Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, June 22

Hi, everybody! The heatwave predicted for yesterday is going to hit today, so if our electricity browns out, don't be surprised. Too hot here for the flower above, but some of our weeds are doing quite well. How are things going where you are?

Hi
I had to replace an azalea that no matter what I tried was sickly and doomed so decided to just replace it. I have four large planters on my terrace but they are still containers so limited root area. Because my daylily does so well, decided to go with this Oriental Lily. I noticed that the very end of the stamen has a dark spot at the end. When I checked the day lily, same thing. Do you think this is to mimic something?
Sharon(willow's apprentice)

What does The Horde think about possible mimicry and the dark spot at the end of the stamen?

Daylilies are especially resilient, and may survive longer in containers than oriental lilies, to which they are not closely related. Much depends on growing conditions.

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

Well, we're nearing the end of June, and I haven't posted our annual strawberry shortcake yet. This is actual shortcake - Biscuit dough, but shorter (more butter) and a little sweeter.

It takes a lot of crushed and sweetened berries to make this, and you must assemble your diners before you bake the shortcakes. Use real whipping cream. You can use heavy cream even if you don't have powdered sugar (to help keep it from turning to butter), but don't try to whip it to stiff peaks. Whip it softly, German style.

Critters

Note on last week's owl photo from WeeKreekFarmGirl:

They are still here, so they must have a nest in the Lady Banks Roses. I have confirmed they are Western Screech Owls.
I tried to give them a pack rat that died in the Hav-a-Heart trap (they aren't supposed to die in those but they sometimes get so upset at being trapped they give themselves a heart attack I think) but they didn't want it. I think they only like live prey?
Plenty of things to eat around my garden, I would be happy for some help with all the mice and pack rats.
Hope you are well!

Fun news!

From By-Tor:

I like Black Phoebes because they catch flies and other bugs. This one hangs around my front yard.

My eagle-eyed daughter spotted this coyote from about 250 yds away as we were driving. It's a power line area right next to tractor supply, homes. They are pretty brazen around here. This one looks well fed.

One from the vault that popped up. This was taken at Majeska Wildlife Sanctuary in Orange County, east of Irvine Lake.
Probably an Anna's hummingbird.
Canon EOS d1 with Sigma 100-300 f4

A great photo!

Adventure

What a Garden Adventure trip today from 'screaming in digital'

Hi KT,
I recently visited Oxford and Cornwall on a Lewis & Tolkien literary tour. I thought the garden thread readers might enjoy some of my photos.

The dark purple flowers are everywhere in Cornwall. I had never seen anything like them before. They look almost fake. According to Google Image Search, this is "Aeonium Arboreum."

The Merton College (where Tolkien was a professor) gardens feature incredible irises in a variety of colors.

Foxgloves are also everywhere; I took many photos along the Cornish coastal paths with a foxglove photobomb. This one is from Tintagel.

"The Kilns" was CS Lewis' home. There is a simple, lovely garden at the Kilns. The day we visited, it was rainy - the one rainy morning we had out of the 10 days I was in England - but the rain didn't prevent us from enjoying the garden and the Nature Preserve on the grounds.

I also liked the roses growing up a wall of Magdalen College (where Lewis was a professor).

On my last day in England, we visited St Michael's Mount. My photos don't do justice to the incredible terraced gardens there.

Just amazing. I imagine that the gardens were thrilling in person. Is anyone inspired?

The rest of the trip must have included some great things, too.

I'm going to be thinking about your trip for a while. So glad you were able to go and share a few highlights with us.

Gardens of The Horde

Tell us about your garden or someplace you have visited.

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 15

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.

Posted by: K.T. at 01:20 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Good afternoon Greenthumbs

Posted by: Skip at June 22, 2024 01:30 PM (fwDg9)

2 Hi, Skip!

Posted by: KT at June 22, 2024 01:31 PM (rrtZS)

3 Lots of green peppers and starting to get tomato blossoms but that's it.
Mostly soon need rain, don't think it has for 2 weeks at least, my rain barrel is getting down to bottom

Posted by: Skip at June 22, 2024 01:31 PM (fwDg9)

4 I hesitate to make any corrections since the blog is one that I look for every day, and highly appreciate, but "The Kilns" was the home of C.S. Lewis...

Posted by: Roger DePoy at June 22, 2024 01:33 PM (wLtJD)

5 All I can grow are rocks, sand and weeds. So I appreciate being able to look at everyone else's pretty pictures.

I even kill invasive non-native plants. It's just not fair.

What do you guys do anyway? Water them or something?

