Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Aug 5

Happy Labor Day Weekend! Above, a lovely photo from Hrothgar. I'm not sure which member of the Hibiscus family this is. Are you?

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By (PLUS)

WELL! The famous Pat* is even more famous now!

This year’s winnings! Top and middle rows, Western Idaho Fair, Agriculture Division. (16 entries, 9 ribbons plus 2 special “Largest” ribbons)
Bottom left, same fair, Floral Division. (4 entries, 2 ribbons)
Bottom right, Canyon County Fair (my first time entering there; 3 entries, 2 ribbons).

CONGRATULATIONS!

YAY!

Lawns

From By-Tor:

I might have to go full Carl Spackler on the moles that are tearing up my front lawn. What I thought was dead grass from heat is grass killed by mole tunnels. I keep finding mounds of dirt in different places.
I could trap them. Sounds like a hassle. Or just spread the fresh dirt around and coexist. They do eat a lot of insects and spiders, apparently.

Any experiences with moles or gophers?

Tree Removal Codes

The city of Seattle has a municipal tree code that is almost 10K words long. It has a system of 4 tiers outlining what can be cut. If you want to cut trees in Seattle, you must apply to the city to be an approved provider and prove mandated insurance. If you want to cut them on… https://t.co/olFL4PpphQ
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) September 3, 2026

10,000 words in the municipal code. Does your city have one?

Experiences or Comments?

Remember to order fall bulbs and tubers

Early Amaryllis

Blueberry Shortcake

86169-bartzella-itoh-hybrid-peony-6 holland.jpg

Bartzella Itoh Hybrid (tuberous X tree)

Gardens of The Horde

Hi, KT! NaughtyPine here. My sunchokes aka Jerusalem artichokes are in bloom.

Love it. And love the little bee.

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, Aug. 29

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.

Planning a trip?

In the Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi, Japan, a wisteria tree is often referred to as “the most beautiful in the world.”

At around 150 years old, the massive tree is stunning when in full bloom.

[📹 godive2000] pic.twitter.com/L2WKqgaNFF
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 2, 2026

Posted by: K.T. at 01:25 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Good afternoon Greenthumbs

Posted by: Skip at September 05, 2026 01:28 PM (Ia/+0)

2 I'm happy to report that my Honeynut squash vine is over-performing.

Posted by: Emmie at September 05, 2026 01:29 PM (OlzlW)

3 To Pat congratulations, but wonder what kind of categories they are for.?

And By-Tor, obviously plastic explosives is not smart to use.
But mouse traps with yes peanut butter might work.

Posted by: Skip at September 05, 2026 01:32 PM (Ia/+0)

4 Didn't plant anything this year, oregano and chives are happy without competition. But learned squash in all its forms are only a step below bamboo for growing and taking over.

Posted by: Skip at September 05, 2026 01:34 PM (Ia/+0)

5 Honeynut sounds good.

Posted by: KT at September 05, 2026 01:34 PM (1RGZ5)

6 Moles. God help me, I know about the moles. If you like a "perfect" lawn, then moles are exceedingly annoying. That's your call, but getting rid of them isn't as complicated as you might think.

Castor Oil crystals is the weapon of choice. It doesn't kill them. It just makes their worm diet taste really bad, and forces them to move onto another location. If you do decide to give that a shot, do your ENTIRE yard front and back (or they will just move to another part of your property.

I can't guarantee that your neighbors will like the results as much as you do....However, if your lawn is infested, chances are theirs is already as well.

Once you spread the crystals, hose it down so it seeps into the soil. You're done.

(side note: To find the active tunnels. Find a brown area and stamp it down. Put some flour there to mark it. Come back in a about a day, and if it's pushed up again, it's an active tunnel).

Sincerely,
Morocco Mole

Posted by: Orson at September 05, 2026 01:34 PM (dIske)

7 Interesting that they are starting to sell gift amaryllis bulbs to bloom even before Thanksgiving. The one above has a truck on the vase.

Posted by: KT at September 05, 2026 01:35 PM (1RGZ5)

8 Any experiences with moles or gophers?

=====

Ground red pepper. I've had success with Aleppo pepper.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 05, 2026 01:40 PM (RIvkX)

9 The only thing that I grow is fatter.
Dixie!

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at September 05, 2026 01:41 PM (G3C98)

10 gophers
Home Depot sells a pyrotechnic Gopher Gasser

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at September 05, 2026 01:43 PM (G3C98)

11 OMG that wisteria... Nice post, KT.

Posted by: 40 Miles North at September 05, 2026 01:48 PM (96qvc)

12 That's nacho cheese!

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at September 05, 2026 02:01 PM (4CdW9)

13 Skip, you asked for it! - Husband and I are in the middle of a painting/mud project behind the kitchen, but I will send the list while on my lunch break.

Posted by: Pat* at September 05, 2026 02:01 PM (u7mwI)

14 Honeynut is supposedly a cross between butternut and acorn, bred for flavor and the ability to be cut open without using a chainsaw or light saber.

