Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, July 19

Above, spring azaleas from 40 Miles North. Below, flowers in complementary colors:

Hello KT, some more are coming up! 1st up, a purple Thunbergia vine that I've been moving until I finally found a spot it likes. Finally it's flowering nicely!
Next an oak leaf hydrangea with white flowers, very hardy.
Last is a spiderwort, or trillium. It's a perennial wildflower in the East Texas woods, and a few years ago I transplanted some to my yard, it's very reliable! Comes back every spring. Look forward to your thread as always! - Tom Servo

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

Hi KT,
Hope you're feeling a lot stronger nowadays!
Attached is a photo of a cucumber plant that refuses to die. It's been in the garage unwatered for a month or so.
Miley

Don't know if there's much hope for it, but if you plant it, you might want to plant it deep. It's a fighter!

Farming/Gardening/Nature

Everything is growing vigorously in these parts. I have several grape and hardy kiwi vines that are finally producing and ourgrowing their area....may have to expand their trellis and just let them overrun the area. You can see the Japanese beetle damage on the grape leaves...they're usually pretty bad. Tried a new pesticide called Acelepryn this year, and haven't seen them since. Impressive.
Quince and medlar trees are likewise loaded with fruit this year. A couple quince had a weird issue where the topmost branches died, but the plant otherwise seemed fine?
We have a bunch of wood lilies growing by the creek, and had an unexpected visitor at the back door. The cats were very interested, but when they got closer to investigate, the woodchuck started aggressively hitting the glass to scare the cats off. HE was looking for a fight!
Moron Analyst/Intrepid Liaison/Admiral Ackbar

1. Are those dead branches on the quince fireblight? Cut well below them and discard any affected branches and leaves.

2. The other flowers and fruits look great.

3. Good news about the pesticide for Japanese beetles.

4. A badger that picks fights with your cats! Wild!

Confrontation with a tractor:

Ground nesting bird protecting her eggs
pic.twitter.com/YzdcnoF96Y
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) July 13, 2025

History and Weather

Etymology: Heatwave, dog time
We complain about the heatwave, we fear the heatwave, and we plague the heatwave. But do we only know what this word means? And where does he come from?
The word heatwave comes from the Latin heatwave, short for canis, the dog. Canicula literally means little dog - - and actually refers to the star Sirius, the brightest star in the constellation of the Great Dog (Canis Major).
But, in ancient Rome, the strongest heat of the year coincided with the heliac rise of Sirius, in other words, the moment when the star reappears at dawn, shortly before sunrise. This astronomical phenomenon occurred in Rome between mid-July and mid-August.
So the Ancients associated the overwhelming heat of this period with the presence of the little dog in the sky: the heatwave... hence the expression hot days, the days of the little dog, which we have wisely shortened in heatwave.

Below: This stunning ptolemaic-era mosaic was discovered in 1993 during the construction of the new library of Alexandria, Egypt, which was built in the heart of the Lagid Palace neighborhood. It is now in the archaeological museum of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, where it is exposed to the relentless curiosity of visitors.
Storia Mundi
Marie Gagnon L'amour de la planète terre

(Original text)

Étymologie : la canicule, un temps de chien
On se plaint de la canicule, on redoute la canicule, on peste contre la canicule. Mais sait-on seulement ce que ce mot signifie ? Et d’où il vient ?
Le mot canicule vient du latin canicula, diminutif de canis, le chien. Canicula signifie littéralement petite chienne — et désigne en fait l’étoile Sirius, l’astre le plus brillant de la constellation du Grand Chien (Canis Major).
Or, dans l’Antiquité romaine, les plus fortes chaleurs de l’année coïncidaient avec le lever héliaque de Sirius, autrement dit le moment où l’étoile réapparaît à l’aube, peu avant le lever du soleil. Ce phénomène astronomique se produisait, à Rome, entre mi-juillet et mi-août.
Les Anciens associaient donc la chaleur accablante de cette période à la présence du petit chien dans le ciel : la canicula… d’où l’expression dies caniculares, les jours du petit chien, que nous avons sagement raccourcie en canicule.
Ci-dessous : cette superbe mosaïque d’époque ptolémaïque a été découverte en 1993 lors de la construction de la nouvelle bibliothèque d'Alexandrie d’Égypte laquelle a été édifiée au coeur du quartier des palais lagides. Elle se trouve à présent au musée archéologique de la Bibliotheca Alexandrina où elle est exposée à
l’inlassable curiosité des visiteurs.
Storia Mundi