Posted by: Persnickety at June 22, 2024 01:35 PM (6fdSm)

6 So many beautiful things to see today. Love them all. Your Oriental Lilies are such a pretty color, Sharon. Certainly looks oriental. Hope they thrive for you.

Posted by: AlmostYuman at June 22, 2024 01:37 PM (bj34f)

7 Hello.

We have a nice backyard with a ton of trees. There's an old picnic table on the patio. We're in the middle of house renovations, during which I'm taking up occasional day drinking, and we're going to get the picnic table painted.

I really like the idea of painting it Sherwin Williams Cheerful Yellow which is the colour of my computer room. I think that would be cool and fun and be a nice contrast to all the plants.

I don't need comments. I'm just throwing this out there.

Posted by: Stateless at June 22, 2024 01:39 PM (jvJvP)

8 Had these last few days put new brown ceramic planter as a bird bath but wasn't getting much use. Wife suggested putting on ground instead of pedestal but not seeing much use there either. High 90s here today

Posted by: Skip at June 22, 2024 01:44 PM (fwDg9)

9 >>> 7 Hello.

We have a nice backyard with a ton of trees. There's an old picnic table on the patio. We're in the middle of house renovations, during which I'm taking up occasional day drinking, and we're going to get the picnic table painted.

I really like the idea of painting it Sherwin Williams Cheerful Yellow which is the colour of my computer room. I think that would be cool and fun and be a nice contrast to all the plants.

I don't need comments. I'm just throwing this out there.

Posted by: Stateless at June 22, 2024 01:39 PM (jvJvP)

No yellow!

Posted by: Hunter Biden at June 22, 2024 01:46 PM (llON8)

10 Not nearly as beautiful as above I was given a stem of Emerald Beauty also known as Maria or Chinese Evergreen. It is an Aglaonema. I have not killed it yet and am now venturing to propagate it.

This fellow's Utube ( t.ly/PdZJF ) is very thorough and moves along at a good pace. (few if any personal pronouns - it's about the task not himself) I've been collecting and substituting for the various items he says to use.

Next step is a suitable place and a good table to prepare the media and begin cutting.

Posted by: Braenyard at June 22, 2024 01:48 PM (mP6Ur)

11 Screaming, Beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing.

Posted by: Mrs JTB at June 22, 2024 01:49 PM (zudum)

12 Mrs. E got to use her battery powered mini chainsaw today. It’s nifty for stuff to big for pruners but too small to drag out the regular saw. Temp in ETEX 90 degrees, so time for Jucy’s for a burger in air-conditioned place.

Posted by: Eromero at June 22, 2024 01:50 PM (LHPAg)

13 Beautiful pictures SID! You can find Aeonium Arboreum in green and that lovely maroon all over Santa Barbara (where we grew up).

The oriental lilies are beautiful as well!

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 22, 2024 01:50 PM (UC3nL)

14 Roger DePoy at June 22, 2024 01:33 PM

Thanks.

Posted by: KT at June 22, 2024 01:58 PM (rrtZS)

15 Thank you for the photos. Our backyard strawberry patch bore heavily for about ten days, but has petered out. My wife (the lovely and talented Annalucia) made a staggeringly good strawberry pie; though I must say, the best use was to lavish the freshly picked berries over a dish of home-made vanilla ice-cream, topping both with home-made dark chocolate sauce. It probably shortened my life-span significantly, but what a way to go!

Posted by: Nemo at June 22, 2024 02:07 PM (S6ArX)

16 I got an electric hot-plate and I have taken to sitting under the climbing rose in the back yard (the feral one that has taken over a filbert tree) in the mornings to brew up a small pot of coffee and read. It is a nice beginning of the day, and if I get bored with the book, I can pop up and water the plants in containers until I have had enough excitement.

Last year I got a load of grass clippings from a neighbor and put them in one of my compost heaps, and then this spring when I was using that compost, some plants died that shouldn't have died. I planted beans and squash seeds in the remaining pile of finished compost since that is a good way to judge if there is herbicide residue in the compost. The beans all grew crumpled up leaves. The squash is doing OK though, so it is not terribly bad, just bad.
I have to figure out what to do with possibly toxic compost now, and I need to start a new pile. The fence line probably needs compost. It might keep down the blackberry sprouts.

what is infuriating is that I really didn't need extra clippings, I could have just used my own, but I was lazy and didn't want to rake my own yard.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 22, 2024 02:07 PM (D7oie)

17 We have 2 desert willows one is a volunteer and the other looks to have been planted last century. They both have a little color; but, I keep seeing really colorful plants in parking lots.

