Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, June 17

Hi, everybody! Still spring where you are, or has summer hit? I love these flowers:

Hi,

Derak in North Idaho here . . the iris and midnight blue columbine just peaked. We've had luxurious rains the past two days, much needed after unseasonably warm temps for June.

These beauties will be replaced by a riot of summer color from multitudes of dahlias and zinnia come July, if the slugs, rabbits deer and beaver don't have their way with my garden before they bloom.

Keep up the good work! Love the gardening thread!

Thanks for the great photos! Go with this one, I think:

NorCal Sierra Foothills Lurker here;

We always called these Tiger Lillies but I read they are actually Leopard Lillies. Either way they are beautiful. When we first moved here we tried transplanting a few and they all died. So now we go see them where they are. The largest one we've ever seen had thirteen flowers on one plant! Most get eaten long before they bloom.

Beautiful lilies!

It would be nice if more of them survived to bloom time. The foothills pose some challenges for gardeners and for stewards of wild plants:

My poor old wagon is in need of some tlc.

Awww. Poor wagon. Well, you have all summer.

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

Well, and a few other things.

From Grimmy/Intrepid AoS Liason, who has been clearing some land. What an adventure!

As usual, I planted way too many trees, shrubs, and vegetables this spring, and with Iowa having VERY little rain over the last few weeks, I've been busy wandering the acreage watering everything on a nearly daily basis.

Trees are full of ripe (and ripening) mulberries. Tough to take a good picture, but the one I uploaded shows the full mix of berry colors.

The spiky plants in the raised bed are a variety of asparagus I grew from seed a couple years ago. I assume at some point they'll magically transform into something more asparagus? Like the OTHER picture, with one lone stalk from a discounted root pack I got from the local greenhouse's end of season sale. Planted 5 or 6...and only this one showed any life.

Don't give up hope. Asparagus likes lots of nourishment.

We have a lot of wild grape in the yard, too, and they've grown up along some of the mulberry trees, so we get an interesting combination of fruits. These grapes are very young, but good to see what's coming up.

While mowing the yard, a fledgling cardinal (?) kept running to (and UNDER) my riding mower! I had to stop it, turn it off, and shoo it away! It finally hid in some tall weeds at the base of a large tree.

I set out my new smoker one morning, planning to clean it and smoke stuff later in the day. When "later" came around, I saw our little frog friend hanging out. Probably a nice, warm spot for cold-bloods.

Puttering

In Japan a shrine called Hitokotonushi has become particularly popular with the local bee population, because it created miniature water fountains to provide water for thirsty bees, avoiding their accidental drowning

[read more: https://t.co/JKtqfk2M1l]pic.twitter.com/G5NKgQa3Sv

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 7, 2023

Ah, Nature

Nature always finds a way.pic.twitter.com/G7pwJIL2cD

— Figen (@TheFigen_) June 15, 2023

Gardens of The Horde

I can't resist sending another picture of my Carefree Beauty rose, but the real point of the picture is to show my perennial herb garden. I
have mint (in a buried pot), thyme, chives, rosemary, Greek oregano, and
sage. If you look hard you can also see a few garlic plants peeking out
of the foliage - German hard-neck. (may4a)

This is my 2nd garlic crop and I had a surprise twist this year. I
planted both the hard-neck and California soft-neck garlic for my first
crop. But all the California garlic shriveled up and disappeared last
spring. I was relieved that I got a decent crop of the hard-neck garlic
at the end of June. But this year a lone garlic plant sprouted where I
had planted the California garlic. I pampered it all spring & just
harvested a decent-sized head. (garlic-surprise) Now, do I take one of
the cloves and try again this fall? Decisions, decisions.

My favorite crop is the Egyptian Walking Onion, that pretty much grows
itself. It even plants itself. That's my kind of plant. (onions)

The last crop I'm trying to grow this year is Monarch butterflies. I've
been cultivating a patch of swamp milkweed for the caterpillars. It's
the 3rd year for these plants (sleep, creep, leap) so I'm hoping for
more Monarchs than the single one that hatched last summer. (jun14)

badgerwx

The roses and herbs are great together!

The soft neck garlic is a commercial crop around here. Looks different!

I wonder how similar this is to the ones our Arizona correspondents grow?

Hope you get lots of Monarchs. Do you know the variety of your milkweed?

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, Puttering and Adventure Thread, June 10

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.