The Garden Thread - July, 2025

July, 1, 2025 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Pollard]

We have a spring fed river here that’s big enough to be a weekend attraction to city people 100 miles away. Us locals have a ton of small spring fed creeks that we can go to that feed that river. The river is a day long float on the weekend. The creeks are where all the stay at home moms are taking their kids while on this summer break and a lot of dads will join them after work until the sun goes down past the trees. Some locals do the river on weekends and some stick to the creeks.

[FamiliarFace]

I hope Bun-Bun is still with us, but I know all too well that these little cuties we become accustomed to seeing (so much so that we give them names!) are sometimes hunted down by their own predators. Sadly, they don’t live forever.

I hope Dodger will be a new fun visitor to your yard, and not give you too much trouble.

P.S- When my first son was born, my best friend made a blanket with Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit as the theme. My son called it Bun-Bun for all of his life. Sadly, once he became a teenager, it went into storage and it succumbed to the elements. The nice thing, though, is that for him, and many in our family, baby blankets are all called by the honorary name, “Bun-Bun”, same as your little friend. 🥰

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“I have noticed all the cherry maters I’ve grown have been pretty resilient compared to full size varieties I’ve tried.”

My two potted ‘Valentine’ cherry-type tomatoes are doing great and producing well with just a little bit of disease, as is my potted Jalapeno that has NO disease issues whatsoever and is producing the biggest peppers ever in this wet, sunless season!

Could someone please Man’splain this to me? LOL!

It’s that very same ‘Bonnie’ Jalapeno plant I buy just ONE of every Spring at Walmart.

[FamiliarFace]

Oh, that would actually beat our town pool, by a LOT! I long to live on a navigable river/creek. We have a small creek in our backyard, beyond the woods, but unless we get heavy rains, it never gets very big. The Great Blue Heron loves to go fishing there for his meals.

When we moved here, I was hoping to find a home on a lake or a river. Alas, we had to make a choice, especially being very unfamiliar with the area. We opted for a place where we weren’t too far into the boonies, and yet, far enough from the big city to not have the influence of it daily.

Since God led us here, we will stay until He tells us it’s time to move again. With big moves, for us anyway, He has always made it clear that it was TIME to pick up and get going.

[metmom]

I grow my own.

The worst part of it is the bed prep and planting in the fall.

Other than that, it’s an exceedingly trouble free crop to grow. I cut off the scapes mid=season, ajd weed a couple times, but aside from that, until harvesssssy, there’s not much to do. Very little bothers it.

[metmom]

Something ate both of my jalapenos when they were small.

Which is very frustrating.

I’m very interested in trying some container gardening for peppers next year.

[Paul R.]

Must be something about the weather this year. I have noticed all the cherry maters I’ve grown have been pretty resilient compared to full size varieties I’ve tried.

That (weather) seems plausible - it's as if once the plant is weakened, even if it seems to be recovered and growing very well, setting fruits well, etc., it reverts back to its past and only produces small fruits, perhaps to conserve its overall vigor.

[Paul R.]

And conversely, all my peppers EXCEPT the Jalapenos are doing well. I can’t figure out if the Jalapenos tend to like more or less sun than other varieties. (Eye roll)

Maybe I’ll try a little milk as fertilizer on the 2 Jalapenos.

[Pollard]

Considering how far away on a different continent some of our veggies originate from, we're lucky we can grow them at all. (Tropical = white sandy beach with clear blue waters. NOPE - it's mountains 8,000 above sea level near the equator)

Gonna dig up some dirt today to finally send in and get a soil test done. Gonna send in two samples. One from an area I've never touched but do plan to grow there and one from the tunnel/garden area where I've grown and amended on and off for several years. Both taken from several spots mixed together of course. They think in big farming terms of course. Recommend 15-30 samples. That would be insane for my 50' x 50' tunnel area. They have a spot for how many acres for a sample. (0.17 for 50x50)

I gotta figure out three sample crops I want recommendations for or guidelines as the form says.

Any member of the cabbage family would be an obvious choice. Tomatoes and peppers are both nightshades but I have more problems with peppers so I guess that's another. Just looked at a few lists of difficult to grow veggies but the things that make them difficult are non-soil related. Heat, cold, long growing season combined with heat/cold issues. Maybe throw beans/peas in there since they only do ok for me but not great. It's only $2 per crop for recommendations.