Here are the different colors found:
https://is.gd/Umlzj7

I'm going to learn how to start cuttings using the low branches that have been trimmed in the past; but, are now growing back. (And I hope no one complains!)

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 22, 2024 02:12 PM (UC3nL)

18 Yes, yes. Yes.
A thousand times, yes!
I just want to officially go on the record and answer every geezer out there who feels compelled to ask:

"Hot enough for ya?"

Yes.
Yes, it is.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 22, 2024 02:12 PM (dg+HA)

19 SiD!

Oh my goodness what lovely photographs! Thank you for sharing. They are just beautiful.

Posted by: nurse ratched at June 22, 2024 02:13 PM (oBglL)

20 It's hot, it's summer, drink plenty of water

Posted by: Skip at June 22, 2024 02:15 PM (fwDg9)

21 I don't need comments. I'm just throwing this out there.

Posted by: Stateless

Go with red.

Posted by: nurse ratched at June 22, 2024 02:17 PM (giTxN)

22 "No reading this week." "No shooting this week."
We may have reached that point with gardening, I think.
Mid-90's every day and half the night. We put off grass seeding, having been warned what happens if it sprouts into this, and the beans and corn have fallen prey to the "Two Seasons": too cold, to too hot, two days apart.

Wife has made some nice new starts in her new raised bed garden (what we built instead of planting an early garden). It's a little iffy but she's watering hell out of her stock, Amish paste, San Marzano, some heirlooms, peppers, radishes and cucumbers. Even the new fruit trees are demanding daily attention. So far so good, but we're going to be gone for a few days and All Things Are Possible, which also translates as Anything Can Happen.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at June 22, 2024 02:18 PM (zdLoL)

23 It's been in the 90s all week and there is more to come. My gardening consists of watering the veggies and herbs we have in containers. At least they have survived so far. A small victory I'm glad to accept.

Posted by: JTB at June 22, 2024 02:21 PM (zudum)

24 I have cloudy with some spitting drips and 64 here on the beach.

High of 75 today. Yesterday was 10 degrees warmer.

Posted by: nurse ratched at June 22, 2024 02:22 PM (giTxN)

25 Brownouts? Never heard of them.

Posted by: Charlie Gibson at June 22, 2024 02:24 PM (PAABK)

26 SiD,

Thanks for sending in those garden photos from your Tolkien and Lewis tour. Those interesting purple flowers in Cornwall make me think of some kind of sedum. No idea if they are but the fleshy petals arranged like that reminded me of them.

Posted by: JTB at June 22, 2024 02:27 PM (zudum)

27 Change of plans, Rudy’s BBQ with Hogmartin, then wander Tractor Surprize. Yay!

Posted by: Eromero at June 22, 2024 02:27 PM (LHPAg)

28 Probably 100 orange daylillies around the house, they're routine here grow everywhere.
Surprise is The Kid bought a closeout rose twig at the home center for $3, stuck it in the front yard by the old stump/snake pit, and it's FLOWERING.
2 months maybe, it's going to town and is producing a rose.

Posted by: LenNeal at June 22, 2024 02:29 PM (bFId9)

29 16
==
Last year I got a load of grass clippings from a neighbor and put them in one of my compost heaps, and then this spring when I was using that compost, some plants died that shouldn't have died. I planted beans and squash seeds in the remaining pile of finished compost since that is a good way to judge if there is herbicide residue in the compost. The beans all grew crumpled up leaves. The squash is doing OK though, so it is not terribly bad, just bad.
I have to figure out what to do with possibly toxic compost now, and I need to start a new pile. The fence line probably needs compost. It might keep down the blackberry sprouts.
==
Posted by: Kindltot at June 22, 2024 02:07 PM (D7oie)

I've seen a couple places that mention Grazon (sp?) as one of the worst examples. Apparently, very popular for use with livestock and *very* persistent in manure or clippings.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at June 22, 2024 02:30 PM (llON8)

30
Last year I got a load of grass clippings from a neighbor and put them in one of my compost heaps, and then this spring when I was using that compost, some plants died that shouldn't have died.

I'm new to composting but reading a lot about ratios of brown to green and what should/should not be composted. You might have skewed the balance with the grass clippings.

Nothing is easy.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at June 22, 2024 02:31 PM (RKVpM)

31 92 here in Western NC. Unfortunately no rain in the forecast for the next several days. Too hot to work outside, so I think I cook something.

