The Victory Garden Thread - May, 2026

May 1, 2026 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[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.

[Augie]

It's raining today here in Central Missouri. Two inches in the gauge overnight and still coming down.

Mrs. Augie and I hit the Lowe's store yesterday and brought home half a dozen ten-gallon-ish outdoor planter pots. We filled those up with good soil and transplanted the lettuces that I started in half-gallon pots. We harvested some of the lettuce before we transplanted and ate it for supper last night.

Blue Lake pole bean seeds went in the dirt yesterday afternoon. My sweet corn patch was looking a bit on the yellow side so I top dressed it with a good portion of urea on Saturday. I expect it will be looking much better in a few days.

I made another ten 16" diameter protective cages from half-inch mesh hardware cloth on Saturday. I haven't bunny-proofed the perimeter fence around the new garden patch yet - these will keep the toothy varmints off my transplants in the meantime.

I'd hoped to put the cucumber fence up over the weekend but didn't manage to get it done. With all of this rain it will be a couple days before I can get back out there to do that. No big deal. Still have eight tomato plants that need to be set out and caged. 15 of the 16 seeds that I took out of a lunchbox pepper from the grocery germinated. They aren't quite big enough to set out yet but it won't be long.

I reported a couple weeks ago that only one of the American Senna seeds I sowed in starter cells had come up. There are now six of them showing. I have one red canna up from seed. Still no sign of the peach and pawpaw seeds coming up. The second planting of radishes are up. No sign of the second beet planting yet but I expect them to start showing in the next few days. The snap peas that the bunnies didn't mow down are loaded with blossoms. The ones the bunnies ate have recovered nicely and are a little over a foot tall now so it won't be long before we have fresh peas to add to our yummy salads.

Our popcorn trees (catalpa) are in full bloom now and are absolutely loaded with blossoms and bees. The wind howled off the prairie all day and knocked thousands of blossoms down but you can't tell it by looking at the trees.

[Qiviut]

Currently up to 94° @ 2:00. I am not on a mower.

[Augie]

Lantana is a Butterfly Magnet!

Mrs. Augie saved some lantana seeds from one of her plants last fall. She kept them in the refrigerator over winter. I put 16 of them in starter cells almost a month ago and so far none of them have sprouted.

Do they simply take forever to germinate, or was keeping them in the cold all winter the wrong thing to do?

[FamiliarFace]

I use Worcestershire sauce when I sauté mushrooms and onions in butter/EVOO combo to use to top steaks, burgers, etc. If your mom’s sauce was a bit dark, I bet she used some Worcestershire in hers.

[FamiliarFace]

Ah, yes! That sounds wonderful! Thanks, Bob!

[FamiliarFace]

Interesting question, and I don’t know the answer. Somehow I view lantana as a Southern plant, because it grew in the wild when grew up in Florida. Here in zone 6, it is an annual.

One thing I learned recently is that some seeds either need to soak overnight and others need to be rubbed with gritty sandpaper to wear down the outer coat. I don’t know if any of that applies to lantana seeds.

[FamiliarFace]

That’s good!

I was able to get a little more planting in this morning/early afternoon before the storms started up again. This will last for several more hours.

Forecast has about the same for tomorrow, though I *might* get to work outside until 4ish, which will be an improvement over today’s 2 o’clock storm arrival. I guess the newly planted plants will be happy with the rain, so I can’t complain too much. I just want to get all these things I’ve purchased either in the ground or in containers as quickly as possible! Time’s a wastin’!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yum! Thanks for sharing the recipe. Will try that in the rotation. I love it when simple ingredients = D@mn Tasty!

We have a Wisconsin company that makes a Vidalia Onion Summer Tomato Dressing. It’s really good. I pick up a jar whenever I see it. All of their offerings are very good.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“Blue Lake pole beans...”

An excellent standard, but if you ever get a hankering for an even BETTER green pole bean, try ‘Sachelles.’ I have grown it for 4 years now, and it is amazingly productive with very straight pods and the seeds stay small, so you can be l-a-z-y about picking every day. ;)

Our Catalpa trees are just starting to leaf out. We have three in the back house yard and a few along the driveway. They are the most gorgeous trees when in bloom. They look like tiny Orchid blooms. :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

My garden area is now three days behind the rest of the house yard as far as mowing. It’s getting a little WILD out there, LOL!

More rain tonight, then we should be OVER IT. Ugh! Hot and HUMID today - near 80 and over 100 in the greenhouse.

It appears that someone has stolen two of my red cabbage plants from the garden; could be a coon or a puppy...so far no one is talking. I forgot to start cucumbers because I wasn’t going to GROW cucumbers after last years RIDICULOUS cucumber output, but Mom wants them so will pick up a 4-pack at Walmart tomorrow...along with some more red cabbage plants.

It’s always something!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Well, they DO take 2-3 WEEKS to germinate when growing from seed. They also need SOAKING beforehand, so your results are anyone’s guess.

I currently have a whole flat of Nasturtium that REFUSE to sprout. I got ONE (!) from 16 seeds planted. Grrrr!

