Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, July 18

From last week:

Happy Wednesday, KT! I have an actual sunflower blooming! This is at the top of my 11 foot tall plant. This one started as a volunteer from last year's seeds so I think it will have the same smaller multi-colored blooms.
On the inside, my orchid is loving the AC. Update on the spider plants - they have been going to town. They really do look like fireworks! Thanks for last week's pictures.
Mrs. Leggy

Wow! Such fun! I don't remember seeing your orchids before.

And here's another sunflower (not 11 feet tall) with a visitor:

I’ve done very little work today, unlike the bees 🐝
This evening continuing the relaxing day with some drinks in the summerhouse. You can join us if you like, but unfortunately there’s only enough room for 2 chairs!!
Have a great evening 🥂cheers! pic.twitter.com/tMEmsmNTOh
— Garden Brocante (@GardenBrocante) July 14, 2026

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

From By-Tor:

My garden is hitting full stride. Which is a bit overwhelming. Luckily I have friends that are happy to get the overflow.

Great haul from a container garden!

When you have too many tomatoes all at once, you make soup. Especially if you have fresh basil.

Mmmmmmmm

Nature

Somewhere in this world right now, someone is letting the gentle song of birds replace the chaos of breaking news.

And in that simple moment, the world feels a little more hopeful again. pic.twitter.com/8zfuuC0blQ
— The Figen (@TheFigen_) July 17, 2026

The diversity of nature

A plant whose flowers look like jewellery pic.twitter.com/k7CqD0Y8nQ
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 14, 2026

Puttering

Graffiti laser removal is oddly satisfying to watch.

Credit: Twonix pic.twitter.com/DQTBDoJ2Z6
— HOW THINGS WORK (@HowThingsWork_) July 15, 2026

Science

Read the comments:

Fun fact: you can see photosynthesis in real-time.

This is an aquatic plant producing oxygen. pic.twitter.com/ZiOO14nJX3
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 15, 2026

Gardens of The Horde

I don't usually get blossoms every year. Not sure why, but I really like it when they come out.
Diogenes

Beautiful!

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening 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 11

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.

Posted by: K.T. at 01:35 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Humidity 46% 82° and sunny in van nuys.
As usual, I feel hotter. And the solar outage of tv sucks

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at July 18, 2026 01:40 PM (smHg8)

2 I picked the first green beans of the year so there pppppppfffffffttttt

Posted by: what the cat drug in at July 18, 2026 01:49 PM (jrgJz)

3 what the cat drug in at July 18, 2026 01:49 PM

Yay!

Posted by: KT at July 18, 2026 01:56 PM (rdeQO)

4 This has been crepe mrytle week in our area. Just about every shrub, some are 20 feet tall, in full bloom. And I noticed more colors than usual: more varied reds and purples but also yellow which are lovely. Even the little crepe in the backyard, always the last to bloom, has flowers. It's been miserably hot lately so I mostly see them from an air conditioned car.

Posted by: JTB at July 18, 2026 01:59 PM (yTvNw)

5 KT,
I wasn't available for your previous thread to comment but thanks for the post and links. It ties in with some of my concerns about the current society, which also is reflected in the scouring of the Shire chapter in LOTR. Might be time to get out some of my Wendell Berry essays and poems.

Posted by: JTB at July 18, 2026 02:11 PM (yTvNw)

6 In case you missed this last month:

"Supreme Court blocks thousands of Bayer lawsuits over weedkiller 'cancer risk' "

https://shorturl.at/vs0wT

Reeeeeeee!

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at July 18, 2026 02:13 PM (XeU6L)

7 Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at July 18, 2026 02:13 PM

A consequence of EPA regulation, I think.

Posted by: KT at July 18, 2026 02:25 PM (rdeQO)

8 Anybody ever seen graffiti removal like that before?

Posted by: KT at July 18, 2026 02:26 PM (rdeQO)

9
I think I saved the lily that I nearly killed. Fingers crossed.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at July 18, 2026 02:27 PM (mmrXZ)

10 8 Anybody ever seen graffiti removal like that before?
Posted by: KT at July 18, 2026 02:26 PM (rdeQO)

No, but it looks cool! We don't have much graffiti around here except on train cars.

Posted by: Emmie at July 18, 2026 02:28 PM (OlzlW)

11 What lovely orchids and sunflowers!

My pollinator bed is a hotbed of activity, and the sunflowers in my vegetable garden are swarming with bees.

Tomatoes are doing gangbusters in spite of my overplanting and the general condition of beautiful chaos that I've allowed. Had my first plateful of maters yesterday: Lemon Boy, Alice's Dream, and Independence Day. Just pink salt and cracked pepper on top -- yum!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 18, 2026 02:31 PM (kpS4V)

12 It's still hot and muggy outside, but at least the forest fire schmutz is mostly gone.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 18, 2026 02:33 PM (kpS4V)

13 Aw, two monarch butterflies are doing a tango around the butterfly weed.

Bugs makin' whoopie! 💜 🦋

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 18, 2026 02:49 PM (kpS4V)

14 Yep, harvested first beans today in Northern NH. Tomatoes are growing in size, still green. Blueberries are ready to pluck.
And it’s been rainy enough that the lawn is still green.
Feels good on bare feet in early evening.