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at June 22, 2024 02:31 PM (clr1x)

32 Dragon Lillies, a few more than last year. Appeared by themselves a few years back last year they got 7 feet high. I think they'll top that this season, they're nearing record height.

Posted by: LenNeal at June 22, 2024 02:32 PM (bFId9)

33 I've never been to Cornwall - the photos are gorgeous!

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at June 22, 2024 02:32 PM (w6EFb)

34 Guy West of me raised trophy elk for interstate transport. Morality/hunting ethics aside, before DNR shut him down over CWD he gave away the best hay and manure I've ever experienced.

Posted by: LenNeal at June 22, 2024 02:35 PM (bFId9)

35 I just want to officially go on the record and answer every geezer out there who feels compelled to ask:

"Hot enough for ya?"

Yes.
Yes, it is.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at
-------------------------------------

Hang on honey, summertime's comming.

Posted by: Braenyard at June 22, 2024 02:37 PM (mP6Ur)

36 Grass clippings are usual fabulous for compost. I'm thinking Roundup could be the problem. Grazon is a thing, too, but more likely to show up in straw bales.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at June 22, 2024 02:38 PM (w6EFb)

37 I would never take grass clippings from anyone. People spray their stupid lawns with the craziest chemicals.

Posted by: LenNeal at June 22, 2024 02:38 PM (bFId9)

38 Compost might have chemicals, I certainly don't get any in mine and use it yearly in my vegetable garden

Posted by: Skip at June 22, 2024 02:41 PM (fwDg9)

39 Heat wave in FULL effect here.
Had a landscaping company redo the front of the house because I may jsut be getting what some folks cal' "OLD".
Can't kneel or shovel stuff like I could when I was younger.
So now trying to keep the new stuff sufficiently watered (mornings and late evenings) so it doesn't die off.

-SLV

Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at June 22, 2024 02:43 PM (e/Osv)

40 For a real disaster, my ex-wife wanted the yard Nice but was cheap, so she shopped around and had about 30 yards of wood chips delivered... from a guy mulching pallets and leaving the piles next to a river.
The earwig infestation was BIBLICAL. It's taken almost 15 years to fix it and the snakes have done most of the work.
I recall watching sunflowers melt, hitting the head, and thousands of earwigs spilling out.

Posted by: LenNeal at June 22, 2024 02:44 PM (bFId9)

41 We've had I don't know how many successive days of 90+ temps, and it's dry as a bone. Publius doesn't want to even look at the corn, because it's "fired up" as his daddy used to say when it gets dry.

Last night I watered the Silver Queen (5 35-foot rows) by hand, to make sure it got saturated. Used the flat setting on the watering wand, so everything went right to the corn instead of the weedy path between (which needs tilling). Then I used the sprinkler on the other side of the lane dividing the garden to get the yellow corn and okra (which also looked sad yesterday).

This evening, once the sun goes behind the trees (7:30-ish), I'll do a foliar spray on the 'maters. Eggshell/vinegar solution. I'll get the peppers, too. And drench the straw around the tomatoes.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at June 22, 2024 02:44 PM (w6EFb)

42 There are herbicides worse that Roundup for compost, which degrades quickly in air and sun. Anything that says "long-lasting" would be a real problem for compost.

Posted by: KT at June 22, 2024 02:46 PM (rrtZS)

43 The Kid informs me the snakes on the property are officially classified by WI DNR as unknown numbers, and a regional subspecies.
They're not protected more studied. I know they eat bushel baskets of bugs and mice!

Posted by: LenNeal at June 22, 2024 02:47 PM (bFId9)

44 Great post. Pretty flowers

Posted by: Hatari somewhere on Ventura Highway at June 22, 2024 02:48 PM (WF/xn)

45 We have some black Phoebes around. The usually have a favorite perch they like to swoop down from. Cool birds. Flycatchers

Posted by: Hatari somewhere on Ventura Highway at June 22, 2024 02:49 PM (WF/xn)

46 We got a shit ton of free wood chips from Asplundh, but of course you can't use that in the vegetable garden. So far we have 14 bales of straw for the veggies. Of course, Home Depot cannot address if there's any Grazon exposure, but so far everything's doing well.

Damn straw bales are $10.50 now. Last year, 9 bucks. But, I simply cannot do the weeding I struggled with last year. The weeds don't care if it's hot and dry.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at June 22, 2024 02:50 PM (w6EFb)

47 In SC WI, it got hot and muggy after two months of warm days and cold nights, with more rain than I've seen in a few years. Everything is a jungle here.

