Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, July 4!

Happy Independence Day! I think the Cleome flowers above sort of resemble fireworks.

Hi KT!
The sunflowers are growing so tall in this heat. The one below is way above my head and is almost ready to bloom although the flowers will be very hard to see without a ladder
Other summer flowers are just now blooming. The cleome or spider flowers are something I started from seed this spring.
The bee balm is full of bees, as advertised
The gray headed cone flowers have just started to bloom. Yellow finches love them!

Hope you have a wonderful Independence Day!
Mrs. Leggy

Well, the birds and bees are loving your yard! Can't wait for those big sunflowers!

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

Intrepid Liaison/Admiral Ackbar and his wife have moved to Hawaii, and send us a recipe idea to remind us of where they are:

As a 100% pureblooded cracker, let me offer everyone a friendly, culturally-appropriated "aloha" now that I'm fully moved and integrated on these conquered isles. . .

We will be posting many of their photos in the future, but for today, "a culinary abomination guaranteed to traumatize CBD's food thread (and give diabetes to anyone even gazing upon it)"

Hi,
I have had this strawberry plant for 3 yrs now. It produces smaller berries but sweet ones. I would like to know, do I cut off the stems where the berries grew or leave them? I can't remember them being so strong or apparent in the last couple of years?
Thank you for a wonderful gardening thread.
Sidney

Are these regular strawberries, alpine or wild strawberries?

Any cultivation instruction from those with experience?

FOODS FROM THE AMERICAS

Growing corn this year? How about popcorn? What is your favorite type?

I keep imagining how someone one day pulled this out of the ground and had the idea to eat it

eu fico imaginando como alguém um dia tirou isso da terra e teve a ideia de comer pic.twitter.com/NkLgWgmISL
— out of context brazil (@oocbrazill) July 3, 2026

Are you a fan?

Landscapes

From George V:

A few days ago the sunny humid day brought some pop-up showers and thunderstorms in the late afternoon to our home in southeast Michigan. With the sun low in the sky we were treated to magnificent sun showers as the storms pulled away. I was in our sun room out back watching it rain and as the last storm moved out it left a little rainbow that just spanned our back yard. I ran inside as quick as I could to get my phone. I was able to get a picture through our family room window just before it faded away. It was truly wonderful to see, and felt sort of like a blessing.

W0w. What a great thing!

"The countryside is not a slice of untilled nature. It is a human institution built over centuries in the image of the people who made it."

— Sir Roger Scrutonpic.twitter.com/tE8F8rXjX6
— The Culturist (@the_culturist_) July 1, 2026

A giant tower of bougainvillea in village in Mexico pic.twitter.com/ifBNAVS7Dq
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 27, 2026

Weather

The jet stream is broken and it’s been broken since the 9.0 Fukushima earthquake in 2011. https://t.co/HlCchOQxFM
— Jimmy McJimmyFace (@Jimmy_McJohn) June 28, 2026

Gardens of The Horde

What's going on in your garden or neighborhood?

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening 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, June 27

I closed the comments on that 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 01:31 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Oh please not first!

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at July 04, 2026 01:34 PM (NnhvP)

2 Oops. Ill fetch them

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at July 04, 2026 01:34 PM (NnhvP)

3 Fetched.
Thank you for the Great pictures K.T.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at July 04, 2026 01:36 PM (NnhvP)

4 Good afternoon Greenthumbs
Don't forget our feathered friends

Posted by: Skip at July 04, 2026 01:39 PM (Ia/+0)

5 I think I would rather have strawberries on french toast than Fruity Pebbles.

Posted by: KT at July 04, 2026 01:43 PM (rdeQO)

6 I put up the first batch of spicy sweet pickles last week. Cukes are growing like mad in the greenhouse. Weeds everywhere in the beds outside, but I'm fighting them back. Horsetail and chickweed are the worst offenders and darn hard to eradicate. Beans and potatoes coming up, carrots beginning to show, dill and parsley both fanning out already. The lingonberry plants I put in last year are just now beginning to fruit, but they haven't spread so there are very few of them so far. Dug out the lousy old strawberries and planted a better species. May or may not get a lot off them this year. The hascaps should be ready next week or so, so plenty of jelly to make. I went medieval on the raspberries this spring, and now they are flourishing. Tomatoes and peppers growing apace in the greenhouse.

