Posted on 07/01/2024 6:30:55 AM PDT by 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!
This is a short video on pruning suckers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBw9YjM2j8E&t=176s
My mom, who is 90, still colors her hair. She has a hard time with a ‘gray’ daughter & I cannot tell you how many times I have heard “I don’t know why you don’t color your hair ... it only takes a few minutes!” When people comment on my hair, she stays grimly quiet. The latest comment was from a HS friend of mom’s who was a hairdresser for decades ... had her shop in her house. We had lunch with her recently & she told mom my hair was ‘beautiful’ - I just smiled, mom didn’t. :-)
That’s neat. In a funny way, it has reminded me of a few years ago, when I discovered where my old nuns retirement home was. I made an appointment to visit, and when I saw my first grade teacher, she took one look at my dyed hair, and said “I see you’ve become a cheater!” We laughed so hard about that.
I’m one of the lucky ones. My nuns were fabulous, hard-nosed about learning, but fun and generous women. They taught me some great lessons that have stuck with me. I’m so glad I went out of my way to find them, and then to write and visit them. All of mine have now passed. Spectacular women. I know not many people think of their former nuns this way, but I loved my nuns.
I love hostas but they do not do well in my climate - not worth planting, I keep losing them.
Visited my sister in Colorado and she had an awesome display of hostas in her front yard, I was extremely jealous...Add that to the list of plants I cannot grow here - tulips, crocuses, and other bulbs that need a deep freeze, tuberous begonias, fuchsias and bleeding hearts - although I see them for sale in Home Depot and Lowe’s all the time.
We have plenty of other things I can concentrate on, though, it’s a matter of trial and error and seeing what grows well in the area.
It took me a while (5 years!) to 100% fall for Beau - we’ve known one another since we were in our late 20’s, but were both married to others. There really wasn’t an attraction on my part - he was like a brother/guy pal to me.
Then, FATE stepped in and we got to know one another in our 50’s and sparks sure flew then, LOL! Our temperaments and personalities and skill sets mesh perfectly. Both of us are nothing if not ‘practical.’
Plus, he’s a crack shot and a good dancer, LOL! ;)
You are right. We should each be grateful for the things we can have in our own zones. Hostas are very much at home here in my yard.
That bougainvillea I bought at the beginning of the season isn’t putting out such beautiful bracts lately. It isn’t over watered and it’s in the sunniest spot my yard offers. I’m wondering now if I can fertilize to try to get more color out of the bracts. If not, it was fun trying it.
You are making me remember my best friend from HS, who was a guy. I had NO idea he was interested in me as anything but a friend. I had dated 2 of his friends, that he introduced me to! Then after one break up, we went out to the movies together, as we often did, but this time he kissed me! Oh man! That was like kissing my brother! I told him very gently not to do that again, that I didn’t think of him that way. We stayed friends and in touch for many years. Went to each other’s weddings etc.
I’m glad you and Beau worked out! Sometimes we have to wait to find our true loves. I have some friends who are in much better places with their second spouse. That’s part of life’s journey.
Bougainvillea need a very dry climate, such as I have in So Cal. I don’t think they do well if there is any humidity whatsoever, so if you are in a more humid climate, I don’t think they’re going to do well.
They put out the most colorful bracts during our worst heat and hot winds and are one of the few things that “flower” during that time. Vincas and lantana also do well in the heat.
Random Prepper/Foraging Thoughts
It’s raining today, so I am doing ‘inside stuff.’ mostly meal prep for the rest of the week, and organizing the pantry and freezers.
Had some random thoughts on some of the foodstuffs we harvest from the wild and thought I’d share. Of course, you will find different things in different parts of the USA, but these are things we find in SW Wisconsin:
Fish, Rabbit, Turkey, Squirrel (ick!), Whitetail Deer and Black Bear. (Beau heads NORTH for the Black Bear.)
Black Cap Raspberries - I have two, 1-gallon each bags already frozen for future use with lots more to come. I make syrup or we eat the berries frozen/whole on yogurt or cottage cheese. Freeze them on a cookie sheet and then move into the bags/portions of your choice and keep in the freezer.
Blackberries will be ready in August. We also have Mulberry and they are starting to ripen now, but you have to pick continuously as they do not all ripen at the same time.
Elderberry are in flower right now so I will clip some heads, dry them in a paper bag, and use them for tea in the future. The berries are edible too, right off the bush, but again, very small so you need a TON to get juice or a pie out of them.
We have wild green apples on the property. They’re good for pies or in Applesauce (with other apples) but are much too tart for fresh eating. We also have wild Plums - same issue and they’re relatively small so you need to pick a LOT to do anything with them.
Morel Mushrooms - not a huge year for them, but some.
Golden Oyster Mushrooms - always a good season for them, and a long one, Spring through Fall.
Beau makes a Nettle Tea in the springtime using the new tips of Stinging Nettle. It’s very similar in taste to Green Tea.
Maple Syrup - again, not a stellar season for it; it got too warm too fast this Spring, but we have a number of GALLONS of the stuff on hand right now and Beau has gotten better at it each season.
Fiddlehead Fern. The young leaves, still tightly curled are really good fried in butter...as is anything, really. ;)
Ramps or Wild Leeks are in our woods in the early spring. We need to take better advantage of them. Use them just as you would chives or a green onion.
Sun Tea. Nothing simpler or more delicious. I have a 1/2 gallon Ball Jar with a plastic screw-on cover. Fill with cold water and 6 teabags and set in the sun for the day. You could also use dried Elderberry flowers and/or dried raspberry leaves, etc. Just another idea of how to make your own stuff. No need to PAY for a jug of already made tea from the store.