Posted by: LenNeal at June 22, 2024 02:53 PM (bFId9)

48 Issue I think for commercial tree harvesting is very extreme possibility dead or disease tree wood chips. May not be a problem but just wonder. At least so far my dead trees just get carbonated

Posted by: Skip at June 22, 2024 02:54 PM (fwDg9)

49 The other control on bugs is possums. They eat bugs like Reeses Pieces.

Posted by: LenNeal at June 22, 2024 03:01 PM (bFId9)

50
I imagine that about 90% of my gardening effort is for my wife. Lettuce, spinach, zucchini, corn, cucumber? Mainly her thing. We both appreciate a fresh off the vine ripened tomato though. Lima beans are mine and it is infinitely cool watching nature unveil the involved process.

I'm kinda surprised she's into the compost thing. Table scraps, coffee grounds and filter, egg shells, dated food? She trucks it out every day. My job is to throw some dried leaves on top and add water. We keep adding stuff, the height keeps shrinking. Eventually I'll add some 'red wiggler' worms and have my own worm farm.

Who was it who sang, "Every man needs a worm farm."?

I'm thinking Neil Young. Maybe it was 'Every man needs a maid'. One of them.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at June 22, 2024 03:03 PM (RKVpM)

51 I very briefly had a neighbor trying to have a Nice Lawn. That didn't last long.
Spraying chemicals all over trying to keep the beetles in check while simultaneously bitching about holes in her lawn... caused by nocturnal critters eating beetles.

People are stupid with that Lawn business

Posted by: LenNeal at June 22, 2024 03:05 PM (bFId9)

52 Hey, there's a male Cardinal in the back yard.

Posted by: LenNeal at June 22, 2024 03:10 PM (bFId9)

53 I'm new to composting but reading a lot about ratios of brown to green and what should/should not be composted. You might have skewed the balance with the grass clippings.
Nothing is easy.
Posted by: Divide by Zero at June 22, 2024 02:31 PM (RKVpM)

composting can be as complicated as you want to make it. I use a 10' loop of woven mesh fencing and dump my leaves, veggie scraps, weeds and non-woody trimmings into it, along wtih a generous helping of dirt. If you don't clean the clods off your weeds, that helps too, as does adding charcoal to the mix as you go along. In the Fall when it is dry, I pull the wire off, set it up next to the pile, and shovel the pile into the new place, and I can do that in February as well when we usually have a dry sunny spell.

But even if you just pile everything in the corner of the yard, it will rot down and make compost. It is not essential to use a three bin system with aeration and regular turning, but that will speed up the process.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 22, 2024 03:10 PM (D7oie)

54 narf

Posted by: Kindltot at June 22, 2024 03:10 PM (D7oie)

55 SiD's photos of Cornwall are spectacular

Posted by: San Franpsycho at June 22, 2024 03:13 PM (RIvkX)

56 I also got an old bath tub, put it up on cinder blocks, and filled it a quarter way with dirt, and spent a year putting in vegetable scraps, leaves and weeds and the water from washing dishes and used it as a worm bin. I keep a 5 gallon bucket under the plug hole to catch the leachate, and I put that on the trees and the berry bushes. This winter I decided to try to grow taro in it as well, so I filled it to the brim with the leaves, used coffee grounds and old partially composted chips, and just pour my dishwater through it.
I will never have full sized taro, what I am growing has palm-sized leaves, but I never expected much. The whole mass seems to be half worms, though. Never seen so many worms in my life when I dig up a clod.

Posted by: Kindltot at June 22, 2024 03:15 PM (D7oie)

57 I have to relocate our bird feeder. We saw mice climbing up the nearby lattice and jumping onto the feeder.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at June 22, 2024 03:16 PM (RIvkX)

58 >>> 51 I very briefly had a neighbor trying to have a Nice Lawn. That didn't last long.
Spraying chemicals all over trying to keep the beetles in check while simultaneously bitching about holes in her lawn... caused by nocturnal critters eating beetles.

People are stupid with that Lawn business
Posted by: LenNeal at June 22, 2024 03:05 PM (bFId9)

Since I moved out to The Middle Of Nowhere, any time I see people's lawns in town I wonder how many sheeps could be fed by all that grass.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at June 22, 2024 03:21 PM (llON8)

59 How's everyone's puttering going today?

Posted by: Charlie Gibson at June 22, 2024 03:22 PM (15bG1)

60 Miley, I am trying out using the chips for pathways in the garden. I used to use those concrete pavers, and ran out of them this spring so I figured to make a temporary path with the chips.

