The Garden Thread - May, 2024

May 1, 2024 | 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!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

It’s called ‘Chitting’ a potato and here’s how to do it. It makes ONE potato into a LOT of potatoes for planting. :)

https://growagoodlife.com/chitting-potatoes/

Potatoes ARE a rewarding crop. I’m over them, though. Wisconsin grows potatoes only second to Idaho, so they are always cheap and plentiful for me and I don’t have to waste garden space on them.

HOWEVER - since I know how to raise them, I CAN if push comes to shove. ;)

“When they outlaw potatoes, only outlaws will have potatoes!” :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thanks for the advice. I’m just making suggestions; no billable hours or blueprints. ;) SHE will make the decisions herself. She is a Cardiac Surgical Nurse; it’s her way or the highway...I KNOW that going in. ;)

Have my camera and notebook to take tomorrow when we visit. I’m actually MORE excited to see her new baby girl born in December...and the house now that it’s finally finished. I’m sure EVERY detail is perfection. You WANT that ‘attention to detail’ in a Cardiac Surgical Nurse - don’t you? LOL! :)

[FamiliarFace]

Have a fun time!

Yes, I agree! I want every surgical nurse to pay attention to details. Don’t cut corners! (Surgeons, too!)

[FamiliarFace]

Thank you! Even if I get one or two potatoes from these, I’ll be happy with the learning experience.

Next question, can you do this with onions? One of those is sprouting at the top. I’ve not ever had this happen before. Maybe my garage isn’t as cool and dry as I’ve thought.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

You can! Here’s how to do it:

https://www.happy-mothering.com/how-to-regrow-a-sprouted-onion-in-your-garden/

NOTE: Why can’t I just plant a whole onion?

I have tried planting whole onions, and I find that they have a higher tendency to rot in garden soil compared to planting just the sprout. I don’t recommend it.

[FamiliarFace]

Thank you for these tips! We’ll see what I can come up with.

[Paul R.]

Best with lots of sun and lots of water in well drained soil.

[Paul R.]

Where did you get your Scarlett Runner seeds (beans?) I bought a pack last year from Livingston Seeds (the brand Rural King carries) and only ONE germinated. I have about a dozen bean seeds saved off that plant. (Birds got some.)

I had some off brand “tender bean” seeds and I don’t recall the precise germination rate, but it was pretty decent. So, not sure what I did wrong with the Scarletts. The date code (last year) was late 2023.

I’d love to grow several plants at least of the Scarletts, as supposedly they will draw hummingbirds.(?) It’d be fun to have a couple of the little daredevils around in the summer, and who knows, maybe they’d help pollinate other stuff? I’d hate to rely on the dang wood bees!

I sent a message to Livingston but they never responded. :-(

Thanks.

[Paul R.]

I have one trellis that always has ‘Scarlet Runner’ beans on it for the Hummingbirds. They just love the blossoms, and they’re good to eat in a salad, too! They even taste like a bean.

Hummingbirds are good to eat in a salad? Wow!! Who knew?! And they taste like beans!

:-) :-)

Ok, ok, just kidding!! Or maybe I'm just jealous 'cause I had lousy luck with Scarlett Runners last year. Only one bean in the pack germinated, and then birds (I think) got most of the beans off that plant. :-(

The seeds came from Livingston (the main brand our Rural King carries) -- I messaged Livingston about the problem, never got a reply. Off brand beans did ok, so I'm not sure what went wrong.

I do have 11 decent Scarlett seeds (beans) from last year - will try again with them soon.

[Paul R.]

I have seen them grow fairly well in partial shade too, though.

[Paul R.]

Heh, we keep getting forecasts like that (or “more”), but we seem to be in about a county size area that is hard pressed to get over .1” or .2” in any one rain. Sometimes less. Luckily there have several of these dust settlers, plus one decent 1/2” rain, over the last few weeks. So, our soils are much less wet than they “should” be, but are still “slightly damp”. Tonight we’ve had several modest showers roll through, so I’ll check my gauge B4 I head back to bead. (A clap of thunder woke me up, and that in turn lead me to a “midnight snack” and FR!)

Collecting a decent amount of rainwater has been... tedious.

[Paul R.]

I dropped by our Menards again a couple days ago. The selection of 6-pack veggies for $2.99/pack (plus 11% rebate if mailed in) was better:

Tomatoes quantity was about 3x last week, and more varieties. I only picked up one pack of Early Girls: I never have a lot of luck with them as out hot summers seem very rough on them. But, we’ll see. I may try heavier fertilizer to speed ‘em up as much as possible, and plant a couple in pots in a spot that gets a bit of shade from 3 pm on. Most sections of the 6-pack had 2x and one 3x plants in them - got the 3x separated & repotted today, and the one 1x potted in a bottom half (w/ drain holes) of a 2 liter soda bottle. (I re-use lots of those for gardening. the top halves become funnels for rainwater collection.)

No sweet banana peppers, so I went with “Red Baron”, whatever that is, and Golden Bell (shortest to maturity). Lots of hot peppers on hand, but my Thai hots from seed seem to be doing well so far.

I picked up a 6-pack of Swiss chards. I have never tried those - it will be interesting to see how they do. Several small plants per section - do I separate them? Yikes.

Other new 6-pack arrivals were watermelons (I passed), head lettuce (passed), green beans (passed), a few cauliflower (passed), a few herbs (passed), and a few onions (passed - I have red sweets purchased earlier & seem to be doing ok.)

