Posted on 06/01/2026 6:10:43 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The MONTHLY Victory Garden 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 Victory Garden 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.
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Presto is an awesome company that makes great products. On, Wisconsin!
I’ve become a little more ‘with it’ in my latter years. In some cases, Technology can be your friend. I have a very nice programmable dehydrator that I love and use every season. My BFF’s daughter was getting married and had it on her Wish List. I checked it out and bought one for her AND for me. :)
My dehydrator was a gift from hubby 47 y6ears ago now..Works great. I just use it now for sun dried tomatoes.
If you ever have a friend or family or church member who might be interested you have the co-op info!
If you ever try growing beans again consider Contender Bush bean. Matures quickly! I got two pickings before the bugs really began to damage the beans. (There were bean beetles, which I had never seen!)
Good night!
Good for you on the lower price! I’m a bit puzzled that W. KY is significantly higher, as it is usually a bit lower than even rural areas of WI. In addition, KY lowered its gas tax by 10 cents after prices spiked and a quick search says WI has not. (Maybe the search is wrong?)
Granted that KY’s gas tax increases (like a sales tax) when gas prices go up, so, the net effect on the tax collected may be almost a wash.
S. IL / Illinois is not secret - it just has ridiculously high gas taxes. :-(
I avoid buying gas there as much as possible.
Hooeeeyyy! We finally clobbered NWS in Paducah (closest NWS station to us) for amount of rain: It appears we got over 2” last night.
The bad news is that almost all of that came down in 2 short bursts, so, most ran off. But, it is still a lot better than a forecast of 2” and getting 0.02”... The heavy rain broke down new growth on a couple tomato plants I’d not “directed” back to better support, but, we had no high winds, so, damage overall is very limited. Even so, our power was off for about 1-1/2 hours last night - both lines to our property. (One comes off lines running North-South, the other feed comes from “bigger” lines running East-West. Sometimes one goes off independently from the other.) I’m just glad for the lack of severe weather with such bursts of rain. :-)
The tomato plants are loving these temperatures from mid-60’s (nighttime lows) to mid-80’s afternoon highs. Of course, the weeds and grass are too.
More rain is in our forecast, but with an increased chance of severe weather. After that, it gets VERY warm and humid - yuck.
My beloved ‘Saychelles’ green pole beans aren’t looking all that happy this season with all the rain. I’m adding more bean seeds AGAIN this week. We’re going to have some nice HOT weather, so hopefully they can get a grip. I LOVE green beans. :)
Since it’s Friday and I got nothin’ else better to do it’s on to the mower I go. It was very foggy this morning and the humidity is up so things should be dried out enough to get started in 30 minutes or so. We’ve had two GORGEOUS days in a row, so a lot of the outside things have gotten knocked off my list. Yay! My broccoli plants have tiny head on them, FINALLY, but with the 90’s ahead for all of next week, I’m not sure if they’ll be able to fully develop. I should probably start seeds again in August for a Fall crop.
Can’t ANYTHING be easy? Gardening used to be a LOT easier!
I’ve started a ‘Honey Do’ list for Beau, though. He’s had two full weeks of fun in Canada so far, so he’s not getting off easy before he and 99% of the dogs head up to the cabin for most of the summer. Thomas texted me yesterday to thank me for taking in Midnight and Grover, and he’s going to pick them up Sunday or Monday on his way back North. I will miss their entertainment value, but I’ll be over it QUICK; I cannot WAIT to reclaim my porch and PRETTY IT UP again. :)
Since Grover is a surly ‘Puppy Tween’ now, he says he wants to be called, ‘Groves.’ It sounds much COOLER than the ‘Muppet’ Thomas’ daughters named him after. *SNORT*
The weather pattern this summer is reminding me of 1993. It just won’t stop raining.
I dumped 1.3” out of the gauge yesterday, and it’s raining again today. We’re over 12” for the month of June.
ugh
Finally getting this posted:
Our camping trip last week was generally a success. We drove up to the Washington Country SRA (State Recreation Area) in Southern Illinois and stayed two nights at one of their “rustic” cabins. The cost is not bad, at $45 / night.
