Posted on 10/01/2026 6:56:54 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.
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It’s so disappointing when they do that—just when everything is ready to pop, hungry critters strip the crop!
Thanks for the mention, though!
Over at Rural King (feed for the chickens) they had potted Mums, ANY size, for $1.00. Some were in (roughly) 3 gallon pots in 1/2 bushel baskets. Well, dang! Ya' can't buy the pot for $1, ya' can't buy the potting soil for $1 (at least not usually), ya' probably can't buy the pot for $1, and you get a somewhat rough but (with selection) large and still flowering Mum. I bought 3 of those that still had fairly numerous flower buds on them, and 8 more in various sizes down to maybe 3/4 gallon - those last two (smallest) because they were in very good flowering shape. :-)
Whoops! The first “pot” was supposed to be “basket”!
Just play the game, Man! You can’t WIN if you don’t PLAY! (That’s the local Casino tagline.)
Our butthead Wisconsin DA sued Menards for their rebate practices. I think they paid $180,000.00 in ‘damages.’ LOL!
Chump Change for the Menard’s Empire...and they didn’t change a thing. Bogus case. DA Dipsh#t hates Menard’s because they contribute to Conservative candidates and causes. Oh, the HORROR!
The last time we were there, the KID that processed our order for the decking materials was amazingly helpful and even made a suggestion that’s going to look even nicer that what we originally wanted, AND saved us some money. I have yet to have a Menard’s Employee who wasn’t on their game.
At Home Despot it feels like the sales people HIDE from you. Beau drags me there from time to time to get my 10% Veteran’s Discount. Come on, Man! This Vet can get 11% at Menard’s, LOL!
Score! I’m making a Spice Bundt Cake for our party this weekend and am going to do a coffee frosting drizzle over the top with some fancy ‘Gold Digger’ sprinkles. Will ‘showcase it’ in my clear, domed cake stand.
I hope they DON’T ask for the recipe because it’s just Duncan Hines, LOL!
I don’t know if these are hardy “garden” mums or not. If yes, I may be able to plant them as deeply as possible (two of the pots are a particularly deep style - I bought the only 2 like that that RK had, despite them being poorer in terms of flowers on them). Then I can cover them with loose leaves* to try to insulate the roots as much as possible.
*I’ll have to look up vulnerability to Juglone, as most of our trees are hickory trees.
Well... Drat!
“does juglone damage mums?”
“Yes, chrysanthemums (mums) are considered susceptible to juglone toxicity and can suffer damage or death when planted near black walnut trees.”
“Research and gardening resources list mums among the plants that cannot tolerate juglone, with symptoms including wilting, yellowing leaves, and stunted growth. Because juglone inhibits plant respiration and nutrient uptake, exposed mums may fail to survive the winter or die entirely if grown in soil contaminated by black walnut roots, leaves, or nut hulls. To prevent damage, it is recommended to avoid planting mums within the drip line of a black walnut tree or to use raised beds with a physical root barrier.”
Menards DID increase their rebate submission period to 1 year from date of purchase. With the cost of postage these days, that does help, as one has more time to accumulate enough rebates that sending in the rebate receipts isn’t significantly eaten up by postage.
What I really wish they’d do is make it possible to submit the rebate receipts online*, and receive the rebate online too.
*There’s no reason a unique one time code could not be printed on each “rebate receipt”.
“C’mon Man (Menards), get with the times!”
I noticed “our” Menards no longer provides customer feedback envelopes to mail in, and I don’t think there is an equivalent online.
Someone planted scarlet runner beans next to traffic sign poles in my neighborhood. They had pretty purple flowers all summer and now they have shiny purple pods getting fat. I wonder when is the best time to pick the pods for seeds next year, and if these beans are tasty as soup beans. They have very shiny pods, so I was wondering if they might be related to the Greasy Grits beans.
Scarlet Runners are gorgeous...both flower and bean, but a little different from a greasy grit or regular snap or green bean. SR is phaseolus coccineus, while GG, Kentucky Wonder, Empress, etc. are phaseolus vulgaris. You can use them the same way as any bean, PLUS toss the flowers into a salad!
Girl! You are our resident Bean Queen, LOL!
Pick the pods when they are dry and shell them. They are SO pretty! They’re almost as big as a Lima Bean, so use them accordingly.
Hummingbirds love the flowers. I planted three seeds up a trellis this summer; the Chippies got 2 of the three, but the trellis still filled in well and I have beans to pick for next year. In fact, I’ve used the same beans a number of years running - they don’t seem to ‘cross’ with any other beans I have growing each season and have always reproduced ‘true.’
