Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Dec. 27

These photos were not taken during the holidays, but I have been saving them for the holidays, because I think they fit. Don't you agree?

Howdy Katy,
4 out if 5 years I get no blooms, then only one. This year I got about 20 on 3 different plants.
May you and yours be well and prosperous.
Kindest regards

Bonecrusher

So striking! And nice arrangements of the plants.

Here are a couple of older close-ups:

Love them.

Puttering

You might consider leaving up some of your holiday decorations for New Years, or even changing them up a little for Valentines Day.

Has everyone put up their Valentines Day tree already? Or am I early 🤔 pic.twitter.com/GRSp2QpvyH

— Doug E (@xrangerd) January 7, 2025

As for outdoor decorations, I can see taking down the snowman and some of the high decorations, but if you live where there is fog or other challenging weather, why not leave up some lights as guides for visitors a little later in the year? Why the rush to remove them all?

We have tons of inside and outside decorations. I take everything down after new year's, but I leave my tree up in the living room till Valentine's Day because it's basically silver red and white and I have a lot of heart decorations,etc.. I put on for Valentine's day pic.twitter.com/ak0HMft0Z8

— April..AllYearLong (@abrilb95) December 25, 2025

Don in Kansas provides us with a lot of great plant information and photos, but he also posts other interesting content. During the holidays, perhaps we can think about musical "pastimes" to share and enjoy with others.

Scott Joplin may be the most famous of the ragtime composers published by John Stark, but the others are well worth listening to (and playing, if you have the fingers), notably Joseph Lamb and James Scott. And Artie Matthews, who wrote five “pastimes” for piano.

Ensemble: Avatar Brass Quintet
Composer of the quintet arrangement: William Ryden

Hope everyone has a nice weekend and New Year.

Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Dec 20

Any tips for easily cracking hazelnuts? (Squirrel nuts?)

SEE RECIPE, COMMENT 4

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And how about some light in that Alaska darkness? It's now the Winter Solstice, after this photo was taken on or before December 13:

Notice the sun. It won't get higher than that until the end of January.

---------

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee,
where the cotton blooms and blows.

Why he left his home in the South to roam
'round the Pole, God only knows.

He was always cold, but the land of gold
seemed to hold him like a spell;

Though he'd often say in his homely way
that "he'd sooner live in hell."

-- Bob Service

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 20, 2025 02:02

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I got the charmingly old fashioned Shumway's seed catalog the other day. I can picture Zeke and Clarabelle poring over it and pondering Georgia Rattlesnake watermelons, Colossal Giant Red mangelwurtzels, and Box Car Willie tomatoes.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at December 20, 2025 02:04 PM

It's a fun catalog. Anybody else pondering catalogs?

I grew mangelwurtzels once. It wasn't a "giant", it was big (for a beet) and long like a fat carrot. Reputed to be a variety good for humans as well as cattle. Wasn't bad. Cooked up tender, verging toward potato from beet in texture, without a strong beet flavor.

Here's a thread on this veggie, with discussion of some literary works.

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

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

ktinthegarden at g mail dot com

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