I’m pretty sure in ‘The Biz’ they propagate Lantana from stem cuttings - they are kind of ‘woody.’

Anyhow, here’s a primer on how to grow Lantana from seed:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/lantana/how-to-propagate-lantana.htm

[Bob434]

Yep she does- it’s not real dark0- just darker than the one Dianne posted a link to- that one had milk and cream in it- sio it was lighter-

[Bob434]

You’re welcome- glad to share it- hope someone can start a hotdog empire with it :)

[Bob434]

That sounds delicious-

[Diana in Wisconsin]

EVERY kind of jelly you’d ever want to make from flowers you grow yourself or find in the lawn or when foraging such as Dandelions and Violets and the orange ‘Ditch Lilies’ as we call them. (Day Lilies)

*Delighted Squeal*

https://thehomesteadinghippy.com/flower-jelly-recipes/

Qiviut! Number 11 - Pink Peony Jelly!

Pink Peony Jelly

Peonies are gorgeous flowers to have gracing your walkways and garden, but they are edible and delicious to the tastebuds as well as the eyes. Don’t be sad when the petals start to fade, turn them into jelly instead.

This pretty pale pink jelly has the flavor of strawberries and peaches.

Diana here: I found this recipe elsewhere. The original recipe link at the first site was unreadable!

https://www.homestead-acres.com/peony-jelly-recipe/

We don’t do jelly on toast, but I DO like jelly to add to plain yogurt or cottage cheese for a little sweetness.

[FamiliarFace]

This is too cool! I had no idea!

I have 4 peony plants. All of them are so beautiful. Harvest time will be soon!

[FamiliarFace]

Sometimes we put jelly on top of cheese and crackers. I wonder if that would be good with peony jelly.

[Paul R.]

What I found with my Mortgage Lifters (besides a very limited harvest time because they took so long to mature*) was that their best flavor exists for only about 2 days: About 1/3 of the time if I chose the right day to pick them, they were quite good, if eaten right away. Shelf life was ok for use in most recipes, but in a sandwich or just sliced and eaten, they were very mediocre if not used very promptly.

I’m thinking that next year I should start 3-4 Mortgage Lifters indoors from seed VERY early, so I have about 3 foot tall plants to take out to the garden after frost danger has mostly passed, in a setup where I can cover them if we do get frost. Buying 5” tall plants in a 6-pack gave me a very late harvest, as I complained on here last Fall! Ditto for my plants from seed, which were the same height by the time Menards got Mortgage Lifters in. My Lifter’s fruits barely made it to harvest B4 frost, and by then the plants were too tall for me to easily cover them.

(This year I have some fully overwintered ML’s that I deliberately started early last fall and semi-starved overwinter so they would not grow too large. I’m not sure how that is going to work out - the transition outdoors has been poor.)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I used a Swiss and Almond cheese spread topped with my Cherry Jam on crackers. Heaven! :)

[Paul R.]

Yesterday was ammo day: Academy Sports has a $30 off deal on a $50 purchase* (doesn’t have to be ammo) if you get their credit card. They let you pay it off at the store, so, although I don’t like having another account to keep track of, by paying it off right away I don’t have anything extra to track - at least for now. I only make purchases @ Academy every blue moon, and don’t have any advantage in using this card for anything else.

*That may be an incorrect figure for the minimum purchase - I wasn’t paying close attention.

I only needed a few specifics:

9 mm shotshell rounds for the little 9mm handgun I picked up on sale last year for something more compact to tote, either for CC or for my pack when fishing / camping. These shotshells are just for the rare instance of running into a poisonous snake in an “unavoidable” situation, or if kids are around or frequent the area.

Hollow point 9 mm rounds for personal defense. I really would have preferred heavier subsonic rounds, but, 115 gram was all they had. (In almost any personal defense situation where I’d be using 9 mm hollow point rounds with this little pistol, the “advantages” of higher fps are not, so far as I can see...) (I already have plenty of FMJ for target practice.)

Hollow point 22WMR rounds for scoped .22 Magnum rifle my Dad gave me. (Dang nice gun.) Basically just in case I need to take out a large vicious dog or maybe an exceptionally big raccoon. Possible “backup” uses or for wifey if the New Madrid fault repeats its 1811-12 antics, which it will do someday, the question being if I’ll still be around and “functional” for the experience. Essentially no transportation in for months - yeah, that could get dicey! But, I have heavier / more capable weapons for that scenario...

Subsonic 22LR hollow point rounds. I haven’t been exceptionally happy with using my .22 1000 fps (with alloy pellet) pellet rifle to take out these raccoons the last few days, 3 of which have been ~ 25+ lb. animals. Even with near perfect head shots, sometimes it takes them 30 seconds or so to die. I want to minimize their suffering without waking up the neighborhood at 3 a.m.... These should of course be good in our .22 rifle for small game in the “New Madrid Shakeup” situation too, and should be great in my .22 long barrel revolver: It makes for a better / flexible light but not too light weapon than my other presently owned options for 3 a.m. chicken house commotion investigations too...