The Garden Thread - September, 2025

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

[Diana in Wisconsin]

21 Perennials You Shouldn’t Cut Back in Fall

“While many plants benefit from a good fall cutback as they prepare for winter, some perennials are better left standing. They bring winter insulation, forage for birds and wildlife, shelter for pollinators, and unique attributes for lasting seasonal interest.”

Echinacea

Rudbeckia

Milkweed

Coreopsis

Switchgrass

Sedum

More plants and ‘who’ benefits from each at:

https://www.epicgardening.com/perennials-should-not-cut-back-fall/

[daniel1212]

Thanks

[daniel1212]

I need some more detail on what it actually IS before I can tell you how to propagate it. Is it a shrub? Is the stem ‘woody?’ or is it some sort of perennial that I’m not familiar with?

OK, as I said, it is a side branch [stem] of this perennial flaming whateveritis (Japanese Euonymus) I just cut it at an angle, and it is firm. I put it in water as this says, but not in rooting powder as it also says. But if i can buy a plant for $16 in Spring, I might just to that. I think planting one now may be risky here.

[daniel1212]

grafts many many branches and usually only one or two take.

Thx. Like making disciples of Christ.

[Paul R.]

My Dad was a Forestry Professor, and he’d go “ape” over all those supposedly concerned-about-the-environment students littering up the campus.

I’m sure the county will just scrap that sign, as it would cost them more to salvage it than just put up a new one. If they even collect it — the last few times, they never even picked them up. (That series of “arrow” signs on that curve that starts at our property gets one whacked down at least once every other year!)

So, that’s even more “crap” along the roadside. (After 2 months or so of being plainly visible, I’ll drag it off and cannibalize it.) We are on a busy enough road that the Transportation Dept. trucks go by at least one a day, on average, and the Sheriff’s Dept. even more, so, it’s not like they don’t know it’s there / down.

Unfortunately, the county would probably look dimly upon me resurrecting the sign into a “Litterers Are In Range” sign!

[Paul R.]

Looks good. And my Jalapeno plant is doing well* / flowering nicely now! :-)

*As are 2 of the the 3x Thais, as are the 2x Cowhorns, as are the 2x Serranos. But, I have other plans for the Cowhorns and Serranos, and my wife uses most of the Thais’ fruits.

Anyway, thanks for the recipe!

[Paul R.]

An apt analogy!

[Paul R.]

Here is an interesting website I stumbled into, with quite a bit of good info. on it:

https://www.melindamyers.com/garden-how-to

(It does have some ads and self-promotion.)

[FamiliarFace]

Since I have shishitos on hand this season, I think I’ll try a handful of them in the chicken chili this year, though as I recall, jalapeños were wonderful in this concoction.

[Pollard]

Can’t stand jalapenos myself but thanks for the reminder. I have some habanero peppers from the garden to add a little kick to the beans.

[FamiliarFace]

Those should work fine! It’s too bland otherwise.

[Pollard]

I love lamb but the only time I see it is at Aldi on occasion. Bought the equivalent of mini t-bones once and had to put some away in the fridge before the boy ate it all. I'm getting closer all the time to having enough grass to swap from goats to sheep. Ham with white beans seems so overdone but I can't think of anything else that would pair as well. Maybe those smoked pork chops that they sell or smoke some light pork cut like loin/tenderloin.

Maybe Bacon Explosion. Insanely unhealthy -- loose breakfast or other loose sausage wrapped in weaved bacon and smoked or baked. Even has it's own wikipedia page for becoming an internet phenomenon. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon_Explosion

The Bacon Explosion is made of bacon, sausage, barbecue sauce, and barbecue seasoning or rub. The bacon is assembled in a weave to hold the sausage, sauce, and crumbled bacon. Once rolled, the Bacon Explosion is cooked (either smoked or baked), basted, cut, and served.

If I did white/chicken chili, it would have to be really spiced up chicken. Maybe blackened chicken with a plenty of freshly ground coarse black pepper.

Grate are locked in place to prevent a food tragedy.

Great White, Pinto, Kidney, red, black. Probably 25 lbs total that need to be rotated out.

Gonna try a quick soak and cook on those beans that I don't really know the age of. I guess I should start dating the containers, duh. Need to make up some pork rub, bbq sauce and salmon brine now that I have all the ingredients. Need to do a few more dishes including the new set plus the new dutch oven. Plastic plates will go in the travel trailer.

If the beans are good, I'll be able to make Provencal beans, bbq/baked beans, ham bean soup, chili with beans and a batch of some kind of beans for canning. Ball canning book with 400 recipes and nothing for beans aside from general processing for dry beans or as one ingredient for veggie soup. Even USDA/UGA has them with tomato or molasses sauces.

