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Posted on 08/01/2025 6:03:57 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.
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Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Hello, all. Zone 7b reporting in from Salem, Virginia.
This has been a mixed season. A very wet spring brought LOTS of mosquitoes. The local FB garden group has LOTS of complaints about that and a few suggestions to deal with it.
But it’s bad enough that going out there is an unpleasant experience this year. A veritable war zone. After I came back inside a few weeks ago looking like I had a medieval skin disease (nickel and quarter sized bites and welts on every exposed piece of skin including my face) I almost decided let it all go to seed.
But I put on my my Big Girl Panties, and knee high socks, long pants, long sleeve shirt buttoned up to my eyeballs, a hat, and copious amounts of Vick’s on any exposed skin and gave it another try. That did work pretty well, and I’m getting out there every other day. The weeds are coming back and have to be dealt with - waiting for a sunny day.
Aside from the wet spring and bugs, the weather has been HOT, muggy, unpleasant, stormy ... some sunny days but it seems it’s been mostly cloudy.
But anyway, I finally got tomatoes! Yay! I’m picking them at first blush; the last 3 years they either didn’t grow at all or went straight to rot.
I’ve got so many I’m either making sauce to freeze or just cutting and freezing them fresh. I never learned canning and don’t think my kitchen is large enough to try.
However, they are all dying back and going brown now, maybe another 2 weeks. looks like late September out there.
Peppers were doing well until 2 weeks ago. I have an overabundance of jalapenos - trying to let some ripen to red.
Bells and bananas are getting smaller and fewer. I planted 3 cayennes because they are great to dry, but only 1 of them is cayenne, the other 2 are jalapenos.
String beans just failed.
Eggplants! 4 plants keep producing. I don’t have enough freezer space. 8 of them went to breaded, fried and frozen slices the other day but I’m reluctant to keep using canola or vegetable oil. There are 8 more on the counter and a whole bunch in the garden. The next batch may be a baking attempt.
Lots of pasta fagiola made and froze - Eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, (and canned beans, onion, potatoes) and blitzed into a thick sauce.
My cukes are done. Got maybe 15-20 before the plants just died off. Tried various slug killers that failed, but, without canning and pickles, there’s only so many cukes one can eat in a day, ya know?
Zucchini - not enough to celebrate Annual Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day (coming up Aug 8 ??). But, enough to make and freeze bags of zoodles and the pasta sauce, and some in salads. Funny thing, the best plant grew in my front flower garden out of nowhere. Complete Volunteer. Under the holly bush, it went from one scraggly seedling to an 8 x 5 monster. It grows dinosaur sized zukes that are very light green in color. It blocks the walkway and porch but I’m such a Chaos Appreciator I can’t take it down.
Lastly, 2 little watermelons went in against the garage and have taken over a third of the 20 x 20 veg garden. There are some very dark green melons and one light green. 3 years of trying and I still don’t know when to pick them. Out of all that have grown in 3 years we got 2 good ones. The others were not ripe or exploded from lack of picking.
And THAT is my tale of joy and woe from this corner of the earth.
I hope you all are doing better than I am, but I wouldn’t mind doing better myself.
Hello, August!
The butterflies in your flower arrangement remind me that I’ve been seeing lots of butterflies in my yard. I’m especially happy that at least one Monarch is visiting regularly, and hanging out by the milkweed patch that is growing more robust. I hope it’s laying eggs, and that in a few weeks time, I’ll see the caterpillars go into J formation to form the chrysalis.
There are two kinds of milkweed there, swamp and common. The common milkweed plants are transplants given to me by a friend who lives just a few blocks away. Those ones are tuberous, so will spread. They haven’t had blossoms yet this year (transplanted last year), but I hope they will next year. They are huge compared to my swamp milkweeds! I’m thinking of transplanting some of those next spring into the meditation garden area.
I’m considering putting in a butterfly bush over there, too. Yesterday I perused a garden center for ideas. I saw a beautiful raspberry colored crepe Myrtle bush that shouldn’t get more that 4’ high, but it was expensive. Still…a crepe Myrtle would be lovely to have as a late summer bloomer over there.
Today it feels like a Fall day, a little cool. The first time it happens in the season, it always catches me off guard, even if I know it’s been forecasted that way. Even though I’ve been in the Midwest longer than I had lived in the South, it still surprises me, and gets me a little down to know that summer is nearing its end. I may complain, but the truth is, I love the sun and the warmth. My comfort level goes well into the 90’s.
Anyway, hello August and FRiends! Time waits for no man.
Thank you very much! :-)
Of the 6 pictures shown at the beginning of the page, the one on the bottom right of that group looks to be a perfect match for my garden pests. Guessing it’s the Green Stink Bug.
Maybe they cane with the corn-borers that destroyed my sweet corn? Hard to say.
Fascinating! I’ve never heard of this, but this sounds like a good option for something! Not sure what, but next spring it sounds like a great idea.
Bkmk
I love the tiki stuff! I have a soft spot for tiki things. Once upon a lifetime ago, my Dad was the owner of a Polynesian restaurant that went upside down too fast. The food was fascinating, and it was just a really neat place. Too bad, but God had a different plan for my father in the long run. Still, I have very fond memories of the place.
