Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, August 2

Our tree lilies are out, they fill the house with a lovely smell.

Chris 1051

How glorious!

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

From By-Tor:

Good news on the gardening front- a mysterious vining plant popped up in my pepper plant and turns out to be a pickling cucumber, which I’m excited about. Just need about twenty more. And my first Carolina Reaper turned orange ( 1.8 million Scoville units; a jalepejo is 6K), and I’m getting strawberries.

Fun! And impressive for a container garden. I'll skip the Carolina Reapers though.

My cousin and her husband will be leaving their apricot tree and apricot harvest for a lower elevation and warmer climate this fall, after about 27 years. A peach tree wouldn't typically produce nearly that long.

This tree is too big and too tall for easy thinning and pruning. See the old-fashioned apple/pear ladder.

Have you ever opened a watermelon like this?

How? 🤯 pic.twitter.com/QyuvERHG98

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) July 28, 2025

Gardens of The Horde

First 2 Front left of house and a side patio pics

I might have neglected to mention my AoS screen name is jsg (just some guy)

2 more pics of a covered walkway I created along the back of Ms jsg's large flower gardens.

The back side is really filling in now. Has taken 3 years to get to that point.

What wonderful garden scenes! What a lot of work.

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, Home and Nature Thread, July 26

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.

Late Comment Review on a carnivorous plant:

Lirio100:

It was a Drosera filiformis so not sure what happened since the other two plants were fine. I can move the dish closer and protect it better this time I do have one question--it was recommended to use distilled water, which I do. What is the problem with tap water?

Tony Litwin:

To Lirio100: Sorry for missing your post, but here is your answer. Tap water has too many minerals in it to use out of the tap. Either use tap water that has been allowed to sit for several days or rain water, both of which can be caught in a barrel type catchment. You don't have to use distilled water.

As for your Filiformis, that is odd since Filiformis is native to the northeast of the US down to the panhandle of Florida. The one thing about Filiformis is that when it dies back in the winter, it makes what is called a winter bud which looks like it is dead, when it isn't. Try again with the Filiformis and when it dies back in the winter leave the plant where it is and see what happens in the spring. I'll bet it starts growing again. Hope this helps and good luck growing.

Here's a hybrid of that sundew from Tony. The April 23, 2022 thread also includes some other great photos of carnivorous plants from Tony, plus a puncture plant (also discussed last week) and a machine someone invented to remove them.

(Check for other interesting comments you may have missed from last week, too.)