Posted by: tcn in AK at July 04, 2026 01:47 PM (bl07w)

7 Having grown up in Wyoming, June snow in the mountains is far from unusual. Not sure how the fukishima quake could radically alter the jet stream. Makes little sense.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Trumpy can do magic at July 04, 2026 02:00 PM (0aYVJ)

8 Strawberries on French Toast is good, had that other day

Posted by: Skip at July 04, 2026 02:00 PM (Ia/+0)

9 Cassava - Yuca - Manioc is one of the oldest crops in South America. As a subsistence crop it is very easy to grow, has few pests and can live on poor sandy soil. It could be first gathered, then gardened with minimal care by ranging hunter gatherers, then intensively gardened. The down side is that it is full of bitter cyanide compounds that must be washed out of the starch or cooked out before the root is edible. It is the source of tapioca by the way.
It won't grow anywhere that the winters get to freezing, and it can't tolerate wet soil while dormant.
There are a lot of native new world staple plants that need to have toxins or indigestible sugars and fiber cooked or washed out of them.

That big old machete the guy is using is only good for cutting cane and cassava, if you use it on woody stuff it tends to chip the cutting edge.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 04, 2026 02:01 PM (rbvCR)

10 The jet stream is broken and it’s been broken since the Large Hardon Collider.

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at July 04, 2026 02:01 PM (yMhwm)

11 We recently started buying house plants, since we no longer have cats. So far it's going very well. There is one that is kind of temperamental, but misting the leaves and putting it in the sun for a couple hours perks it right up. I actually think the pot is too small, so I am going to take acre of that soon. Next I want to get some cacti and some more succulents.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Trumpy can do magic at July 04, 2026 02:02 PM (0aYVJ)

12 I am trying to pickle some early plums. They are just edged on being ripe, and it is a wonderful crop.
I followed a Russian recipe on pickling yellow plums, and in a month or so I guess I will know if it was a success or not.
Right now it is bubbling and the brine is still clear-ish.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 04, 2026 02:03 PM (rbvCR)

13 We have a row of cassava.
Wifey wants it.

We haven't done a thing with it yet.
One of these days maybe she'll make some pearls for smoothies...

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at July 04, 2026 02:04 PM (/lPRQ)

14 cassava is a pretty plant and you will have no pests on it.
One Vlogger, David the Good, has spent a lot of time trying to get it to grow in Alabama, and has not had a lot of luck.
There are some videos of how to process it, and how to use the washed out starch, though most of them are in Spanish and Portuguese.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 04, 2026 02:11 PM (rbvCR)

15 My corn is waist high, the sunflowers are taller than I am, and I have cut all the cabbages.

I have a question, I seem to have a bunch of mini cabbages coming off the stumps, will they grow to second crop, and should I trim back all but one of the tiny heads to encourage them to get big?

Posted by: Kindltot at July 04, 2026 02:13 PM (rbvCR)

16 I'm heading back outside to continue raking up after the storm. No major damage but I have so many very large trees.

There a yellow lotus in the front yard. Huge. Always dropping branches I have to pick up before mowing, I've mowed it's leaves into December - in Canada. Leaves and branches were everywhere. I asked permission and did my neighbours' yard explaining it was all from my tree.

I'm thinking of calling it "The Giving Tree."

Posted by: Stateless - He ain't heavy, he's my dog at July 04, 2026 02:24 PM (Sco7b)

17 Pug,
I'm glad my cats can't read. Neither has ever bothered the plants, with the exception of catmint--I cut off stems of that and strew them on the floor and the cats go crazy and then pass out like drunks. But otherwise they leave everything alone.