It looked like a lot of 4-1/2” and larger pots of all sorts of stuff came in, and the 4-1/2” pots were on sale, which turned out to be a big 16 cents off. Bah! Lunchbox orange and sweet orange bell peppers were gone (rats). I found 2x Ichiban eggplants in a 4-1/2” pot - snagged it for my wife, as she likes those, and 4x “Japanese cukes” in a 4-1/2” pot — decided to give that a try.

Our Menards had 4 sections of annual flowers in 6-packs compared to the one section of 6-pack veggies. Sheesh. I don’t really have much time for lots of flowers - will put out a few more seeds, and have some Zinnias started, and see what happens. Plus we have lots of perennials and the iris and peonies are flowering now - yay! Still waiting for the butterfly weed plants to get going & have a few more seeds in a couple old 6-packs. And I moved a couple more small buckeye trees coming up from nuts from existing trees. Prob will try to slightly bury some more buckeye nuts out in an opened up (tree came down) spot at the edge of our little (~ 1/4 acre woods. Prob should try to start some walnuts from nuts at the far end of the woods. We have volunteers a few years old in “wrong” places to deal with too. Why do the squirrels bury all of them where walnut trees are a problem?

Found a pack of bluegill in the back of the freezer - likely way freezer-burned by now. Fertilizer they shall become.

Our “new stray” cat literally jumped and snatched a mouse caught in a trap yesterday, right out of my hand as I was carrying the newly deceased (literally a couple minutes B4) out of the house. He ran off with it — I guess he enjoyed it... As fast as he hit it, I’m guessing he may be a good mouser. Good! Maybe I should get him fixed, dump our lazy cat outside (esp. because even tho’ fixed he occasionally still pees in the house - really a PITA! I’m tired of ME always having to clean / refresh the bloody litter box for my daughter’s cats. I’m tempted to clean it one more time and put the dang thing (litterbox) in her bedroom and tell her she can’t close the door on the cats. The food bowls too... She “forgets” to feed ‘em 90% of the time too. “Forgets” as in “I’m busy on the computer with my friends - Dad will do it.” Bah!!

[Paul R.]

Bring in Ted Nugent.

https://bravewords.com/news/report-ted-nugent-the-rain-in-spain

Well.... maybe that was a little TOO effective! Ted had literally done the rain dance in full Native American garb because the area was suffering a drought.

There used to be a much more complete telling of this story online, but I can no longer find it. :-(

[Paul R.]

Huh, looks like this round of rain is about done. Just under 1/10”. But the next 7 days all look rainy or at least a good chance. Mowing could be a big problem...

[Paul R.]

I need a grocery store like that!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

You’ve been busy!

As for the Garden Centers gearing up, now is certainly the time. I was ‘in the biz’ for 18 years. If you’re not fully stocked with anything and everything right before Mother’s Day (whether it’s early or late that year) you may as well pack up and go home, LOL!

And no matter how many lovely offerings you put out, there will always be that ONE customer that wants what you don’t have or is illegal to propagate and/or sell. ;)

Our Farm & Fleet has been newly remodeled and is having a ‘Grand Re-Opening’ Sale, so we are hitting it today. We had one HUGE list but last night split it into two. The place will be packed so I suggested we ‘Divide and Conquer’ first thing, and then go out for Pancakes. Beau thought it was the Best. Idea. Ever. EVER! :)

[CottonBall]

I’m glad you mentioned that Paul, because I keep forgetting to ask. What is the best way to plant bean seeds?

I heard some people say they soaked them. Others Nick them. I’ve normally just stuck mine in the ground, but I don’t have a high germination rate even with brand new beans.

And the Scarlets are another story. I do have a hard time getting those to germinate as well. I have to print quite a few beans to get one plant. Then I have to baby it, It always gets extra attention and doesn’t grow as prolifically as the others

[Augie]

It's been a wet week here in Central Missouri. I dumped another 1.8" out of the gauge this morning. There's close to a foot of new water in the pond over the last two weeks or so. Need another foot and a half to reach full pool.

If it's not dumping rain after work today I'm going to deploy the fyke net in my bait pond and see if I can catch out most of the bluegills that are in there. After that soak I'm going to move the net to the front pond and see what kind of weight reduction I can accomplish there. I'm hoping to pull 100lbs total weight - all bluegills under 9", all green sunfish, and maybe some yellow perch will be removed. Bluegills <7" will go to my buddy's quarry lake, bluegills 7"-9" will get the knife, bluegills >9" will go back into the pond.

I stopped by the nursery on my home from PT on Tuesday. Picked up a dozen tomato plants, two cayenne peppers, and four rhubarb plants. I re-potted the tomatoes and stuck them and the peppers in the greenhouse for now. It's too early to put them in the ground here, and even if it was time the ground is too muddy to even think about it.

[Paul R.]

Hah! And I’ve not gotten 1/2 of what needs to be done, done. Including a lot of mowing... :-(

“Light Showery” forecast today again too. At least we finally got a little more decent rain last night so I have about 8 gallons of new rainwater collected. :-)

Our Menards seems to get a lot of veggies in late. I’m still hoping more types and varieties will show up this week. I’m wondering if Menards sort of gets surpluses and scraps — their “regular” price at $2.99 for the 6-packs is certainly stomping their competition around here (So. IL and W. KY). IIRC that was the price, even in the Chicago ‘burbs when I was up there last late May.

[Paul R.]

When potato salad goes bad...

(Larson)