Gardens of The Horde

Hello KT,
I hope you and your husband continue to do well health-wise. I had some
major health problems last year and my garden suffered along with me.
I'm recovered now but the weeds have a big advantage now and it will
take another year of work to get the garden under control again. But I
do have a couple of pretty pictures to share this week.
Now is the time of year for the hardy hibiscus to shine. Here is one of
the newer smaller varieties (Summerific Holy Grail from Proven Winners)
that is doing well in its new home. I was recovered enough to move it
last fall to a spot where it isn't blasted by the hot sun all day. It's
already recovered from its move and is looking much less stressed than
last year. (Evapotranspiration - it's the law!). I also have a few of
the older, larger varieties. This one (Blue River II) is almost 6 ft
tall - for scale the lattice next to it is 4 ft tall. If I don't support
it, it will flop all over the place and the stems can break from the
weight of the flowers.
Finally, the cold spells I had back in Jan and
Feb seemed to delay all my plants this year. They were slower to sprout
and then to bloom. But the flowers are lasting later than usual, so I
still have daylilies in bloom. Here are Soft Lavender and Chesapeake
Crab Legs.
badgerwx

Great photos and information! Thanks!

Love the white hibiscus.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, the address is:

ktinthegarden at g mail dot com

Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.

Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, July 12

Check out the late comments you may have missed. Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

Posted by: K.T. at 01:32 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1
Morning

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at July 19, 2025 01:46 PM (HL/Ld)

2
If my Juniper tree has some yellowish areas, does that mean it's getting too much water or not enough? Same for a little pine tree that's trying to grow.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at July 19, 2025 01:47 PM (HL/Ld)

3 I thought all gardening and all growing plants would die with the end of NPR?

Posted by: Eeyore at July 19, 2025 01:50 PM (od0dV)

4
That dog in the mosaic knocked over a water jug that someone had lugged from a pond 3/4 of a mile away.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at July 19, 2025 01:50 PM (HL/Ld)

5 Blonde Morticia at July 19, 2025 01:47 PM

Need more information. Do you have an extension service you could talk to?

Posted by: KT at July 19, 2025 01:51 PM (xekrU)

6
Kind of a bummer that that dog is most likely dead now.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at July 19, 2025 01:52 PM (HL/Ld)

7 Love the dark leaves on the deep rose hibiscus, too.

Posted by: KT at July 19, 2025 01:52 PM (xekrU)

8 Fireblight can be spread by wind, so possibly affected branches and leaves should be bagged before discarding. In the olden days, I think they were often burned.

Posted by: KT at July 19, 2025 01:54 PM (xekrU)

9 So, can we blame hot weather this time of year on little dogs?

Posted by: KT at July 19, 2025 01:55 PM (xekrU)

10 The weather has just sucked the last couple of weeks: too hot, too humid, and a chance of nasty thunder storms every day. Anything to be done outside gets done early.

Apparently the plants love it. Our crepe myrtle is usually the last to bloom, August is the norm. It's in full bloom right now. The dogwood looks great. The redbud we cut back to the ground last year is threatening to take over the front yard again. The roots must go beyond the reach of mankind.

Posted by: JTB at July 19, 2025 01:56 PM (yTvNw)

11 The "crab legs" daylilies have a different shape to their petals from the lavender ones.

Posted by: KT at July 19, 2025 01:57 PM (xekrU)

12 The only good thing abut these humid nights is it brings out the fireflies. I can watch them for a long time.

Posted by: JTB at July 19, 2025 02:00 PM (yTvNw)

13 It's been very dry and hot here. Red Flag warnings are common.

My lawn (more correctly: what's left of it) is suffering as I scramble to keep it alive.

Also, one of my dogwood trees had dried out badly. Of the 2 in this yard, it always water stresses first. Looks like it won't survive my neglect this time. At least it's small enough that I can cut it down myself.

Posted by: JQ at July 19, 2025 02:03 PM (rdVOm)

14 Feels like the dog days of summer to me. It's bad enough doing yard work in morning so forget about it in the aftn.

The hibiscus breeders are always working on dark foliage colors so there's more than just green leaves. I bought another hibiscus on sale just this morning and it has burgundy leaves. It will also have streaks of rose pink on the white petals. That seems to be the new hot thing for hibiscus. I hope it blooms in Aug so I can send a picture.