Posted by: Wenda at July 04, 2026 02:36 PM (3uyrB)

18 BUMPER CROP OF CUKES? ... The salad linked below is very refreshing when made with the English cucumber called for in the recipe ... I imagine it would be equally good or better if small/young home-grown cukes were used ... I make it in small batches, but prepare the dressing in bulk so it's always on hand:

https://bellyfull.net/apple-date-celery-salad/

Posted by: Kathy at July 04, 2026 02:38 PM (MOK4W)

19 18 BUMPER CROP OF CUKES? ... The salad linked below is very refreshing when made with the English cucumber called for in the recipe ... I imagine it would be equally good or better if small/young home-grown cukes were used ... I make it in small batches, but prepare the dressing in bulk so it's always on hand:

https://bellyfull.net/apple-date-celery-salad/
Posted by: Kathy at July 04, 2026 02:38 PM (MOK4W
Bag excess cules up and give to homeless.

Posted by: Eromero at July 04, 2026 02:49 PM (bEwGx)

20 Lemme guess. "Jet Stream is broken" guy blames it on the radiation released from failed cooling ponds at the Fukushima nuke plant?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 04, 2026 02:56 PM (1z8ji)

21 Watched a pair of small butterflies do an incredible air-dance around the front yard.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at July 04, 2026 02:57 PM (XeU6L)

22
KT,

Thank you for the garden thread.

It is fun reading what people across are growing.

Posted by: four seasons at July 04, 2026 03:00 PM (/QHx4)

23 If an eruption put volcanic ash into the atmosphere, that would cause cooling.

The recent rain has been grat for my little trees and the weeds. I don't think any Asian pears will make it. Have one dead so far and the other two aren't putting out a lot of leaves. The other trees look good. One of the berry bushes has put out some fruit. I think it is a marionberry. Fruit is purple, sweet and large. I'll see how it goes over the winter and replace any trees that don't make it.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 04, 2026 03:05 PM (bkuEU)

24 Good afternoon all.
Still very very hot here but my containers seem to be holding up.
Bought a small bird bath and some seed to try and attract a few birds. They found the seed but so far no interest in the bath.
Are baby orange peppers supposed to turn orange before you pick them?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 04, 2026 03:11 PM (kJmSS)

25 blames it on the radiation released from failed cooling ponds at the Fukushima nuke plant?
And gladiator movies.

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at July 04, 2026 03:19 PM (Kt19C)

26 82°, sunny in Van Nuys. Feels hotter. Humidity 34%.

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at July 04, 2026 03:23 PM (Kt19C)

27 So Happy! I found *two* little green peeper frogs among my plants when watering today. I knew there had to be some around, because I've heard them in the past, but this is the first time I've actually seen them.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 04, 2026 03:24 PM (lFFaq)

28 "The jet stream is broken and it’s been broken since the Large Hardon Collider."

guffaw

Posted by: Abby Normal at July 04, 2026 03:28 PM (jrgJz)

29 99 degrees here is se Pa

Posted by: Skip at July 04, 2026 03:29 PM (qEb4U)

30 This thread males me so happy every week.

In a world gone mad, an endless cortisol fountain...

The Gardening Post helps.

Posted by: Sifty at July 04, 2026 03:31 PM (GIk44)

31
78 degrees here in SW Wyoming.

Posted by: four seasons at July 04, 2026 03:32 PM (/QHx4)

32 High fog, cold, dark, breezy, awful, 63.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 04, 2026 03:34 PM (RIvkX)

33 Guess we'll have to have a strawberry culture feature soon.

Posted by: KT at July 04, 2026 03:38 PM (rdeQO)

34 merely 98F here under overcast skies.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at July 04, 2026 03:50 PM (NnhvP)

35 Well, lunch break is over. Back to the salt mines.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 04, 2026 04:03 PM (1z8ji)

36 In the meantime, Sidney, examine the stems to see if there are any joints on them that look like they might sprout roots. Regular strawberries are often propagated by pinning "runners" down to soil next to a row of existing strawberries.

Posted by: KT at July 04, 2026 04:28 PM (rdeQO)

37 Notsothoreau, I water my new fruit trees, even now when they are big enough to survive on their own. I run the water from my hand dish washing though a worm bin and dump those on my trees, but before I had the bin I had several five gallon buckets that I drilled small holes in the base, and filled those and let them run onto the base of the trees. It seems to get them to survive better.

I admit that I lost a transplanted rose when I tried that a couple years ago. I transplanted too late, and we didn't get rain for 4 months.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 04, 2026 05:19 PM (rbvCR)

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