Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, April 5

Hi Katy

I'm sorry you weren't feeling well this past week. If I could, I'd send you a bouquet of tulips. For now this photo will have to suffice. Spring is arriving in Virginia!

The Pilot

Thanks. They look wonderful in that setting!

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

It is the first of April and we may only have one or two cold fronts left in the season. While still cool enough we are getting some yard work done. Mrs. Rdo was out cleaning the plant beds this past weekend and sent me a pictures of one of our pineapples in bloom. They are quite pretty and it will be very sweet when ripe. We will have to gauge the perfect time to collect it, otherwise it is just more squirrel food.

Best,
rdohd

I can hardly wait to hear a taste report.

It’s that time of year here. Miner’s lettuce is everywhere and the picture is right out my front door. I grew up knowing it was edible but curiously have never tried it. The only wild plant we always tried to gather and eat is water cress for a wilted salad with hot bacon grease. With a pan of cornbread, oh yum!

Hope you are getting well,

NorCal Sierra Foothills Lurker

Be brave, taste the miner's lettuce! A fascinating little plant. Concerning water cress, from some locations, we were warned not to gather it because of the danger of liver flukes from sheep.

Hi Katy

I read that you recently had a health problem & hope you are on the mend. I always look forward to your Saturday posts.

Annual maple syrup report from the Great White North:

We are presently boiling our 4th & final batch of maple sap for the season. We could do more but, like every year, firewood is the determining factor as to when we quit. There's no point burning up all of our prime wood stove & pizza oven firewood once we've made enough syrup for ourselves, family & friends.

It was a later start than normal this year with long breaks between sap runs, which happen when it stays below freezing during the day. Optimal conditions are about 45F during the day, 25F at night. Sun helps, as does a storm on the way, apparently because the low atmospheric pressure helps to suck the sap out of the trees.

Normally the maple syrup colour starts out light for the first batch of the season (sometimes almost the same colour as vegetable oil) & then gradually darkens in subsequent batches. We've been doing this for over 10 years & for the first time there's been no colour change. All of our batches thus far have been the same dark colour. Why? Who knows. And this year's crop is top quality, clear with very little sediment in the bottom of the jars. Why? Again, who knows.

PointyHairedBoss

I love the boiler. Thrilled that the syrup is turning out so well this year.

Ah, Nature

Spring is amazing this year! 40 Miles North

More later. Those irises would look good with the witch hazel below if they were growing in the same climate.

Gardens of The Horde

I was sorry to hear about your stroke but am very glad that you're
recovering so well. I had my own health problems in 2024, which is why
I didn't send any pictures. My garden also suffered from neglect but
I'll be trying to whip it into shape this year.

Spring started a little late in the mid-Atlantic, but the plants are
catching up now. My witch hazel started to bloom at the end of Feb and
hit peak bloom the first week of March. Here is a picture of it just
before the blooms started to fade. (19Mar25b)

My early Ice Follies and Tete a Tete daffodils started blooming last
week and are still going strong. (19Mar25a) My hellebores got off to a
slow start but they're finally in full bloom too. (16Mar25).

And finally, a wildlife picture. My bird-watching co-workers say this
looks like a red-bellied woodpecker. It's not a great picture, but I
only had about 30 sec to get a shot from the door to my screen porch.
They really like suet blocks better, but so do the (evil) squirrels, so
guess who gets most of the winter suet.

badgerwx

Sorry I missed your photos until today. Also sorry about your health problems last year and wishing you and your garden the best in the coming year! Love the witch hazel and the Ice Follies! Well, actually, I love all the photos.

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

Miss something in last week's thread? Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, March 29

More information on the photos from Teresa in Fort Worth:

51 I probably should mention that all of the bricks that make up the walkways came from the 3 chimneys that were original to the house. A lot of them have the original star or triangle stamps on them from the local brick yards that were here in 1907 when the house was built.

Back then, whatever was in the mortar that was used to join the bricks didn't have cement in it, so all of the bricks came out intact. All we had to do was lightly chisel the thickest of the mortar off.

I laid out all of the walkways and built up all of the gardens over a period of about 5 or 6 years back when the girls were young. Paul helped out with some of it, but he was mostly doing big projects around the house while I puttered. Oh, and going to work and making money to finance my hardscaping,

This winter, we had our lawn service guys come in and spruce up the brick walkways, as they had settled quite a bit over the last 20-25 years!

Wow.

We had quite a bit of discussion concerning members of the Malva (Mallow and Hibiscus) family, as Miley was asking about planting a Rose of Sharon.

Hrothgar noted that, "My personal experience with Rose of Sharon is that it is a horrible weed at heart."

The typical Rose of Sharon spreads seeds and seedlings everywhere. Though not in my grandparents' chicken yard, where there was a majestic specimen with no seedlings. There are now sterile or nearly sterile cultivars and some dwarfs that are more manageable. Here's some information.

Mrs. JTB recommended looking into Lord Baltimore, one of the large-flowered perennials that dies back in the winter. It is a sterile (seedless) hybrid of several species, including American natives.

Some of the really large, showy American natives can be grown from seed, so I guess they are "weedy" in some circumstances.

Some of these hybrids resemble tropical hibiscus, which are tender to cold but can be grown as annuals where it freezes or with winter protection. Here is quite a bit of information on various hibiscus.

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. But read the last comment by the famous Pat*.