Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Oct. 17

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

From the famous Pat* in Idaho:

This is an orange bell pepper. It is just over 1 inch tall. It identifies as a pumpkin.

Perfect.

Getting ready for pie season?

Winter Preparation

Household items you may want to replace because they're expired

I'm not sure that all of these categories are valid as "dangerous when expired", but it's worth thinking about.

Fall Travel Season

Courtesy Kentuckiana Humor

Fall colors seen from a kayak, from a cousin

Salmon Berry, Washington State

Tractor in Utah County, Jake R. Peterson

Three Sisters, Canmore Alberta
Jamie Almquist

Gardens of The Horde

Neal in Israel bought a new macro lens. Here's a great photo of a daylily.

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, Oct. 10

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.

Zinnias from Switzerland

Posted by: K.T. at 01:14 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Stepdad brought in all his tropical plants the other weekend.

They really enjoyed being outside all summer. The banana grew at least 3 feet taller, the lemon and olive both doubled in size and are growing fruit (not sure what found the olive to pollinate it, the flowers are gnat sized) and the noble orchid had mostly recovered from being in the store pot (we re-potted it in a long box)

Posted by: FeatherBlade at October 17, 2026 01:27 PM (VPwH2)

2 Good afternoon Greenthumbs
Thursday being one of last nicest days of year I cleaned out the compost bin. Now can start filling it up again with the new crop of leaves.

Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2026 01:32 PM (Ia/+0)

3 That 'expired stuff' link proves why cast iron is the superior cooking hardware

Posted by: RandomDave at October 17, 2026 01:34 PM (aJQbY)

4 Expired stuff - plenty of items on that list here. Scampywife left the 9V batteries out on the counter last weekend. Which was the annual non-verbal message to swap out the batteries in the smoke detectors.

Posted by: scampydog at October 17, 2026 01:39 PM (41CYW)

5 mmmm, salmonberries! So yummy. Only problem is bears think they are yummy too, so pack heat!

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 17, 2026 01:41 PM (ee9bx)

6 Everybody loves tractors.

Posted by: Eromero at October 17, 2026 01:42 PM (oJjJL)

7 Good afternoon! It's a very temperate 57F, bright and sunny day here in Cowtown. Mowed the lawn and had a sammich and a cookie, and a nap on the patio afterwards. Perfect lawn and gardening weather.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at October 17, 2026 01:42 PM (3Ope8)

8 We were in the freeze zone last night, so I picked green beans and cayenne peppers yesterday, just in case, but did not pull up the plants, just in case. It did not freeze, but I have about a pound of peppers to do something with. There are a lot of cayennes in a pound.

It's warming for the next week, so production will continue. It's nice to have a productive garden, but odd to have it start in mid-September.

Posted by: huerfano at October 17, 2026 01:46 PM (2Xqig)

9 Reported my wife has a plant experiment in basement, under a solar light trying to grow a cabbage, tomato and a pepper plant.
The cabbage is biggest. Tomato it getting above the plastic shroud around this experiment, and pepper is smallest mayve 6 inches high. So far all are growing.

Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2026 01:47 PM (Ia/+0)

10 From previous thread:

86 Wife has the heater running, at least it is working as it should
Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2026 01:13 PM (Ia/+0)

I did that earlier this week as a test and jinxed us into two days of mid-90's temps. Should 'SHOULD' drop-down to mid-80's today but lately weather service hasn't been too accurate about daytime highs for some reason....

Posted by: Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK's phone) at October 17, 2026 01:47 PM (QGaXH)

11 Nice photos! I'm about to hit the trail and drink in the fall foliage. *pats hip flask*

I just bought a giant white pumpkin. I'll save some of the seeds and try and grow some myself next gardening season.

I'm not the only one planning for next year's crop, am I?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 17, 2026 01:56 PM (kpS4V)

12 Re-stocked the Cayenne Pepper decanter with 16 ounces of fresh, dry, red pepper from HEB for US $7 something versus the usual US $10.99 from Kroger (also 16 oz) ... the only difference is, HEB weighs it out on a scale into a zip lock bag whereas from Kroger it's in its own plastic container. I go through one of these (16 oz.) in about 8 months.

Posted by: _Jim at October 17, 2026 01:58 PM (Z+enJ)

13 The last picture is of dahlias, not zinnias.

Posted by: Derak at October 17, 2026 02:02 PM (vgtjr)

14 Eris, I'm seriously considering a few things that are low-maintenance. Turnips, maybe? Potatoes?

Posted by: RandomDave at October 17, 2026 02:03 PM (aJQbY)

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