Posted by: badgerwx at July 19, 2025 02:04 PM (uK6C0)

15 Chesapeake Crab Legs is a 'spider' variety of daylily. The breeders like to try for different flower shapes and sizes as well as colors. I like the spider shape and have several different varieties in my garden. Then they also breed for ruffles on the edges of the petals and what they call 'diamond dust' where the petals have a kind of sheen. It's amazing how many varieties of daylily are out there.

Posted by: badgerwx at July 19, 2025 02:08 PM (uK6C0)

16 We've got tumbleweeds(Russian Thistle) popping up all over the AZ ranch again. As soon as the red flags are dropped, they get the flaming blowtorch of death. And glyphosate poison as a chaser. Horrible plants they are.

Posted by: Maj. Healey at July 19, 2025 02:13 PM (/U5Yz)

17 Ah. Immediately on topic...just spied a buck Whitetail browsing in the back yard.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at July 19, 2025 02:21 PM (XeU6L)

18 And glyphosate poison as a chaser.
---------

Call us. You may be entitled to millions.

Posted by: Late night bottom feeder lawyer at July 19, 2025 02:22 PM (XeU6L)

19 Fireblight's a bacterial disease. Here, at least, most common in high heat, high humidity environment.
If pruning, do use a sterilant on your tools between cuts.
1/2 cp of bleach in a gallon of water will do. Dip between.
There are agricultural controls. Agrimycin (agricultural streptomycin) works, but has to be re-applied as the the conditions remain.

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 02:23 PM (cPGH3)

20 I did some Google image searching, and fireblight looks VERY much like what my poor quince trees have. Last two years they had lots of rust galls I had to cut off, but they still grow pretty impressively.

Posted by: Moron Analyst at July 19, 2025 02:28 PM (S+Nbg)

21 My earliest yellow plum was mostly ripe, so since the squirrels or rats are starting to eat them, I got up at dawn, picked them and made jam.
I only got 7 half pints of jam, which is a full batch, but I hope for more next year. coming next are either apples, or the late season plums.

I also dug some potatoes in the row that the tops died. To my disappointment the seed potatoes were all a fingerling variety, which does not make sufficient potatoes for me to be worth the garden room. My mistake was to use the small potatoes from the bucket that I dug last year

Next year I will be buying all my seed potatoes from the store, so I know what I have.

Plum jam: about 4-5 cups of cooked plums, add the powdered pectin and lemon juice, let come to a boil on high heat until you get foam you can't stir down. add 4-6 cups of sugar, bring to a boil, and then bring up to the jelly stage either by thermometer, or by knowing how to judge how the jam runs off a wooden spoon (or both)

Can in a hot water bath.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 19, 2025 02:29 PM (D7oie)

22 There is an old-line phosphate-based fungicide that also works on fireblight. Go to one of the "Do My Own Pest Control" places and look for Agrifos, or Reliant.
We're using it on our veggie garden.
We've used it as a trunk treatment on apples for control of scab and rust. Really, an old line miracle thang, like lime sulfur used to be.

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 02:31 PM (cPGH3)

23 https://tinyurl.com/36wfywu4

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 02:33 PM (cPGH3)

24 That bird has got to be a Roadrunner, that's the only large terrestrial bird I know of in these parts. Although they're rare here, I just saw one on the side of the road here in ET about a month ago.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 19, 2025 02:33 PM (uWKK8)

25 Geez... we pay $25/gallon for the stuff.
Oh, well, most folks won't use much.

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 02:34 PM (cPGH3)

26 badgerwx, I can relate. We sort of let the garden trail off last year, and that's a mistake we'll never make again! It was time-consuming to reclaim that land, and resulted in some crucial planting delays.

The objective is to not require a tractor (operated by Publius) to get started in the spring. His RA can be like having the flu and not being able to deal with getting the tractor functional in the spring (batteries, flat tires etc). He's used to doing things on a big scale and finds this "concentration camp" of stapled mulch cloth and black plastic to be completely alien.

However, that's for only 1/3 of the garden (or as Randi Weingarten would write, "1/3rd"). The rest is his to cultivate and mow as he will. The corn we planted, a measely 100 ft, didn't do well (and still the bastard raccoons hit it this week).