Of course we raise our own steer each year for the beef, buy pork from the neighbor and now that we have chickens again, we’ll have eggs starting in October if all goes well. And, while this growing season hasn’t been the best so far, we’ll still have tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, drying beans salad greens again in the fall season and herbs to use. Some effort, but a LOT cheaper than buying all of those veggies. Our apple trees are FULL this season, and we had a great cherry crop. Peach tree outdid herself last year, so she’s resting this season - leafed out nicely but didn’t even bloom, and there are a few dozen pears on each of our two pear trees.
So, I’m just saying to look around your property or neighborhood. Also, check out your State Department of Natural Resources to see if they have a page on foraging. If any of you watch ‘Prepper Princess’ on You Tube, she recently did a video just walking around her California neighborhood harvesting all kinds of fruit from trees (with permission, of course!)
Here’s the Wisconsin DNR page on Foraging. In our state you can forage on any public lands or parks, within a few guidelines.
https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/wnrmag/2021/Spring/Forage
Nice recap!
I had 4 in ground fig trees that I Planted 3 years ago. I decided last year that I was not going to spend any more time bundling them up for winter and just let them go and see what would happen. I am in zone 6B and it does get cold.
In this last year the temperatures dropped to -17 F for several days. That pretty much killed off the buds on my Plum trees resulting in only about 7 or 8 plums on the trees. (And protected by origami bags until they ripen!)
The Chicago Hardy (Bensonhurst purple) survived and put out a bush worth of sprouts. So did the Olympia. The Valle Negra lives, but is not particularly vigorous. I do not know if it will survive the next winter.
My Violette de Bordeaux, a primo fig, was planted next to the chimney on the south side of the house and was the one you would expect to survive, but did not come back. I have a total of 20 figs in 5 gallon pots that I bring in for the winter (kept in a dark place, watered every 3 weeks or so.) Ironically, figs contain Purines, which can contribute to gout, which in the last year I began to experience. (In addition to that, Mrs. Pete does not care for them, and I have been giving them away.)
Anyway, yes, a frost will damage your fig and can affect its production. If really hungry deer will eat a fig tree, although I understand they do not like it because they are allergic to the latex.
Clear the grass out from around the base. Give a higher nitrogen fertilizer blend (9-4-2) in late March or early April as they wake up (maybe a cup worked in to the soil.) Fertilize again in mid April with a lower nitrogen higher Phosphorous/Potassium (4-10-5) and again at the end of April with (4-10-7). Do not fertilize after that.
You can grow figs as a tree or as a shrub, but they they will get really bushy quickly. Figs exibit apical dominance. they will grow very tall. prune them back to a central leader with 4 or 5 scaffold branches and remove the leader at about 5-6 feet. This will direct the energy back into the lower branches.
More info on figs at:
**Florea, Chicago Hardy, Olympia, and Brown Turkey are hardy varieties. In the warmer south Celeste and Improved Celeste are good choices. (Zone 8 and above I would say.)
Thanks, Pete! :)
Guess I really didn't need to water the garden yesterday. lol
Hi Augie, would love to see a recent picture of your pond. I remember all the pics you posted while you were moving the dirt.
Similar story here. Mrs. Augie and I dated some in high school. It was fun but she moved away to attend college and we both got on with our lives.
10 years later we met again at our class reunion. Both of us had divorced by then and it was game on.
That was 33 years ago. We've made a very nice life together.
That’s pretty neat! I like hearing that people can fall in love with someone they had known before.
My sister-in-law is now married to her HS sweetheart. His family had moved pretty far away their senior year, and they didn’t stay in touch for long. Life went on. Both married others. Later after she became divorced, she ran into him. His first wife had died a couple of years before. This time it’s working out. Funny how that happens.
I'm really glad you asked, because I saw something cool when I went out to get the pic. A green heron flew out from under the buttonbush that's on the pond dam about 15' to the left of the dock ramp and perched on the old fence that cuts the pond. Then another flew out from the same place and joined the first one. I see one almost every day but this is the first time I've seen the male and female together so now I'm wondering if maybe they're nesting in the tangle on the west side of the pond.
Wow Augie, gorgeous. Beautiful dock/deck. Perfect for fishing. And a pair of green herons calling it home. You have done something wonderful. Beautiful dog too. Thanks, this made my day. Happy 4th!
We’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment out of the pond since it was renovated, but it decided to spring a leak through the dam last summer. I’m pretty sure there are some elm tree roots that penetrated into the spot where the dam was patched after all the digging was finished. The tree died and now that the roots have begun to decay it’s leaking water through those voids. It will spend the next 2-3 weeks draining all of the new water it got last night out onto my lawn before the level stabilizes.
There’s a plan coming together in my binky little brain on how to repair it without draining the whole thing and re-working the entire dam.
I *think* that I can plug it by using a mini excavator to cut a new keyway down through the top of the dam far enough to get below the leak, then re-pack the keyway with the clay that came out along with copious amounts of sodium bentonite and a few hundred pounds of a cross-link polymer called SoilFloc. I’ve got a bit more research to do and will likely get a professional consult before I start throwing benjamins at it.
That’s Miss Booger standing on the dock trying to be coy while I was taking pictures. She’s Australian Shepherd, 3 1/2 years old, and an absolutely wonderful dog when she’s not attempting to herd the grandkids. lol
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.