A friend gave me some wine cap mushroom spawn to dig into it, which he claimed may not give mushrooms if you walk on it, but the mycelium is supposed to be good for combating some of the pests . . . At the moment I can't remember which pests.
If the paths work for the whole season, I think I will try to put button mudroom spawn in the chips since it is much cheaper to source

Posted by: Kindltot at June 22, 2024 03:22 PM (D7oie)

61 That's 2 no's to the yellow. And one from nurse whom I respect.

I understand red. But my computer room looks amazing in yellow. It's so bright, cheerful and fun.

We live on a corner lot so a bright, happy yellow picnic table would look kind of cool. It can always be changed.

Hey, it is hot enough all week that I was able to drive past our local grocery store and see if my favorite female cashiers were out in the garden area. So I had a reason a few times to just surprise them with an ice drink. I got big brownie points for that.

I invited them and their girlfriends over to the pizza party we're having for the neighbours to show everyone the house. So sweet. Global warming rules....

Posted by: Stateless at June 22, 2024 03:26 PM (jvJvP)

62 The best use of a loader is turning compost. Do it a lot.
I've reported before on what happened when "tree guy" offered me a discount for leaving a mixture of dirt and mulch from stump grinding. I mixed it with lots of leaves and grass, all chopped, and it appeared to work up fine -- but plowed into the garden a year later it blighted one section for two seasons. The wood was swamp maple and spruce, so, not known as soil poisons (like, for instance, black walnut). It finally evened out, but it made me real careful. Never had any issue with just leaves, grass, and chopped brush.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at June 22, 2024 03:27 PM (zdLoL)

63 Pets be up

Posted by: Martini Farmer at June 22, 2024 03:28 PM (Q4IgG)

64 Miley, bluestripe irrigation is cheap and as easy as tinker toys.
All you need is a water faucet, a timer, the tubing and emitters.

Smaller shoots can be pegged into the tubing for precise placement and there are many sizes of emitter rated at gallons per hour (if I recall) such as 1 gph or 1/4 gph.

Water many and different plants by choosing the size of emitter.
The timer sets how long the water is on and the emitter sets how much water each specific plant will receive during that period of time.

https://is.gd/rNn4VN

I bought all of my irrigation supplies from a local irrigation business. Going local and walking around the store with all the goodies and talking to people who knew what I was doing.
Listening to them talk to clients about flooding acre feet of water was interesting.

Posted by: Braenyard at June 22, 2024 03:29 PM (mP6Ur)

65 The other control on bugs is possums. They eat bugs like Reeses Pieces.

Posted by: LenNeal at June 22, 2024 03:01 PM (bFId9)

I prefer Reeses pieces.

Posted by: the possum at June 22, 2024 03:30 PM (w6EFb)

66 The single white peonies at The Kilns are very nice.

Posted by: KT at June 22, 2024 03:31 PM (rrtZS)

67 0530MDT 19 June it was 32F here in Black Hills. Sixty degrees warmer forecast for Monday.

Posted by: dhmosquito at June 22, 2024 03:31 PM (92aZO)

68 Y'ALL ARE NOT A POSSUM! Y'ALL ARE NOT A BIRD.

DO NOT EAT ZE BUGS!

Posted by: CNN at June 22, 2024 03:31 PM (w6EFb)

69 I'm willing to blame Grazon herbicide for Kindltot's compost disaster.

Is it time to repost the article, "How to Make (Lots of) Compost: the Very Basic Version -by The Famous Pat*, and Pat*’s Hubby" ?

Posted by: Pat* at June 22, 2024 03:32 PM (PykKX)

70 Our backyard is pretty shaded and doesn't get much sunlight. We ended up with moss? A light green film that took over parts of the backyard.

Nothing can really kill it. Our lawn sprayer guy said it would have to be dug out. I'm not doing that again. The backyard is more forest than yard anyways and I'm fine with it now.

Posted by: Stateless at June 22, 2024 03:33 PM (jvJvP)

71 AZ deplorable moron at June 22, 2024 02:12 PM

Desert willow comes into bloom so fast that at some nurseries they plant out seeds and then select plants by color after they bloom, as there will be variation.

There are several named varieties with characteristics people like - heavy bloom, small size, few or no seeds, etc. These have to be grown from cuttings or tissue culture.

Posted by: KT at June 22, 2024 03:35 PM (rrtZS)

72 Miley, I am trying out using the chips for pathways in the garden. I used to use those concrete pavers, and ran out of them this spring so I figured to make a temporary path with the chips.

