The Garden Thread - October, 2024

October 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!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"Cat litter tubs" Thanks! I also use them to support 2"x6" board shelving on the back porch. Lighter and easier to recycle than the old college dorm standby of cinder blocks.

Traps....They do work but are not 100 percent effective. Buy them when you buy seed and get them out early. I also tried some homemade traps that did not work at all. (Did not get the color right I think!)

I think that I need to skip squash for a few seasons and see if I can get the beetles under control. There is a community garden about 1/2 a mile away and the time I visited it at least one plot was really thick with squash nymphs and probably the source of a lot of pests so I am not certain

Diana, You can drive from the county road to your house without kicking up lot of dust! I have to say that anyone with a 1 mile long blacktop driveway you should generally consider themselves successful in life! :)

[Qiviut]

Packed up & ready to roll this morning. Last evening was a loading ‘rodeo’ ... I’m taking mom’s 3 file cabinets & contents. One cabinet was right at the limit of what I can physically handle, but it is on the trailer... I will figure a way to get it off.

All the ‘goodies’ were delivered yesterday- 2 new floor lamps for the living room, the phone system. & the Netgear router modem. Fingers crossed I can get the wifi going. I downloaded some podcasts in the event I cannot. I have been instructed to call the field tech & send him a pic of the equipment that was left by the previous owner so I hope I can get the tech today.

Got the bare minimum grass mowed Wednesday afternoon - it was still a bit wet. Grass to mow when I get to the new house. Temps are supposed to get ‘chilly’ there next week so maybe that will slow the growth down. It should be a beautiful weekend weather wise.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Trust me - it’s still rutted in places and it is not ‘parking lot smooth’ by any stretch, but it’s easier to plow snow off of it than plain gravel, so that’s a plus.

It just looks like a service road to get to the crop fields, which is also what it’s used for, so if you don’t know where we live, you DON’T know where we live. :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Praying for good weather for you - which helps with any task at hand. :)

[Liz]

Crumb Topped Pumpkin Cobbler
Easy fall dessert. So delicious.

Ing 15 oz can pure Pumpkin 10 oz can Evap/Milk 1 cup light brown sugar 3 eggs 3 tsp pumpkin pie spice 1 box dry yellow cake mix 2 sticks butter melted 1 cup coarse-crushed grahams, 1/2 cup toffee bits

Steps Stir/combine pumpkin, evap/milk, sugar, eggs, pump/pie spice; pour into sprayed 9x13" pan. Sprinkle box of dry cake mix on top, then grahams and toffee chips. Pour melted butter evenly on top. Bake 360 deg 45-50 min---center is set, edges are lightly browned.

Serve warm topped with ice cream or whipped cream, a drizzle of dulce de leche.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Now that the Hummingbirds have headed back to Costa Rica (take me with you!) it’s time to start prepping for my Winter Feathered Friends. I’m making suet, today. Here’s my recipe:

Suet Cakes
2 cups Oatmeal
2 cups Cornmeal
1 cup Flour
1/2 cup Sugar
1 cup melted Lard (Bacon grease, bear fat, regular lard)
1 cup melted Peanut Butter
1/2 cup or so dried fruit or chopped nuts, optional

In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients. In a microwave safe bowl, melt lard and peanut butter. Stir melted fats into dry ingredients. Will be sticky! Pack into square molds, or using a cookie scoop, plop onto a cookie sheet, flatten slightly, then freeze. When frozen, put in a zip lock bag and keep in the freezer. If scooped, 4 ‘portions’ fit in a square suet feeder basket.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I hear my UGG boots calling to me from the closet!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I LOVE the addition of graham crackers and toffee bits! Yummy! :)

[Liz]

Cute.

[Liz]

You could even add chp nuts for another layer of topping flavor.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"looks like a service road to get to the crop fields"

Boom Crash! Washboard and ruts! And I had all these JoAnne Gaines and Pioneer Woman images of a smoothly paved driveway! :)

"you DON’T know where we live" Always smart to remain low profile!

