Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, May 13

Happy Mother's Day Weekend! Nan in Az has a special treat for us:

First picture is the last light before night, starting to open; second is next morning and fully open cereus flower.

Have you got blooms or veggies in your garden? Thinking about cut flowers for Mother's Day? Here are some tulips from Switzerland:

I kind of lean toward flowering plants that can be set out into the garden, though.

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

From WeeKreekFarmGirl:

Hey KT,

My latest adventure is sugar cane. It came about because I am harvesting my I'itoi onions right now and I realized that I have a bit of an onion problem. WAY TOO MANY! I have attached a picture of the harvest of just one bed I had planted, and I didn't even get all the plants out yet. So I put out a notice to a local garden group that if anyone wanted some to come and get them. I got 5 takers so I will get rid of this lot and then I can harvest what I need to give for a few friends and for my crop next year.

The onion give-away looks like fun!

One of the ladies who came brought me some sugar cane to plant. It is a grass, very much like bamboo. You plant it but cutting it around a nodule, or the new shoot and put that in the hole about and inch down not worrying about the stalk being sideways, she says they will straighten themselves out.

Good luck with the sugar cane!

You can see the size of the bit and how I planted it here. I planted about 7 pieces in a bed that I had that was vacant. She said they like moist soil and not to let it dry out. In AZ in the summer it could be a challenge but we will see how it goes.

Also for all the AZ gardeners, which I know there are a few, she shared an article about making a fertilizer and/ or foliar spray out of aloe vera. I have so much aloe vera it is ridiculous so I am of course, going to try it. Be nice to put some of it to use. Article is here.

Happy gardening horde!

Fun content today from the desert!

Gardens of The Horde

Last summer I went scorched earth on my front garden because two invasive vines, native Dutchman's pipe and porcelain berry, had covered it completely. The Dutchman's pipe in particular was as bad or worse than kudzu. I did plant a couple of things afterwards but in the main decided to see what would come back in the spring. It was something of a surprise!

The smaller section on the right was not too badly affected, but I was surprised that the small purple flowered clematis is still there; it would have been intertwined with the porcelain berry. I expected that had been pulled out too. The Forth of July rose and the 'fairy' rose are already blooming.

The larger left side was the surprise. The back half of the boxwood has leafed out nicely, and the azaleas actually bloomed this year. I had thought the Italian arum had disappeared but it's doing so well I need to thin it out. There is one plant of cobra's eye iris standing up, along with field gladiolus I haven't see bloom in several years. As you can see there are also a few sprouts of that Dutchman's pipe I haven't caught yet, but they'll be gone. It will probably be trying a comeback the entire summer.

Lirio100

What a lot of work! And there were some nice surprises!

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:

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Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, May 6

Any thoughts or questions? Concerning starting squash or cucumbers in containers: It has been my experience that you can start them in containers, but you need to be very careful not to let them get root-bound or to disturb the roots when transplanting. My plan has been to transplant before the seedlings get true leaves. If you plant in peat pots, tear the bottoms off before transplanting, and remover any parts of the pot that will be above ground and wick water away from the seedling.

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.

Found rocks garden art

Hedgehog cactus blossom, Phoenix area, April 6