Perhaps I should not really call it “camping”, since we stayed at a cabin, but, these cabins are pretty “rustic”, offering less in some ways than many a pop-up camper... Basically, they are just shelter with HVAC, ceiling fans in each of the two tiny rooms, and a few electrical outlets. The closest outhouse is a few hundred feet away, and the closest working water spigot is, I would guess, a bit over 1000 ft. away. So, that latter was a bit of a pain. There is a shower house with “nicer” restrooms: The shower house is somewhat beyond said water spigot.
The cabins are on a sort of peninsula / bluff, with a bit of a steep trail leading down to a fishing pier and short walkway that goes across 40(?) ft. of lake, over to the next peninsula.
Our choice of place to camp was driven primarily by proximity to the Pinkneyville, IL, city lake, which is now stocked with “Saugeye”, and Pyramid State Park, which has over 30 lakes, a few of which are also stocked with saugeye. I’ve never fished for saugeye, and they have a reputation as very good table fare, so, wetting a line or two for some seemed like a good idea.
We arrived on last week Tuesday evening: Basically we just got settled in, ate supper, and crashed. The biggest negative with the cabin was that the front room ceiling fan light had only a couple 5 watt (I’m guessing) incandescent candelabra bulbs in it. The back room fan had a nice bright 60 watt LED bulb with a std. base. So... We moved the small table and chairs into the back room so we could see what we were eating!
Note to self: ALWAYS bring along our nicer LED camping lantern, even if we think we won’t need it!!!
Wed. morning we explored around the Washington County SRA Lake: At almost 250 acres, this lake has a lot going on, with many good bank access spots, fishing piers, many picnic tables, 3 (or is it 4?) campsites, a few shelters, a couple of boat docks (one of which can accommodate I am guessing 20-30 boats up to small cabin cruiser size), at least 2 playgrounds, a nice little concession store with sandwiches (not bad), ice cream, bait, supplies, some food, etc. The lake has good Crappie, Largemouth Bass, and Channel Catfish populations, but Bluegill size is mediocre. The numbers are good, but most Bluegill are stunted, so, you get 6” fish with the body shape of 8” fish at “good” Bluegill lakes. The Bluegill here are losing in competition with high numbers of gizzard shad. :-(
The good news is that the little Bluegill make decent catfish cut bait, and, if small enough, may even land one a nice bass. Water quality is so-so due to quite high fertility. The water has a strong greenish-brown to it - the brown more so after heavy rains, of course. Anything deeper than maybe 10” disappears... So, any fish caught are probably best marinated well, before cooking them. Toxins are thankfully fairly low, however.
Winds Wednesday afternoon became very high, with sustained gusts of ~ 45 mph. That killed any ideas of fishing, so, we set off to explore that City Lake @ Pinkneyville, and also several lakes at Pyramid State Park, as some of Pyramids’ over 30 lakes are also stocked with Saugeye. A sudden storm had hit Pinkneyville’s Lake, and the south entrance was blocked by a fallen tree. The north entrance was ok, tho’, so we were able to “get in” and determine that in addition to a fishing pier, and a shelter, there were other bank access spots with shade trees nearby. That looked good, and the whole access area is nice - rather park like, with even a few picnic tables. It looked like “the spot” to hit the next day.
Then it was on to Pyramid, with REALLY impressive waves on a couple of the larger lakes: The wind was blowing right up the length of “Super Lake”. A problem with Pyramid is lack of bank access at most of the lakes, with typically steep bank slopes and then cattails, etc., at the waters’ edge(s). A few lakes have boat ramps with small docks. Super Lake has a bit more access @ the dam, but on days with southerly winds over a few mph, the fetch up the lake (SL basically runs south to north) makes bank fishing quite difficult. The one lake we checked that had good bank access is VERY shallow at that end, literally only a few inches until one is 50 ft. or more into the lake, judging by the aquatic weeds.
Pyramid State Park is essentially all reclaimed strip mining land: In fact, my Dad did a lot of work up there on the reclamation research involved. The unfortunate aspect is that when the mining companies pushed all the diggings around, they could have just about as easily created a lot of bank access areas. I hiked in to a couple of the lakes with trails leading to them, as I had for several of the lesser used bank access points on the east side of the Wash. County Lake, so, by dusk I was fairly “tuckered out”. We were ready for a good meal too, with pork steaks grilled earlier and just needing warming up, so, we headed back to our cabin (about 30 minutes away). Like the prior night, it was pretty much eat and crash. Severe weather was forecast (another reason to get a cabin): Upon checking to make sure the weather alert radio was set up for alerts, I discovered it wasn’t picking up any NWS broadcasts. That was slightly unsettling, but, as it turned out, the storms stayed a bit further north (Effingham, Mt. Vernon), so, all we got was a little rain. We do have a bigger, better weather radio that I can attach a long wire to for “more antenna”, so, if we ever go back to the Wash. County SRA, I’ll try taking it.