Regular fertility analysis: pHs, NA, OM, Bray I-P, NH40Ac-Ca, Mg, K ($15.00)

For this first test, I'll add this Zinc, Iron, Copper, Manganese (with regular analysis: $7.50) and this Sodium (with regular analysis: $3)

I highly doubt I have a sodium/salinity problem but for $3, might as well get it once. The minerals for $7.50 are worth it this once. Particle size for $15, I'll pass. Clayey Loam - silt - heavy - no sand

They have check boxes for other items to test for like boron and sulfur but no cost associated so I'll check those off this one time just to see. If they charge, it can't be much based on all the other fees -- $31.50 otherwise. Regular check ups later on will just be the base $15 test.

Most interesting thing will be to see what the pH really is. Every store bought test said 7-8 but the web soil survey, wild blueberries and veggies I can't grow, all say low 5s and even the cattle farmers here add lime so they can get a better variety of cow food.

My county extension office is a mile away from work and they're open til 4:30 and I get done at 3:30. Grocery store I shop at on one of my days off every week is even closer. I may be popping in on a regular basis to ask some question - show pic of a plant/weed and ask what it is. Find out how many wild edibles I have. Can I eat this? LOL

[Pollard]

Agghh! I slept past 8 am & and failed to optimally “beat the heat”.

Pssst - wake up. Gonna be hot out there in a few.

[MomwithHope]

Thank you for so many years of service and friendship to us all after taking over this thread after our dear Greeneyes passed.
Have a Happy Birthday!!

[Pollard]

I may be popping in on a regular basis to ask some question - show pic of a plant/weed and ask what it is. Find out how many wild edibles I have.

Which reminds me -- just got a new cell phone and went through the old to see what apps I needed to install on the new one. One of them is LeafSnap. Take a pic of a leaf or end of branch with multiple leaves and it will tell you what the plant is. I only ever used it once to check it out. I think I took a pic of a hickory leaf. I'll have to try it out some more and when I installed it, I see there are a bunch of apps that do the same.

[Pollard]

Opened LeafSnap and tried to use it and then uninstalled it. Used to be decent but now does everything it can to get you to upgrade to paid. Makes it nearly unusable.

[MomwithHope]

Please fess up a number for those who don’t know.

[FamiliarFace]

Happy Birthday, Diana! I hope you have a fun and special day!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

LOL! Thank you and also, You're Welcome! I love this place and you all make it so much fun. Great graphics for all the PICKLES I am dealing with these days!

I will be SIXTY-FIVE, today - but NOT until 10:30 pm tonight. Not that I'm trying to delay the inevitable...but I AM!

As an 'Added Birthday Bonus,' Beau is taking me to Menard's today to buy me a Gutter Guard (Leaf Filter) and all the Black Label Bacon I can carry, as it's on sale. Then to my favorite authentic Mexican restaurant, 'Fiesta Cancun' for a Birthday Fiesta of either Seafood Fajitas or my favorite Fish Tacos. Can life get any better? :)

He gave me a very heart-felt, mushy card and I was also just picked TWO 'Birthday Tomatoes' from the garden off of 'Grandma's Favorite' and a HUGE bowlful of 'Valentine' cherry tomatoes and cut a big bouquet of Dahlia & Zinnia for the kitchen table. And I didn't get bit by a single mosquito, either!

So far, it's been a Good Day!

Thunderstorms and at least an inch of rain coming this afternoon, though.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Dig up Chicory from along the roadside, dry and roast the roots and you have poor man’s ‘coffee.’

Snip the blooms of Elderberry and let them dry in a paper bag. Makes a nice tea.

Elderberry berries are good for you when you’re sick, so save them, too!

You probably shouldn’t eat anything you find laying in the road - unless you just freshly ran it over yourself, LOL!

[Qiviut]

If they were ‘chomped’ off as opposed to holes in leaves, it was probably deer. They will eat hot pepper plants when they are small. Supposedly, when larger, they mostly leave them alone. I’m not taking any chances & have my jalapeño raised bed fenced. My 8 Jalafuegos are loaded with peppers & blooming up a storm. I hope to have enough red ones eventually for a couple of batches of pepper jelly. If you use red jalapeños, the jelly color is a gorgeous amber with bits of red in it.

[Qiviut]

Sounds like a grand birthday celebration of the best kind, doing what you enjoy - good on Beau for the mushy card, too :-)

Happy Birthday & best wishes for many more!

[Pollard]

Wild Edibles of Missouri by Jan Phillips 1979 -- https://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/2022-01/WildEdibles.pdf

She tried them all and also used her family as guinea pigs. Taught herself how to illustrate too. Best used when the plant is flowering since that's much of the ID, plus the book is arranged by flower color.

Yay for me. Got my tanks rearranged before it got hot. Now at 10, it's pushing 90 with a heat index pushing 100. Did some scrubbing on the inside of the dirty one. Mostly algae along with some remnants of the original food ingredient, soy lecithin. Will be spic and span by the Tues.

Happy Birthday!