Posted by: Emmie, celebrating 250 years of God's grace at September 05, 2026 02:03 PM (OlzlW)

15 It is so insane. My husband used to watch the city council stuff on tv. There was a woman in our town that wanted to remove a Doug Fir they had originally planted. She went through the process to get a permit, had the tree taken out and was ticketed for not having all the permits. They wanted to fine her for the cost of getting a DougFir, the same size, from a tree nursery! They have urban foresters that you also have to work with before removing anything.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at September 05, 2026 02:04 PM (bkuEU)

16 I am going to try some cool weather stuff. Have been on the fence about it as it is hot and lots of grasshoppers. I have the seed so I might as well try. I have row cover fabric too.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at September 05, 2026 02:07 PM (bkuEU)

17 How could we sorry humans ever deserve such beauty as flowers?

Posted by: Eromero at September 05, 2026 02:12 PM (LHPAg)

18 Beautiful pictures. Thanks so much!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 05, 2026 02:13 PM (JrHfD)

19 Re: tree removal.
Better living through chemistry...especially if the City is obligated to remove dead trees.

Posted by: MkY at September 05, 2026 02:25 PM (q6tQZ)

20 The garden.
Wife is trying to can 3 years worth of tomatoes, in case she can't in the future. I'm the processor. I prep them, and she cans them.
Spaghetti sauce. Salsa. Soup. Plain tomato. I pick every other day and I pick everything with a blush. In a day or two, it's ready to process.
We have tons of pickled jalapeno peppers. Didn't think we'd have enough paprika peppers to dry and grind with 2 plants wilting out... but it looks like we'll do fine.
Cukes are driving us nuts... trying to give them away.

Posted by: MkY at September 05, 2026 02:28 PM (q6tQZ)

21 Posted by: Eromero at September 05, 2026 02:12 PM (LHPAg)

Because God is a good Father and created everything else for us to enjoy and to care for before he created humanity? I talked to a woman at the grocery store today who had flowers in here shopping basket, and we agreed that flowers lift our spirits . I think if we make an attempt we can find something beautiful to praise the Lord for everyday, whether that's flowers or the ocean or beloved pets or people who are kind and decent ( and despite the utter craziness on social media ) there are still good and kind and caring people in the world. That was too long of a response to your query. Sorry!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 05, 2026 02:28 PM (JrHfD)

22 Some years ago a charity that I work for planted some Dogwoods around the office. One of them had grown so much that some branches were scraping the roof shingles.

I had to go to the city to obtain 'permission' to prune the branches of our tree which we had planted on our property.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 05, 2026 02:29 PM (XeU6L)

23 And I echo the post above that was in awe of the wisteria in the picture above.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 05, 2026 02:30 PM (JrHfD)

24 How could we sorry humans ever deserve such beauty as flowers?
Posted by: Eromero
------

Don't you understand? It's just a lucky cosmic coincidence.

Posted by: Secular Humanist at September 05, 2026 02:31 PM (XeU6L)

25 Actually, I found the list on a computer file, so everyone remember, this is Skip's fault! If not specified, awards are from the Agriculture Department of the Fair.

1st place: Carrots, any other color ('Yellowstone')
Fingerling Potatoes ('La Ratte')
Curled Parsley
Largest Carrot ('Yellowstone', plus Largest, 1.2 pounds, earned me 8 bucks!)
Largest Potato ('Yukon Gold', plus Largest, 0.965 pound, earned me 10 bucks!)
English Thyme (Floral Dept.)

2nd place: Spearmint
Novelty vegetable naturally grown (I nicknamed it "Purple Demon Carrot II", since I had previously entered a smaller carrot with more tails than this one, with this nickname, but this one had 9 main tails and a 19 inch wingspan!)

3rd place: Common Sage
Marigold, Dwarf Bicolor (Floral Dept.)

Honorable Mention: English Thyme

No awards: Carrots over 6" - cherry tomato cluster - oregano - rosemary - other herb in water (catnip) - 5 herb collection - largest zucchini - catnip (Floral Dept.), Rosemary (Floral Dept.)

Posted by: Pat* at September 05, 2026 02:33 PM (u7mwI)

26 I had to wonder, at a fair it can be for hundreds of categories.

Posted by: Skip at September 05, 2026 02:39 PM (Ia/+0)

27 I’ve never known there was a wisteria tree. In the south there are a lot of Wisteria vines that have wonderful flowers with a wonderful scent. But no trees.

Posted by: Tom Servo at September 05, 2026 02:58 PM (o+l2a)

28 RE Hrothgar's mystery flower.

The flower kind of looks like a Rose of Sharon but the background leaves look like a hardy hibiscus. I have one that looks a whole lot like Hrothgar's, that popped up last year as a volunteer near one of my hybrid hardy hibiscus plants. So Hrothgar's could could be the original species of hardy hibiscus.

Posted by: badgerwx (long time lurker) at September 05, 2026 03:04 PM (VnNy+)

29 I was wondering about that Japanese wisteria too. Was it trained into a tree form? Or is it being supported by a tree that it smothered?

Posted by: badgerwx (long time lurker) at September 05, 2026 03:06 PM (VnNy+)

30 I have lots of experience with gophers from my youth...killed hundreds of them. Mostly used traps, but some were wily (would push dirt into traps), so I'd put dandelion in front of the traps (partly to mask the smell). Sometimes that'd work, sometimes it wouldn't. For the pernicious gophers that wouldn't fall for the trap, I'd uncover a freshly dug hole in the early, early morning, wait far enough away downwind, and put a pellet into them.

Folks had a decent sized property, about 10 usable acres, with lots of gophers. I didn't use poison, as I fed those gophers to the cats...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at September 05, 2026 03:18 PM (l3cgK)

31 PET NOOD

Posted by: Skip at September 05, 2026 03:27 PM (Ia/+0)

32 That flower up top is an althea, also know as a rose of Sharon.

Posted by: huerfano at September 05, 2026 04:12 PM (2Xqig)

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