I have several watermelons growing which I supported with netted onion or oranges bags. The net broke on one of them and I went to put it back it and it separated from the vine (Stem still green). I did not think it was ripe so I brought it in and put in in a mug with the stem down in sugar water and let it sit for 5 days. I cut into it last night and found that it was pink and ripe, although a it was a small melon with a lot of seeds. We all enjoyed it and no one got sick.
This makes me wonder if the problem I had in the past involved watermelon grown on sludge or with some sort of contaminated water. Anyway, I saved the seeds and will grow Sugar Baby again! (Sugar Baby seeds are heirloom and grow true to variety provided they are isolated from other watermelons, which these were.)
A good start to August!
https://www.planetnatural.com/pest-problem-solver/garden-pests/corn-borer-control/
Produces 1-3 generations per year depending upon the climate. Sounds like Stink bugs will eat borer larvae. (What do they eat when they run out of Larvae?)
Good luck!
Hot, rain, more hot, more rain, then not hot over the past week here in Central Missouri.
I’ve been picking from the garden pretty much every day. We packed another six quarts of lacto-ferment dill pickles yesterday evening. Zukes are hanging in there, spaghetti squash are thriving, pole beans are acting like they might do something, pepper plants are loaded, tomatoes are on the verge of making enough to start canning.
The plums, peaches, and wild blackberries are finished for the season. I got a really good crop of plums this time. Peach crop wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible either. My apple trees are absolutely loaded. It won’t be long before we need to start processing those.
Nice pictures, thanks. Good to see our furry buddies!
Nice reports to start the month off. I’ve picked two tomatoes so far at first blush. Thanks Qiviut! Chinese long beans coming in heavy should be able to start picking in a few days. Getting cukes, zukes, shishitos, cherry tomatoes. Lettuces done until it gets cooler and I can replant. I had some compost left over so I added some to each of my big tbs, Now they are loaded with 4 inch tomato plants. Also have a volunteer vine maybe a cuke coming up in one of the tubs. We finally got a really good rain and a break in the heat.
For wormy things that chew on leaves, try Spinosad. It’s like BT and is not a classic pesticide/poisin.
You can get it through Captain Jack’s as powder or liquid, and Fertilome. Fertilome is cheaper.
https://www.epicgardening.com/spinosad-spray/
It was warm and ok moisture, then got cold and wet for a month, and then HOT and dry.
My early crops, the lettuce and snow peas did well.
The garlic is looking OK. The onions BOMBED. Lots of small ones.
Tomatoes are looking fairly healthy but what I did this year was drape floating row covers over the tops of the tomato cages and clothes pinned them on. So far, miracle of miracles, no sign of blight.
I took it off for yesterday’s rain and let them dry off and need to cover them again later this afternoon to keep the dew off. I think that helps with the blight problem a LOT.
I’m getting some fall plantings in some zucchini, beans, lettuce, Brussel sprouts, started some cliantro in a pot. Also started some seed trays with cabbage, more beans, lettuce, baby bok choy, and a couple more zucchini.
I’m hoping to avoid the squash vine borers by planting them later. And if I don’t get a huge crop, that’s OK. It’ll give me some and that will be enough for what I need.
Yup, and when he’s frying to a crisp and you’re enjoying the fresh tomatoes in the summer, all he can grow is cacti.
I put tomato cages over stuff I want to protect and then wrap chicken wire around the bottom of it and make sure it’s all touching the ground all the way around.
You could also plant some very aromatic herbs to confuse them with their scent. The benefits are reduced pest pressure, less weeding (because if the herbs aren’t there the weeds will be, and you can harvest the herbs for your own use.
We have tons of milkweed on our property and just let it spread.
On the local town newsletter, they’re always encouraging people to grow and plant milkweed. We simply won’t whack it down. That way it spreads on it’s own.
We’ve been working on getting rid of invasives and are starting to see an increase in native flowers - FINALLY!
Thanks! Great write-up too. Easy to understand, and gives lots of good info on things like keeping beneficial insects, pollinators, and birds safe.
Am going to do some surfing at lunch on whether it also works on grasshoppers, which IMHO are also “Satan’s pets”.
I follow a few selected gardening sites.
MI Gardener ( who is zone 6B, Epic Gardening (Zone 10 - San Diego) and the Millennial Gardener (SC zone 8 IIRC)
They are all very transparent about what they try and how they did.
I listen most to MIGardener because he’s closest to my growing zone (5A or B depending on how the winter goes.)
MI Gardener:
Stop Cracking and Splitting Tomatoes For GOOD With These 3 Tips! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhZXt3ctjgc
Millennial Gardener -
5 Easy Veggies To Plant In Fall And FORGET All Winter! -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vOJ7FrCPdU
Epic Gardening -
13 Veggies You Can Start in August RIGHT NOW! | 2023 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXUHHciGsYI
They also make videos about how to make compost and how to deal with pests. I’ve learned a LOT from watching them.
Yes, I’m in to native wildflowers too. I don’t have a prairie part of my yard, but it would be neat to do if we had more acreage. I do encourage the wildlife and wildflowers around here though. I feel as though I should share the space with the birds, animals, and wildflowers (to a degree).
“Anybody getting smoke carried in from Canada?”
Things are looking HAZY around here and we’ve got ‘air quality’ warnings for the whole week. Elderly, kids and anyone with health concerns needs to stay inside or at least limit outside activity.
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