So I've promised him that next year he can plant 1000 ft if he wants, and I'll weed/water "a portion" of it for him so he doesn't need to use the tiller.

He was in such a bad mood over the corn that he didn't even want to eat corn on the cob this year.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 19, 2025 02:40 PM (w6EFb)

27 We gave up our fabric this year. Felt like we had way too many fungal problems.
Back to straw.

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 02:43 PM (cPGH3)

28 The only good thing abut these humid nights is it brings out the fireflies. I can watch them for a long time.

Posted by: JTB at July 19, 2025 02:00 PM (yTvNw)

They sparkle in the woods at night and bring back fond memories.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 19, 2025 02:44 PM (w6EFb)

29 Gotta ask, Miley...RA tractor?
I have a (very) old Allis, but can't get it in the garden.
Every 2 or 3 years, we take the fencing down, bring in manure and replow, but use a tiller between.
I love old equipment

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 02:45 PM (cPGH3)

30 I don't have any garden comments. Waiting for someone to show up in the previous thread before I start responding to my own comments.

Posted by: polynikes at July 19, 2025 02:48 PM (VofaG)

31 It's amazing how many varieties of daylily are out there.

Posted by: badgerwx at July 19, 2025 02:08 PM (uK6C0)

Schreiner's Gardens just came out with their new releases. Some of them are $150 a pop, if you can believe that. I stay in the teens. They're just flowers, after all. I'm going to get some Indigo Dragons.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 19, 2025 02:51 PM (w6EFb)

32 Admiral Akbar, my cat Lily uses our windows as a panopticon to observe all intruders -- including a new arrival, a portly groundhog.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 19, 2025 02:52 PM (kpS4V)

33 Miley,
I salute you and Publius. I garden on a much smaller scale in a much smaller yard than yours.

I don't have any better luck than my parents did with growing produce so I just do herbs and Egyptian walking onions. If the veggies or fruit grew at all for me the varmints would get it first. (I could tell you a sad story about my failed attempts to grow blueberries.) And now something is after my onions for the first time. I wonder if those rat-bastard squirrels are taking a bite out of each onion to find out that they don't really like them. I may end up with just herbs and my flowers in my yard.

Posted by: badgerwx at July 19, 2025 02:53 PM (uK6C0)

34 Badgerwx, we had voles tunneling up under our raised beds to eat our garlic.
Had to dig deep and line the beds. Oh, well

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 02:56 PM (cPGH3)

35 We were talking about peaches on the ONT last night. Publius and I were down in Ridge Spring to do a peach run (we're canning today). Picture 6000 acres of peach trees, just at Titan Farms. Here's a nice drone tour of the Peach Capitol of the World:

https://tinyurl.com/4b7bnrav

Never seen so many peaches on the hoof.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 19, 2025 02:57 PM (w6EFb)

36 Miley, I Gurgled Indigo Dragon and it's lovely. I also fancy Black Ambrosia.

Those sound like stripper names at a classy joint.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 19, 2025 02:57 PM (kpS4V)

37 Miley...RA tractor?

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 02:57 PM (cPGH3)

38 I have yards and yards of cucumber plants and many blossoms but they don't seem to want to cuke out.

Posted by: Elrond Hubbard at July 19, 2025 02:58 PM (P0m9n)

39 Elrond, keeping up the water?
Those things are mostly water with some protoplasm between.
Tasty protoplasm

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 03:00 PM (cPGH3)

40 Plenty of water. My cabbages are the best I've ever grown right next to them.

Posted by: Elrond Hubbard at July 19, 2025 03:02 PM (P0m9n)

41 How's the wind been?
No pollination?

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 03:02 PM (cPGH3)

42 If they ever bust out ill be swimming in pickles. I always call it my :pickle ranch". They thrive when I talk to them.

Posted by: Elrond Hubbard at July 19, 2025 03:04 PM (P0m9n)

43 I've also got scars of tomatoes and my fruit trees are loaded. I wouldn't think it's lack of pollination but it very well could bee.

Posted by: Elrond Hubbard at July 19, 2025 03:06 PM (P0m9n)

44 Egyptian walking onions? OK, Badgerwx, Is this a Bangles joke?

Posted by: Eromero at July 19, 2025 03:08 PM (LHPAg)

45 The first marigold on my deck just opened its first flower. Seems to have happened earlier than last year. The plants are also a whole lot shorter than what grew last year. It's funny how early summer weather patterns change how flowers develop...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 19, 2025 03:09 PM (Lhaco)

46 I'm way over my skis here, but I think cukes get pollinated by a very specific wild bee. Can't go look, cause I'm on my phone.

