is supposed to be here Thurs and inner panel that everything gets mounted to next Monday so this will be a next week project. Ordering bits and pcs right now.

Also looking at wire and cable and most everything was going to be big $$$ until I found out they make "irrigation cable". Who knew? $80 for 300' of 5 conductor cable 18/5 and actuator power wires are 18 gauge. Perfect. Cerrowire Made in USA. Cable be buried so I think I will for the sides. Cable for far end gable can be run inside a lengthwise truss brace. Drill a hole in each end cap and snap a plastic grommet in to protect the cable. When standing in the tunnel, all you'll see is 2 foot of cable for each gable and 1 foot at the ground for each side actuator. Sweet.

McMaster has a multi-cord grip that will fit all six actuator cables. One 1-5/16" hole in the enclosure.

I was going to use those Deutsch connectors with special panel mount plug receptacle but I would need 6 of them and they're $22 ea. Would also be 6 holes about 1" with four holes surrounding each of them for screws to mount them. I don't really need the cables to be unpluggable at the enclosure.

I do need the actuators unpluggable so I can keep a spare and swap it out quick and easy. It's also the only way to do a weatherproof connection to extend the cable that comes out of the actuator. Those will look like this.

Actuators have five conductors but they don't make 5 way connectors so I'm using 6 way and just won't use one hole. They make sealing plugs for unused holes. I'll prewire a plug end on the spare actuator for plug-n-play. Guess I need two spares since the gables don't need 24 inch actuators. More like 4 inch.

Decided to grow a row or two of potatoes in the tunnel and not a whole lot else. A few Daikon radishes, a few shishito, korean peppers. All generally no maintenance and bug free here. Gonna do that down the middle and black tarp the rest like I talked about last year. I still have a lot of grass in there. Will also tarp future outside beds to kill that sod. I haven't hardly been outside in 4 days. I'm scared to see how tall the grass is. Low wind - more raking and burning today and tomorrow. KILL MORE TICKS

Heading to that one grocery store to see if they've got Yukon seed potatoes. If not, it's Irish Cobbler.

[Pollard]

Everything else on ‘The List’ is ‘Inside Stuff’ that I don’t feel like doing, LOL!

That'll be my Thursday. I just got yelled at for needing to clean up in here - by me. I had some choice words for myself.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

‘’Tis a Thing of Beauty’ Gadget Guy! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

LOL! Every night I tell Beau to PLEASE have a talk with the Majordomo. She is allowing ‘The Staff’ of ‘The Manse’ to TOTALLY slack off on these warm Spring days!

Cook would REALLY like her to at LEAST have the kitchen floor swept...and maybe clean the stove top and clean the grease trap!

And don’t even get me started on the dirty windows...

[MomwithHope]

Grease trap! Ugh. Our house in Chicago where I grew up had one. And I had to clean it our once after my Dad passed.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

When you were being ‘punished’ in the Army, cleaning out the grease trap was your absolute WORST punishment. ;)

I never screwed up THAT badly - but I DID have Kitchen Patrol (KP) a few times in the rotation and I learned to BAKE Bacon for a crowd of about 100, versus frying it and I learned that I NEVER want to live* where Cockroaches the size of your FIST rear up on hind legs and HISS at you! Ugh!

*Fort Jackson, SC.

[MomwithHope]

I had just done my nails perfectly and there were no rubber gloves in the house3. I dug out the grease and we filled up many hefty bags with about a gallon each and brother took it up the stairs and down to the trash can. Nails ruined.

[Paul R.]

Our predicted low early next Saturday morning has dropped to 34 deg. F. It was more like 39 deg. F, last time I looked.
That’s not not a good trend, though it should be breezy, which should prevent frost. This morning we started off at 38 deg. F, but with breeze and sprinkles, so, no frost worries there.

I went ahead and got out the garden hoses today, and hooked up the long link out to the chicken houses. That will save me a lot of lugging of water out there. :-)