I will not suggest the Prepper Apocalypse Soon idea of putting a "decorative" burned out trailer or vehicle a bit back from the "service road" turn off to reinforce that "Abandoned property, no one lives here, turn back now, nothing to see here!" impression. You are far enough away from Madison and Milwaukee that you do not need to torch a trailer for effect! :O (I currently live on a main thoroughfare about a mile from KS/MO border so no real hiding here!)

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Glad for the update, and happy for you and mom in this move to your new property and hope the moving and everything else goes well!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Pictures of my Soup and Salad Autumn Garden.

(I want to avoid any "Under Cover"Gardening this year, so whatever does not mature by first hard frost is will become compost!)

This is an Olympian Fig. (probably a European Brown Turkey, which is not the same as the U.S. Brown Turkey!) I have 3 in ground fig trees Chicago Hardy, Olympian, and Valle Negra, that die back in the winter and grow back in spring with little winter protections here in zone 6B. (We do get down to -20F occasionally.) Once they go dormant I cut them back to ground level and cover them with bags of leaves or something that gives some protection. These are not the best tasting figs, but they are figs that will grow in relatively cold places. (My bucket grown favorite varieties...I-258, Bordissot Griese, Cavaliere, Campaniere.)

I have had a few ripe figs from the first two, but none from the Valle Negra. If you want fruit, it is necessary to prune them early beginning in the spring and shape them to form vertical scaffolds that produce fruit (At some point in late august snipping the top leader bud to redirect energy back to the developing figs.)

If you do not prune heavily, figs will become large weeds with no figs. Since I have better tasting figs that i grow in 5 gallon buckets and bring inside in the winter, I let the Chicago Hardy (Aka Bensonhurst Purple) just grow into a large landscape plant.

My mostly unpruned decorative Chicago Hardy. The stump of this tree was even with the ground in late March. I will cut it back to perhaps 8 to 12 inches when it goes dorment in mid November and cover it with something like leaves.

Note that Deer are not supposed to like fig trees. They are good in places with lots of heat but not so much where the temperatures get down below -17F to -20F.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Trust me, there are any number of abandoned-looking farm vehicles and pieces of equipment on our property. Oh, they still work, they just look like they shouldn’t. ;)

The entrance to our property looks like it belongs to the horse farm next to us. And, we named our farm ‘Abandon All Hope Acres’ for good reason. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

So nice that you can grow figs!

I used to order Brown Turkey Fig from a grower in Florida for the garden center. They do OK in a Wisconsin winter, either potted and brought under cover for the winter, or with other types of protection. They sold as fast as I could get them in. Customers loved them.

[Augie]

Boom Crash! Washboard and ruts! And I had all these JoAnne Gaines and Pioneer Woman images of a smoothly paved driveway! :)

I like the privacy of being out of sight from the main road, but the expense of maintaining 1200' of private road isn't something to sneeze at.

Which reminds me... I need to add 50-ish ton of crushed limestone to my road before winter gets here. It was holding up well, and I thought I might get lucky this year, but we got a couple of big deluges in August that washed away quite a bit of the surface. There's not enough material left on top to groom it into good shape so it's time to break out the wallet.

[MomwithHope]

Congratulations and I am always awestruck at how much you can accomplish!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Augie;

I understand the desire to be out of sight of the main road. If I could I would prefer to be 2 to 5 miles outside of a smaller city, able to see the nights at light, quick drive to get into town for gas, groceries, and doctors. (I think that is your situation! Good deal!)

If you have a long driveway always good to have your own equiptment to maintain it, which you also have! Crushed Gravel... about $10-$15 per ton? Yikes!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Figs...it is! I will be honest. I am getting tired of the work involved to produce a few pounds of figs. If I lived a hundred miles south or so I could probably grow the better tasting varieties in ground with a lot less effort. The Plastic buckets are becoming brittle and falling apart. (I knew this would happen at some point.)

The house. At some point we need to start downsizing and I will probably need to leave garden fallow for a season.

Did you have a good apple harvest this year? Aronia berries? Applesauce or drying? What varieties?