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 03:10 PM (cPGH3)

47 scars of tomatoes
do the scars look like tattoos?

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at July 19, 2025 03:10 PM (yhot1)

48 Schreiner's Gardens just came out with their new releases. Some of them are $150 a pop, if you can believe that. I stay in the teens. They're just flowers, after all. I'm going to get some Indigo Dragons.
Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 19, 2025 02:51 PM (w6EFb)

I just now checked out the website. Lots of spectacular irises and daylilies that I've never seen before!

Posted by: Emmie at July 19, 2025 03:10 PM (FMtrg)

49 Miley,

I can believe they charge $150 for a new daylily variety. Andre Viette was a big daylily hybridizer and had a nursery in SW Virginia. Even 20 years ago he would charge over $100 for one of his new varieties. He used to have a radio show (how I heard about him) but I don't think he's still around and I'm not sure about his nursery.

I got most of my daylilies 15-20 years ago from the DC Daylily society. They would have a summer sale where you could buy a 'fan' (a small section of daylily) for $5 from the plant divisions that club members brought from their gardens. They had quite a selection and I would up with around 25 different varieties of daylily.

Posted by: badgerwx at July 19, 2025 03:11 PM (uK6C0)

50 Such lovely plants and flowers! Thank you.

Took down a huge pin oak tree years ago. The small lawn looked war struck. Graded, added new soil & sod. Now add more good soil & grass seed when necessary (because it sinks for years where the tree stood). Lastly, do half-hearted, periodic maintenance of feeding and aerating.

Thanks to the intense heat and rain, bumper crops of mushrooms are growing in the back yard daily. (That's good, the yard is healthy! They say.) The mushrooms are being pulled up as soon as they're visible, bagged and placed in the trash.

However, related spores must be adhering to the rear, concrete, basement windowsills of the house and to the concrete back steps. Little patches of fungus originally thought to be from wood bees are growing on the concrete, and now they, too, need to be attacked with something to kill them off. (Tiny tentacles are growing on one patch!) Going to try scrubbing the surfaces and applying the vinegar, salt, dish soap mix I use elsewhere outside.

Never in all my years have I seen anything like this (urban living) & suggestions are welcome. Lastly, I'm also worried this stuff can attack the roof of the house.

Posted by: L - No nic, another fine day at July 19, 2025 03:12 PM (NFX2v)

51 Hi Kt and All!
Beautiful flowers, as always. I am very intrigued by the spiderwort. I first saw it in Michigan where it grew like mad. I have planted it here in the Midwest and it hasn't done so well. It likes some bright light but not real direct hot sunlight like we have had lately. It seems to be a plant that likes shade for a good part of the day. I have some next to my patio and it isn't dying so that is good. It no longer appears to be flowering but that just might be getting it adjusted to it's new location. The bee balm has done very well this year along with the various cone flowers.

Posted by: Mrs. Leggy at July 19, 2025 03:15 PM (dyL4B)

52 Egyptian walking onions are a perennial onion that will seed itself and spread. It flowers at the tip of the stalk and that develops into a clump a small onions. The stalk bends to the ground and the onion form a new clump - 'walking' around your garden. You don't have to plant new onion sets every year, though they are not full-size onions. I like to dry them into onion powder.

Posted by: badgerwx at July 19, 2025 03:16 PM (uK6C0)

53 From Boise area: lows 61-70 F, highs 90-100. Lettuce might be played out, but it's too hot to plant more (also too hot to germinate radishes, shelling peas, fall carrots). I had to pull out my zucchini and replant (new seeds did germinate) - I'll need to send in the photo explaining why I pulled it out...

Harvesting pickling cucumbers (time to make pickles tomorrow!), strawberries, red raspberries, some green beans, a few last shelling peas, the first SunGold cherry tomatoes, one cabbage (to give the other 2 more room), lavender.

Under puttering, we bottled our summer beer, a rye hazy (never tried brewing a hazy before). Husband and I taste-tested some older beers/ciders to decide what gets entered in the Western Idaho Fair.

We started using a power washer to edge back the lawn, where it's encroaching on the asphalt driveway.