Thursday morning I slept in longer than I’d planned - fancy that! But, I did get down to that fishing pier near our cabin and catch some bluegill, a few in the 7”-7-1/2” range, and some little ones I intended for cut bait, that got chomped by a big turtle when I took a break to check with wifey back @ the cabin. I caught 3 largemouth bass, all under legal size to keep, and a half-decent (1-1/2 lb.?) channel catfish.
After late breakfast we packed up and headed to Pinkneyville City Lake, where I proceed to try for some more bluegill, and try nightcrawlers and cut bluegill for Saugeye: The lake has plenty of bluegill even more stunted than those at Wash. Co., so my bait problem (losses to the turtle, earlier) resolved itself. This lake also has lots of turtles: I learned my lesson, and this go round, put my bait fish in the cooler. No Saugeye turned up, but as we were packing up at dusk, my “last” line out, with a piece of Bluegill on it, hooked me a very handsome Channel Catfish, which later measured right at 26” length and 7 lbs. This lake has good water quality (it used to be the City’s water supply lake), so, this one I kept. (In some lakes and ponds, I’d have released it.) The next day @ home, it made for some fine eating!
That was about “it”. From there we headed home (for me to put more ice on the fish kept, and in the morning, clean them.)
Yours truly here is a bit puzzled that IDNR doesn’t put Saugeye in that Washington County SRA Lake. That lake definitely needs more predators to knock back the shad and stunted bluegill populations. Largemouth bass availability may be limited - more of them “should” work too, or, even put into place some sort of slot limit for catfish. I actually tested that last (catfish gape) at home with the Channel Catfish’ head removed (mildly gross, I suppose): That 26” Channel Cat could easily ingest a 7” female bluegill, or a 6” male “bull” bluegill. Shad are more slender, so I’m guessing even 10” shad could be downed by “my” catfish. It sounds a bit weird, but, I think I’d reduce catch limits on Channel Cats from, oh, maybe 20” - 26”, or even not allow harvest at all, as they’ll be mostly piscivores in that size range, but allow unlimited harvest of bigger Channel Cats, and perhaps reduce the catch limit for Channel Catfish under 20” to 4 fish.
All in all, it was a good outing. I lost a few hooks and a couple wire leaders to underwater snags, but, nothing I don’t have plenty of. As for the campground, I’d say the Washington Country SRA is “recommended”. It’s not perfect, but pretty darn good / nice. My only real regret is that it no longer has a campground host who looks like a dead ringer for the Sarah Palin of about 15 years ago. Now it’s an old guy, who, I will say, was quite affable, helpful, and easy going. :-)
Parmesan Asparagus / Sun dried Aioli Dip
Shallow fry or oven-roast; serve hot w/ cold Aioli.
Ing: 1 1/2 lb trimmed asparagus, 1 lemon, halved ¾ c flour 2 eggs/tbl water 1 c panko ¾ c Parm Vegetable oil for shallow frying Pinch paprika Sun-Dried Tomato Aioli: ¾ c mayo 3 minced gar/cl 1 tbl rough-chp flat-leaf parsley 1 tsp lemon zest 2 tsp lemon juice s/p 1 heaping tbl minced sun-dried.
Prepare: Mix aioli ing first; chill covered til ready to serve. Asparagus: Blanch in salted/lemon boiling water about 30-60 sec; then plunge into ice water to stop cooking. Drain, pat dry w/ paper towels. Dip spears into flour to coat, then into egg/water mix, then into panko-parm to coat. Shallow fry batches in oil covering pan bottom, turning once, fry golden-brown and crisp, roughly 2-3 min. Drain on racks; sprinkle w/ bit of paprika to finish. Serve with chilled Aioli on the side for dipping.
TIP Place on cookie sheet; drizzle with EVOO then roast 425 deg about 12 minutes.
I’ve been watching your radar. You guys are getting SOAKED beyond SOAKED!
You do know where your local Piggly Wiggly grocery store is, right? Just checking. :)
This is exactly how my season was last year.