Girl! You are our resident Bean Queen, LOL!
Pick the pods when they are dry and shell them. They are SO pretty! They’re almost as big as a Lima Bean, so use them accordingly.
Hummingbirds love the flowers. I planted three seeds up a trellis this summer; the Chippies got 2 of the three, but the trellis still filled in well and I have beans to pick for next year. In fact, I’ve used the same beans a number of years running - they don’t seem to ‘cross’ with any other beans I have growing each season and have always reproduced ‘true.’
What a BEAUTIFUL Mum! I’ve never seen one like it. Simply GORGEOUS!
“With the cost of postage these days, that does help, as one has more time to accumulate enough rebates that sending in the rebate receipts isn’t significantly eaten up by postage.”
Great tip. We usually send them in RIGHT AWAY so we don’t forget, but I could start a spot for them in the ‘Junk Drawer’ and we could save a little on postage. ;)
Now...to still remember to send them in, LOL! I’m one of the last remaining humans that keeps a CALENDAR on the WALL, so I’ll have to add it to that. ;)
October 10
by Wendell Berry
Now constantly there is the sound,
quieter than rain,
of the leaves falling.
Under their loosening bright
gold, the sycamore limbs
bleach whiter.
Now the only flowers
are beeweed and aster, spray
of their white and lavender
over the brown leaves.
The calling of a crow sounds
loud—a landmark—now
that the life of summer falls
silent, and the nights grow.
*SIGH* I love Fall and I LOVE Wendell Berry. Reads his books!
https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/wendell-berry/
He and Mary Oliver are my two favorite Poets, though Berry writes a mean essay and was quite the, ‘back to the land’ kind of guy. *HEART*
Mary Oliver: https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/mary-oliver/
“I noticed our Menards no longer provides customer feedback envelopes to mail in, and I don’t think there is an equivalent online.”
Also, please note: They’ve started sending the rebate certificates in what LOOKS like JUNK MAIL, so be sure to peel back and/or open ANYTHING that comes from them these days.
Really? Why make it HARDER for a Gardener (or anyone!) to shop at your store? Yeesh! I guess it’s the ‘Younger Generation’ running things these days. *Rolleyes*
Listen Up, KIDS! We SENIORS are the ones with the cash to SPEND in your store! Quit screwing around with us!
When I worked Retail for WAY TOO MANY YEARS, I knew my Average Customer. She was between 50 & 60 years old. She had CASH to burn. Her kids had flown the coop and her husband didn’t care WHAT she spent their/her money on as long as she didn’t complain about his Life at the Golf Course or the Muscle Car he was ‘restoring’ in the garage!
That was my kind of Gal...and now I am one...except it’s hunting expenses and/or keeping the F350 truck or the Skid Steer alive! ;)
The integration I found for adding the modules to Home Assistant will allow me to have graphical displays of the data, at least a few types like bar graphs, line graphs etc. I figure a compass is out of the question. I figured wrong.
If I'm understanding how things work, the Custom Compass Card works with Entities and each sensor or relay that the CBW integration pulls in is an Entity. There's a ton of results for a search of Home Assistant forums for the word "compass" and all related to wind direction so I'm sure I can find something that works.
Meanwhile, bar charts, line charts, switches for relays will display most everything. I added the Digital Input sensor that had the rain gauge on. I'm going to have to hook the rain gauge up and flip the tipping bucket back and forth a bunch of times to simulate rainfall so I can see some numbers and bumps on the line graph to know it's working. Each tip is 0.1" aka 1/10 inch of rain. For length of time displayed, I can choose 5 min, 1 hour, 1 day, 7 days, 30 days or 1 year. I added a 7 day and 30 day. The 30 day looks the same but full width of page. They both only display since Sunday when the module was connected.
Supply voltages works so everything else should to. I think the integration uses whatever data the module would output to a log file which is log.txt but if saved as log.csv, comma separated values, it can be imported to an Excel spreadsheet. Numbers, words, commas, and line breaks.
The module log can only hold so much before it starts deleting older stuff. No way it would keep a year worth of data even for a single sensor. Home Assistant on a PC will be able to fit a year of every sensor's data many times over. Clicking on the little right arrow in the top right of X-420 Supply Voltage brings me to a wide version with two arrows for scrolling through the history.
Generally does too! I will let you know if I run into a good meme seam! (Bitt and Ransomnote are both Shes.)
Mom, good looking mums! I have some that had been thrown in the compost heap last fall, but they survived the winter and I rescued and potted them.
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