A friend gave me some wine cap mushroom spawn to dig into it, which he claimed may not give mushrooms if you walk on it, but the mycelium is supposed to be good for combating some of the pests . . . At the moment I can't remember which pests.
If the paths work for the whole season, I think I will try to put button mudroom spawn in the chips since it is much cheaper to source

Posted by: Kindltot at June 22, 2024 03:22 PM (D7oie)

We use them to cover the area out by the back porch, because we park the car there. Mama Publius can handle that well. If we don't have something to cover the mud when it rains, it's a mess there. We're talking about a 10 ft by 30 ft "drive" and at least 4" deep. I can't imagine what it would cost it we had to buy it.

Never done mushrooms. Well, I've done mushrooms but never raised them.

And there's plenty for the flower beds. So far I haven't seen issues with this mulch.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at June 22, 2024 03:41 PM (w6EFb)

73 From Boise area: Today's high is heading for 100 F... This morning, I harvested strawberries, peas, oregano for drying, pulled 3 carrots to thin them, then quit. Husband worked on sealing the trailer roof, then quit.

I've planted more marigold, nasturtium, basil, Thai basil, and parsley seeds, since not everything sprouted. I'm finally keeping up with weeds in the vegetable beds. (Some of the weeds were mini oregano plants, which I dug up - now, to figure out how to give them away.)

Spinach is bolting so I pulled one to make a lunch salad. Pulled a few onions to go into a breakfast omelet. I bought 5 purple sweet potato slips for an experiment. The shop started selling them near the start of the month but I wasn't able to get them at that time, so now they look pretty limp - we'll see if they survive. I can plant these in pots, which I can stick in the mini-greenhouse when an early frost threatens. Maybe next year I can make my own slips from an organic orange one - I'm armed with how-to videos!

This week, I spotted a grasshopper, a hummingbird... and Husband spotted where the gophers are coming from, a spot hidden under the apple trees. Time for further warfare!

Posted by: Pat* at June 22, 2024 03:51 PM (PykKX)

74 AZ deplorable moron at June 22, 2024 02:12 PM

https://www.highcountrygardens.com carries some extra cold-hardy chilopsis cultivars and a seedless one.

The first seedless cultivar, Art's Seedless, is also quite cold-hardy. Art Combe was from Utah.

I think 'Timeless Beauty' was the second one.

Posted by: KT at June 22, 2024 03:51 PM (rrtZS)

75 >>>Miley, bluestripe irrigation is cheap and as easy as tinker toys.
All you need is a water faucet, a timer, the tubing and emitters.

I'll check it out. I tried soaker hoses and was very disappointed.

We've got about 400 ft of hose (not dedicated) to reach the water barrels at the far end of the garden. My brother's put 5 of those 55-gal drums out there to water, so unless something dire is happening, we hand water.

Now, I've got 150 ft of tomatoes and cukes on a trellis. I don't know if this system would be worth it or not. Maybe I should see if someone local could advise for my particular situation. We've got an additional 1500 row feet under cultivation (excluding the intermittent rows of flowers).

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at June 22, 2024 03:53 PM (w6EFb)

76 Do you have a collector/gutter system to gather rainwater?
I tried using drums without much success. Talking to a local irrigation supply - they will walk you through what you need for what you want. Then make a determination. The blue stripe does require pressure. I thought you had a well.

Posted by: Braenyard at June 22, 2024 04:14 PM (mP6Ur)

77 We do have a well with great psi (Publius told me that he wanted the best psi for his woman, LOL!) But it's a 300+ deep well, no hand pump. And it's 400 ft from the house.

My brother has a set up for water collection down here, but it hasn't come to that yet. We got so much rain in May that the water table is good, even with the current drought.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at June 22, 2024 04:29 PM (w6EFb)

78
I think those are Asiatic lilies; Oriental are generally white or pink.

Posted by: Tammy-al Thor at June 22, 2024 04:56 PM (Vvh2V)

79 Miley, there's a true geranium cultivar called Biokovo (?) that you might want to look into. The flowers are white, not purple--y like the himalayense types, but they take the Southern heat well and the foliage smells like Lad's Love, which I think is a common name for the artemesia you mentioned. I have cousins who grow Rozanne and Boom Chocolatta geraniums well in NC Zone 8, but I don't have much luck with it here in Zone 7. You have very green fingers, so might be worth looking for?

Posted by: Tammy-al Thor at June 22, 2024 04:58 PM (Vvh2V)

80 Pixy doesn't like the link, but Proven Winners has a plant that's
a cross between desert willow and catalpa trees, cold hardy to Zone 6. I have a cousin in Southern Idaho who grows it well. More like a perrenial, dies down to the ground but comes back every year.very drought tolerant. Called El Nino chitalpa.