I suppose low acid pressure canning times of 75/90 minutes would do most any kind of bean recipe. Chili Con Carne from USDA/UGA is 75 minutes for pints and has ground beef. Just follow the other rules of no thickeners/pasta/rice, nothing that might disintegrate and never hurts to add some acid. I've got about 30 clean empty pint jars and a few quarts and half pints. Got some canned items that need used or dumping out because I didn't like it however many years ago I canned them.(more dating of things needed)

All I wanted to do is smoke some meat. Then I bought the dutch oven and things seem to have snowballed from there.

[Pollard]

Had the alarm on my phone go off twice this morning but couldn’t remember why I set alarms for Sept 2nd. Suddenly hit me. George O’ White state nursery starts selling online today. One alarm was set for 4am and I was up. Hazelnuts, persimmon, serviceberry, witchhazel and pawpaws are already sold out. Elderberry and redbud are the only things left I’m interested in.

[metmom]

Rumor has it your neck of the woods is looking at possible frosts or freezes in some places in the next couple days.

You just might want to be aware because this is VERY early.

[Augie]

This past week wasn’t terribly hot in Central Missouri but it was another dry one. With an official total of .07” of rainfall, August wound up the 3rd driest here since modern record keeping began. We got a few sprinkles yesterday and another light shower this morning but not enough to curtail the irrigation of plants/trees that I care about.

Spring plantings in the kitchen garden are starting to wind down. I harvested the last four spaghetti squash yesterday and yanked the vines. Picked the last lonely jumbo zuke and pulled those vines. The vines are starting to look rough but the Summer Dance cukes never got bitter/tough and are still setting new blossoms and producing well. That variety is the new slicer cuke of choice in my garden. Straight 8s have been relegated to the dustbin of history. The National Picklers are just about finished. Mrs. Augie decided that 32 quarts of lacto-fermented dill pickles will be enough to hold us until next summer so I’ll pull those vines in the next couple or three days.

Peppers are still rocking. Tomato plants are a mixed bag but still producing like crazy. I gifted away ~35lbs last week and expect to have at least that many to share again this week. All of my Cherokee Purple plants had leaf curl this time. I pulled one plant yesterday. 2 of the 3 that remain are about done.

The Blue Lake pole beans that I planted in mid July finally got hold of the ground and took off. We ate the first picking of those for supper last night.

I finished juicing the apples I picked last week and bottled 12 quarts of cider. The bottom fell out of one jar when I put it into the water bath. Seems like that only happens with the newer (<15 years old-ish) jars. They just aren’t as durable as the old school jars. The cider turned out great. I think I’m going to make another batch before I put the canning equipment away.

Yesterday I cored another five gallon bucket full of apples and boiled those until they started to fall apart. After work today I’ll run that mixture through the food processer then season it up and transfer it to the slow roaster to cook down into apple butter.

Saturday I picked a bunch of red-ripe cayenne, jalapeno, and serrano peppers. Washed them, removed the stems, did a coarse chop, then put them into a saltwater brine to ferment. That filled a 2 gallon bucket about halfway up. I’m going to let that mixture ferment for a couple or three months then I’ll puree and bottle it. It should turn out to be a nice and spicy table sauce.

Priority tasks for this week include picking more apples to slice/freeze for pie filling over the winter, turning/adding/amending the soil in the raised bed where I grew Mrs. Augie’s spring kale and sowing more for a fall/winter crop, and catching 50 or so smallish bluegills out of the pond to use for catfish bait on Sunday.

[Augie]

I always recommend a seed mix/ratio that contains these three seeds:

50% - Kentucky Bluegrass 25% - Creeping Red Fescue 25% - Perennial Ryegrass

100% agreement on the species blend. I use pretty much the same thing here in zone 6b. The local farmer stores call it Boone County Blend.

When we have a dry August like we did this year it all goes dormant and gets overgrown with crabgrass. I don't water the lawn so I don't dare use any sort of weed-n-feed product. If I did that I'd have nothing but bare dirt in my yard this time of year.

[Augie]

I didn't buy enough nuts so I'll have to get more to prevent the grate from sliding around and falling when I'm putting something in or taking it out.

I really like that smoker.

J-bolts would be ideal for that application. Thread a nut on, run them through the tank wall from the inside, add another nut on the outside, then use the nuts to snug the J part up against the grate.

[Qiviut]

An early frost possibly for WI & MN is what DT of WxRisk was talking about in his 8/29 ‘This Week in Weather’ video. He mentioned Sept. 8, but that was a week out so it could be a day or two earlier/later. Siberian air .... brrr!

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4332028/posts?page=843#843

[Augie]

pawpaws are already sold out.

#1 Marine Daughter works for the conservation department and she wasn't able to get any pawpaw seedlings this time.

Some years they simply don't have a large quantity of certain varieties.

I'm determined to get a pawpaw orchard established and it's looking like I'll have to pay out the yaya and buy them from Stark Bros to make it happen.

[metmom]

Looks like I missed that.

Well, a reminder and update doesn’t hurt. And this was from a different source (Max Velocity - I haven’t heard Ryan Hall’s forecast yet) yet it confirms it.

Ryan Halls winter outlook is NOT encouraging.