Posted on 04/01/2026 6:22:58 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The MONTHLY Victory Garden 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 Victory Garden 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.
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Thank you, Bon! Your flowers/plants & helpers are always a lovely addition to our thread each month. :)
Thanks, Pete!
You are way ahead of the curve, my FRiend. I am on that same trajectory, too! I recently bought a book called ‘Gardening Made Easy for Seniors’ and it has some great ideas in it if you can find a copy.
Here are a few websites to look at. I’m sure you’ll get some ideas from other posters here, too!
https://livingyourseniorlife.com/tips-to-garden-smarter/
https://morningchores.com/gardening-for-seniors/
So far, I’ve invested in raised beds - that way I can sit on the edge and don’t have to kneel or get up from the ground. I grow a lot of things in planters and hanging baskets, and I’ve increased my perennial crops, too. Asparagus (adding a second bed this spring) and Rhubarb, strawberries (expanding that raised bed, too) and Haskaps (Honey Berry) and I have grapes ‘wired up’ at waist height for picking. When we re-do the raspberry patch, they will also be elevated for easy picking.
I’ve used the TP roll trick for peas and Sweet Peas (flowers) and have had good success in the past. :)
For me, that’s my Spring-Summer-Fall forecast! You want a spotless house, or fresh food from the garden?
You can’t have both, LOL!
Try ‘refeshing’ the page, Mom. I can see Bon’s pix.
That’s encouraging!
I may try it with my beans this year since the mice got to those seeds, too.
This has happened to me several times - seems to be when Albion posts photos - leave for an hour or so (after I’ve complained to him) and there they all are!
Glad you could access them.
My mother would scoop out the center of acorn squash and put butter and sherry inside the cavity, cover with foil - then cook them on low for hours.
Pure heaven! Not sure how she cut them open...
I cook yellow squash with chicken in a 9X12 baking dish - add water and cook for an hour - the broth is delicious and we fight over the cooked squash. You just reminded me to plant more...
Good idea. “Sherry. Sherry, Baby!”
My uncle, originally from Indiana, tried to grow beefsteak tomatoes for years and years (lived near Santa Barbara) - and had no luck with them, he figured out that they are not suited to our California climate. He finally switched to cherry tomatoes, which I think will grow anywhere.
My brother raises heirloom tomatoes in raised beds from seed, yellow, purple and red. They are juicy, smell wonderful and taste great. But there’s nothing better than a ripe, red Indiana-grown beefsteak tomato. I haven’t found a tomato yet that compares. although the heirlooms come close.
My mom swears by it and since she is 84 and still has a tiny garden every year it seems to work.
I have heard the Pro-Plugger works for planting bulbs but I would like something for planting my seedlings so if anyone has any recommendations sing out.
I have 128 babies to go in the garden when it warms up and about half as many for the flower beds. My back demanded an ice pack and a bottle of Motrin just from me thinking about it.
“In other words, no aluminum up against steel because both will corrode really fast. “
Aluminum would be the sacrificial anode and protect the steel from corrosion.
Brave search returns:
"Stink bugs are strongly attracted to bright white, cool-toned, blue, and ultraviolet (UV) lights, as these wavelengths fall within the 300-650nm range that insects perceive most vividly. Research indicates that UV black lights and blue LEDs are particularly effective at drawing them in, often more so than standard white light.
Conversely, yellow bulbs and warm-colored LEDs (2,700-3,000K) are significantly less attractive to stink bugs and are recommended for exterior lighting to reduce invasions. While green light alone is less attractive, it can synergistically enhance the draw of UV light when combined, making mixed UV-green traps highly effective for monitoring specific species like the southern green stink bug.
Inexpensive possiblities:
And or something like this:
Dazzle Bright Fairy Lights St Patricks Green
Good Luck and Good Hunting!
So about the time I had planned on mowing, a T-storm blew through. Between the lightning & wet grass, no mowing. Instead, I went to Walmart & bought yarn & a head of cabbage. The cabbage is for baiting the groundhog trap.
On the way home, the lady in charge of the fellowship lunch after the funeral returned my call. What she really needs is deviled eggs ... only one person was signed up & 100 folks are expected. I volunteered to make 2 dozen which made her very happy. After Maundy Thursday service tomorrow, I know what I’ll be doing, probably until midnight.
Great photos!
The cactus is beautiful.
😄
Funny, the first time I read your post earlier today, the photos didn’t show, but tonight, here they are! Beautiful! Thank you for sharing!
I can keep some varieties of tomato plants going over the winter, indoors, but they don’t produce much.
Determinate tomato plants usually die late summer, for me, if planted early. Indeterminate types usually keep going, unless they are breeds not well suited for heat.
It’s sort of a bummer: I like and get good results from Best Boy tomato plants, but, they don’t hold up long. I may try planting a few in a more shaded spot and see what happens.
My wife’s family near Davao City, Philippines (actually in hills nearby) grow tomatoes year round - what varieties, I do not know.
Right, and good info., but... Some UV frequencies don’t seem to work at all. I have a “mini” UV “zapper”/bulb that Menards was selling very cheaply, and I found out why: It doesn’t seem to attract much of anything!
Luckily it also has a “normal” 5000k(?) function, so I use it as a regular bulb now, but even that seems to draw no attention, while the “5000k” standard bulbs I’ve bought from various sources bring clouds of insects if used outdoors from mid-spring through the 1st good fall freeze.
I “somewhere” have a couple automotive LED bulbs that have a sort of weird yellowish-greenish-purplish (peaky) output spectrum. If I could find them, I might try one with the 12 volt supply I’m running my experimental light-trap on now.
To power my “scavenged” LED panels (from the March thread), I have the diodes, but I don’t seem to have much in the way of 200 volt electrolytic capacitors in the 25 uF range. (That’s my estimate of what will be needed - if I use the rectifier out of the original light for ONE panel, the applied voltage is going to increase by about 10 volts (another estimate) as these are essentially unregulated supplies, and dependent on the load. Less load = higher voltage.
I could rig something up with some of my pricey film capacitors that I use for audio projects, but, I do NOT want to use those for anything here but experimentation: Their cost “blows” the whole idea of a cost effective stink bug trap! They are also quite bulky.
Once I determine the capacitance value with my film caps, if I can’t get up to Gateway Electronics* up in St. Louis, I can probably find the caps I want reasonably priced on eBay.
The days of driving up to St. Louis in my Honda CRX just to buy $25 of surplus electronics are, sadly, past... Gotta combine trips, these days, even our old Subie Outback “only” gets about 30 mpg on the highway, and I have no other real reason to go to St. Louis. :-(
Crazy day - I got back home exhausted, hit the sack very early, and have now woken up way too early and hungry!
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