We are now - MOST of us - going into some really HOT weather. Dangerously hot for a good half of America.
It’s FRIGGIN’ JUNE, Mother Nature! Give us a stinkin’ break!
That dip sounds Heavenly, and I LOVE Roasted Asparagus - with or without any breading. Yum! :)
‘Strawberry Moon’ coming up! June 29th.
June full moon 2026: When, where and how to see the Strawberry Moon
The June full moon occurs at 7:57 p.m. EDT (2357 GMT) on June 29. That’s when the lunar disk will pass opposite the sun in Earth’s sky, appearing fully lit by the sun’s rays.
This month’s full moon is also known as the “Strawberry Moon,” reflecting the time of year when Native American tribes harvest the ripened fruit. It is also the first full moon of summer, following soon after the June 21 summer solstice, which marks the astronomical start of the season and the longest day of the year.
June’s full moon tracks the lowest path of any full moon throughout the year, and that’s thanks to its proximity to the summer solstice — when the sun is at its highest in the daytime sky.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/june-full-moon-2026-when-where-and-how-to-see-the-strawberry-moon
Diana here: I just LOVE this stuff! It’s almost as if our entire UNIVERSE was Divinely Designed to DELIGHT US every which way we look, day or night. ;)
Nice pic!
NWS is saying some parts of our area may get 3-6” of rain in the next day or so. Given that we finally got some serious rains, including about 1/4” at the end of the last round, which 1/4” came down a little less furiously, so the ground is better soaked, anything above 3” could be a real problem for some. Our house and my shop will be ok, but, I might be wading out to feed the chickens!
Then, early next week, we get the heat. The humidity is already here. I’m not looking forward to a heat index of 110 deg. F...
Here’s a question I thought of asking ask one of our local fisheries biologists, but, a web search seems to have an answer:
Why do some Channel Catfish in the 3-8 lb. range look so much more “handsome” than others? This is a matter of general coloration and the shape of the fish, not any “spotting”. It seems to vary mostly by lake to lake (or pond). I thought it might be different subspecies, but a web search says there are no recognized subspecies, and points at environments conditions: Literally, good water and good habitat appears to produce better looking (appearance like sharks) Channel Catfish. The lake I mentioned just upthread has a self-sustaining CC population too, so I’m gonna guess the “handsome” trait gets reinforced with time. :-)
We had some loud thunder wake me up a couple times last night (ugh), but so far the heavier rains have missed us overnight. ‘Tis just as well, as NWS still says several inches may be on the way, today. Flash flooding is increasingly a concern. The whole St. Louis area (a few counties) was under flash flood warnings earlier, but it appears they have been lifted.
I couldn’t sleep early this morning (4 a.m.) & turned on the TV. Once the local news came on, I looked for another channel & found “Girl meets Farm” with Molly Yeh. I watched several episodes and one was about recipes from church cookbooks. Molly made a “hot dish”, traditional for the midwest where she lives. I got to looking at hot dish recipes since they seem like a good idea when we have company (at least 2 couples & one person are saying they want to visit plus a cousin is supposed to visit soon).
Here’s link to quite a few hot dish recipes - I saw several of interest that I need to investigate in more detail:
31 Super Cozy Hot Dish Dinners
https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/hotdish-recipes/
AI description of ‘hot dish’:
“Hot dish is a quintessential Midwestern casserole, particularly associated with Minnesota, characterized by a protein base, a creamy soup or sauce binder, vegetables, and a crispy topping. The most iconic variation is Tater Tot Hotdish, which features ground beef, cream of mushroom soup, and frozen potato tots.”
***********
Q comment: I am not a tater tot fan so my interest is in the non-tater tot recipes at the link & there are quite a few..
Taste of Home has such good recipes! I’m going to look into ‘Girl Meets Farm’ Sounds right up my alley!
My friend Inga (yes, I really know her!) has a PBS show called ‘Around The Farm Table.’ Her dad films and produces for her. You might like some of her videos, too. She’s such a good cook and talented at everything she does. And she hasn’t ‘Gone Hollywood’ on us yet. ;)
“A food and farming adventure, Around the Farm Table connects consumers to small, thoughtful farmers through storytelling, forgotten recipes and entertainment. Hosted by fourth-generation organic dairy farmer Inga Witscher.” (Her married name is Orth)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0COC73JPKqDUA5O_1WzSHlPLnD4lAYPf
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