Posted by: Tammy-al Thor at June 22, 2024 05:03 PM (Vvh2V)

81 But in Boise, that's a cool and beautiful 100 degrees, not the ugly and humid 93 or 94 the rest of us suffer through. Everything's better in Boise, darn it.

I've had great luck over the years ordering spinach and lettuce seeds that are "bolt resistant," and often have a full season of just happy harvesting without stalkiness, by planting in partial shade or (before I learned that) using some solar cloth tenting. But my spring greens haven't had to weather a heat wave during their prime season, just the odd hot week in mid-May once in a while. I reckon anything can bolt at 100 degrees, even in heaven or Boise.

A big surprise was Little Gem lettuce, that's harvestable as a leaf and will eventually head-up. It's hard to produce classic head lettuce in my garden. I put some in a dead wrong place one year, right out in the hot sun, and it performed beautifully, making tight little heads and lasting right into our traditional hot droughty weeks in late July. It's tempting to just plant it wrong every year.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at June 22, 2024 05:12 PM (zdLoL)

82 Miley, there's a true geranium cultivar called Biokovo (?) that you might want to look into. The flowers are white, not purple--y like the himalayense types, but they take the Southern heat well and the foliage smells like Lad's Love, which I think is a common name for the artemesia you mentioned. I have cousins who grow Rozanne and Boom Chocolatta geraniums well in NC Zone 8, but I don't have much luck with it here in Zone 7. You have very green fingers, so might be worth looking for?

Posted by: Tammy-al Thor at June 22, 2024 04:58 PM (Vvh2V)

Are they hardy? Because if they are, I would love to get some established in the ground.

That artemisia is hard to find.

Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at June 22, 2024 05:36 PM (w6EFb)

83 Oh yes, dead hardy and will spread nicely without taking over. Again, not quite as beautiful as the blue ones, but pretty in their way. I've seen them described as pale pink, but in the Southern sun, they look white to me. Okay with some shade, too.

Posted by: Tammy-al Thor at June 22, 2024 05:45 PM (Vvh2V)

84 "a cool and beautiful 100 degrees"
--------

I think you spelled blazing hellfire wrong...

Posted by: JQ at June 22, 2024 05:51 PM (njWTi)

85 Late but I vote for yellow!

Posted by: Mick at June 22, 2024 06:00 PM (KOTG6)

86 "Blazing Hellfire of Boise" sounds like a showy cultivar of something.
I just tore down a watering system, two 55 gal plastic barrels with a siphon connector and a spigot. They were OK for low-pressure hose, but we gradually jacked them up higher and higher with some solid 'sample-blocks' to make the flow better, and still ended up just dipping the watering can most of the time. They fed off the oversize downspouts of a metal barn roof and were open-topped, so required a screen and bungie and once a month mosquito torpedo. Not a bad system, but, time for a change. New hardware sets for this type barrel involve keeping the tops, and installing them inverted. Seems a little over-engineered to me, what with winter draining and all.

Wife wanted them on the other side of the road, so I'll have to put troughs and spouts onto the other garage. They're on blocks equal to the height of her new raised beds, and I can't yet convince her that she wants in-ground root watering tubes.

The old big garden will get a former fuel stilt tank, and the several feet more elevation should give enough pressure to spray from a hose. But it's hot, and I will get to it.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at June 22, 2024 06:08 PM (zdLoL)

87 Good evening fellow garden enthusiasts.
I know I'm late but I am in Connecticut for a HS reunion. The weather here seemed a little less extreme than MD until we all got a screaming tornado warning during the festivities.
Always thrilled when my photos appear on the blog.
SiD photos are just gorgeous. I especially like the garden overlooking the sea in Cornwall. It is my favorite place in England and brings back wonderful memories.
Thanks KT
Love that we have this little respite from the woes of the world.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 22, 2024 06:48 PM (ucoMn)

88 We have many Anna's hummingbirds in our western Washington garden- and many feeders and hummie-attractive flowering plants. The hummingbird in By-Tor's pic is probably an Allen's. They are prevalent in California (less so the Anna's).

Posted by: Redwine at June 23, 2024 01:21 AM (joAAx)

89 Also the coloration of the Anna's is green with black. Males have a bright pick gorgette. No orange. Allen's have green and orange. Gorgette is orange.

Posted by: Redwine at June 23, 2024 01:26 AM (joAAx)

90 pink*

Posted by: Redwine at June 23, 2024 01:27 AM (joAAx)

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