Posted by: RI Red at July 18, 2026 02:56 PM (LMRVO)

15 I have fresh basil and parsley every day.

Soup
Compound Butter
Pesto
Lots of other stuff.

Next year, I'm adding rosemary.

Posted by: mrp at July 18, 2026 03:03 PM (rj6Yv)

16 Something I've noticed the last couple of years in our area. I see less evidence of home veggie gardens. But the local farmers market, which is restricted to produce from the area, is busier than ever. Not sure of the reason. I can say the local produce is excellent but you can't buy too much at a time since it is ripe when bought, unlike the grocery. I should think of a canning schedule and buy in bulk.

Posted by: JTB at July 18, 2026 03:09 PM (yTvNw)

17 Something I've noticed the last couple of years in our area. I see less evidence of home veggie gardens. But the local farmers market, which is restricted to produce from the area, is busier than ever. Not sure of the reason. I can say the local produce is excellent but you can't buy too much at a time since it is ripe when bought, unlike the grocery. I should think of a canning schedule and buy in bulk.
Posted by: JTB

Gardens are a chore. A never-ending chore, til frost.
My wife ain't helping this year, and I'm trying like hell to figure out how to keep such a large space weed-free, watered, and still work.
I'm thinking next year, it's back to straw, with a helping dose of Treflan (Preen).

I tried for 20 years to get rabbits on this hill. I now have them.
More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered prayers (attributed to Teresa of Avila).

Posted by: MkY at July 18, 2026 03:25 PM (q6tQZ)

18 That singing birds video reminded me of something I saw recently that just blew me away. There is an Autistic kid named Samuel Henderson who has this passion and affinity for doing bird calls. He's absolutely fantastic and has a catelogue of over 50 calls...

Here's a video of him:

https://tinyurl.com/522bh7ut

Posted by: Orson at July 18, 2026 03:27 PM (dIske)

19 We've recently planted several fruit trees and grapes and berries, but not much product yet.

MiladyJo was throwing a tennis ball for Daisy Dog, and it went into one of the several-years-old pear trees and lo and behold a small pear dropped out. Weren't sure we had any. Not quite ripe, but might still ripen up.

Last week, we harvested a few figs. Figs! I'd never had a fresh fig before. Hope we can get many more.

I want to grow corn!

Posted by: mindful webworker - herbs and flowers too! at July 18, 2026 03:32 PM (p+5Bi)

20 We had our first BLT of the year.
I'm in love all over again. Employee (who buys his plants) gave us 3.
We are not getting maters yet. We were late. (See helper comment above). We are getting peppers, okra, green beans and cukes.
Rabbits ate down our sweet taters.
Second planting of green beans coming next weekend.

Posted by: MkY at July 18, 2026 03:36 PM (q6tQZ)

21 Pet thread up.

Posted by: Brother Tim, still standing at July 18, 2026 03:41 PM (mQbp+)

22 My goal this year is to escape tomato blight and combat deer. SO far so good. Peppers are starting to come in. Tomato plants are flowering and have green tomatos on them in ever increasing numbers.

Cukes are flowering, beans are about to. I'm fence building the other garden to get ready for late summer/fall crops.

My blackberries have tons of green berries.

But my straw berries suck.

Posted by: Black JEM at July 18, 2026 03:44 PM (UQRAm)

23 But my straw berries suck.
Posted by: Black JEM

Ours sucked this year, too. I think we're done with them.
Kinda like white potatoes. They're cheap at the store. They take WAY more room and effort than they're worth, and the store-bought do.

Posted by: MkY at July 18, 2026 03:48 PM (q6tQZ)

24
Best of Breed for The Big Dummy at today's Beaumont KC show. He's Daddy's good dumb dog.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 18, 2026 03:55 PM (3pDH/)

25 Hadrian the Seventh

Were you able to cash in your favor to the show?

And congrats to TBD and his team.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 18, 2026 04:11 PM (u82oZ)

26 From Boise area: Still HOT. Thunderstorm early Friday morning - other areas got hail, but we were spared that. I dug up all the hyacinths and crocuses in an area we're going to build a French drain in, which left a trench where the arc of hyacinths was; now we have a moat...

Ate the first broccoli this past week - need to eat more this coming week. Green beans are producing steadily. (Zucchini unfortunately producing steadily...) Tomatoes have fruits, but no blushing yet. Too hot for radishes to germinate. Other gardening friends have told me this is a rough year for them too.

I have to do an online entry for the Canyon County Fair soon, if I intend to enter - Husband's going to enter some Homemade Spirits. I should enter Lavender, Carrots, and some herbs. This would be my first year there, so having only a few entries is a good way to dip my toe in. I still have a month before the Western Idaho Fair, to grow my Mega-Zucchini and at least one candidate for Mega-Carrot.

Posted by: Pat* at July 18, 2026 05:42 PM (7uYVO)

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