Posted by: Pat* at July 19, 2025 03:16 PM (UuCoH)

54 I can't find any supporting information on the internet, but I have a vague memory about cucumber blossom production being influenced by temperature. The plant produces both male and female flowers and they have different but overlapping temperature ranges. So at the edges of the temperature ranges, they will produce male but not female, or female but not male, blossoms. Both must be present for pollination.

Posted by: Emmie at July 19, 2025 03:18 PM (FMtrg)

55 Miley, can you have livestock where you are? I've been tempted to get a few bacon seeds in early spring to use as an "organic" tiller (and fertilizer source).

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 19, 2025 03:20 PM (ULPxl)

56 Bacon seeds can yield a prolific crop

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 03:23 PM (cPGH3)

57 "Bacon seeds can yield a prolific crop
Posted by: MkY"

If you are not planting tomatoes and lettuce too you are doing it wrong.

Posted by: Splock at July 19, 2025 03:28 PM (vFG9F)

58 Bacon seeds can yield a prolific crop

Need a gravy tree for my hibiscuits bush.

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at July 19, 2025 03:36 PM (Cj6+D)

59 NO PET THREAD NO PEACE!!!

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at July 19, 2025 03:37 PM (Cj6+D)

60 Lovely photos. Thanks!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 19, 2025 03:38 PM (2GCMq)

61 This is the orchard I used to work at: https://tinyurl.com/3y3pa6bd

Funny, the old man that started the place was a real white supremicist. And he used to set up irrigation so that it would wash out all the artifacts. Had a nice collection.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 19, 2025 03:41 PM (cuCUO)

62 19 Fireblight's a bacterial disease. Here, at least, most common in high heat, high humidity environment.
If pruning, do use a sterilant on your tools between cuts.
1/2 cp of bleach in a gallon of water will do. Dip between.
There are agricultural controls. Agrimycin (agricultural streptomycin) works, but has to be re-applied as the the conditions remain.

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 02:23 PM

Thanks MkY.

I was pretty sure that fireblight could be passed from plant to plant from shears. Was going to post that question, but you had "pre-answered"!

Posted by: Pillage Idiot at July 19, 2025 03:55 PM (HlyYF)

63 Woohoo! Phoenicia azalea for the win!

Posted by: 40 Miles North at July 19, 2025 04:35 PM (EaLNz)

64
Schreiner's Gardens is about 20 miles from me, they have a lovely garden that shows off their offerings

If you are ever in Salem it is a nice afternoon

Posted by: Kindltot at July 19, 2025 04:46 PM (D7oie)

65 Beautiful photographs.

I can't believe that cuc has a bloom after being neglected in the garage.

Love the kitty staring at the woodchuck. It looks like the little critter wants a friend.

I wonder what kind of dog that is in the mosaic, it looks like a jack Russell a little.

Posted by: CaliGirl at July 19, 2025 04:56 PM (jPh2t)

66 Gotta ask, Miley...RA tractor?
I have a (very) old Allis, but can't get it in the garden.
Every 2 or 3 years, we take the fencing down, bring in manure and replow, but use a tiller between.
I love old equipment

Posted by: MkY at July 19, 2025 02:45 PM (cPGH3)

RA=rheumatoid arthritis. All of the tractors are Fords.

We have a lot of old equipment around here. When he made the new garden, he plowed up about half an acre. The gate is wide enough to get the tractor through, double electric fence to keep the deer out.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 19, 2025 07:58 PM (w6EFb)

67 you could buy a 'fan' (a small section of daylily) for $5 from the plant divisions that club members brought from their gardens. They had quite a selection and I would up with around 25 different varieties of daylily.

Posted by: badgerwx at July 19, 2025 03:11 PM (uK6C0)

That's awesome!

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 19, 2025 08:06 PM (w6EFb)

68 Miley, can you have livestock where you are? I've been tempted to get a few bacon seeds in early spring to use as an "organic" tiller (and fertilizer source).

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 19, 2025 03:20 PM (ULPxl)

We could, but there's no animal husbandry in Publius' background. Several people down the road have hobby farms (goats, chickens). Around the corner there's a guy with horses, and we know some people with cows a few miles away.

I'm still working on getting up early enough to get chickens.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 19, 2025 08:11 PM (w6EFb)

69 Sorry for the late replies - I took a nap so I could stay up for canning tonight.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at July 19, 2025 08:17 PM (w6EFb)

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