GARDENING 2025

[Tony Page]

My Campion are in bloom, I took this photo this past Thursday.
My cousin gave me a few seedling about 40 years ago. They reseed themselves every year, and will tolerate sun or shade.

 

[Tony Page]

My wife and I got new phones this weekend. She found this old photo of one of her pickings.

 

[Mary Stetler]

My wife and I got new phones this weekend. She found this old photo of one of her pickings.

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Love it!!!

 

[Don Alaska]

Our garden is definitely behind most years' gardens. Usually we have ripe tomatoes by the first of June, but not this year. We are getting a few cucumbers though, and they add a lot to our fresh lettuce salads. The plants all look great, and we are even getting peppers to set on plants outside, which is rare here. We could pick a few green peppers if we chose, We usually like to let them get ripe, or near so before we pick them. We haven't seen moose recently and no hares yet this year. We have a good apple set, and we were out thinning yesterday. The snowshoe hares will get our beans if they get a chance, and it is hard to keep them out of the gardens.

 

[Don Alaska]

Our garden is definitely behind most years' gardens. Usually we have ripe tomatoes by the first of June, but not this year. We are getting a few cucumbers though, and they add a lot to our fresh lettuce salads. The plants all look great, and we are even getting peppers to set on plants outside, which is rare here. We could pick a few green peppers if we chose, We usually like to let them get ripe, or near so before we pick them. We haven't seen moose recently and no hares yet this year. We have a good apple set, and we were out thinning yesterday. The snowshoe hares will get our beans if they get a chance, and it is hard to keep them out of the gardens.

I "misspoke". My wife found one ripe cherry tomato. We shared our first tomato harvest of the season.

 

[Marie Mallory]

Our garden is definitely behind most years' gardens. Usually we have ripe tomatoes by the first of June, but not this year. We are getting a few cucumbers though, and they add a lot to our fresh lettuce salads. The plants all look great, and we are even getting peppers to set on plants outside, which is rare here. We could pick a few green peppers if we chose, We usually like to let them get ripe, or near so before we pick them. We haven't seen moose recently and no hares yet this year. We have a good apple set, and we were out thinning yesterday. The snowshoe hares will get our beans if they get a chance, and it is hard to keep them out of the gardens.

Hope to start a small garden in the fall.

 

[Marie Mallory]

Some of you may recall my "experiment" with seed storage. In 2010, I purchased extra seeds and canned them (cold) and froze them. Last year I opened the can and did germination tests on the seeds. Most did quite well, with the exception of peas (green peas for the southern U.S.) which all melted. This year I am noticing that the poor seed quality that began during Covid is continuing, with new seed quality and germination and vigor being significantly less that the deeds I stored frozen 15 years ago. I don't know if this is a conspiracy to lower the food supply or just laziness on the part of the seed producers. This seems to span most seed producers I have purchased from for years. Has anyone else experienced this?

We've had some seed frozen for over 10 years now, wonder if they are affected? I plan to plant a few this fall.
Don guess we best start saving seeds from older seeds and plants.
My oldest daughter isn't into planting, my youngest one is so we can save them for the kids. Son also not into planting.

 

[Marie Mallory]

Here is my garden.


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Very nice Smitty.

 

[Marie Mallory]

This recipe for a rooting solution just came up on my facebook page today, and i wanted to share it. I have not tried it, but it seems easy enough to make. I asked CoPilot of it works or not and he said that it is a good way to root cuttings, and will work on all sorts of plants, even hardwood ones.
I am going to try making some and see if I can root some rose cuttings.


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I may try this for fertilizer and just pour it over garden.

 

[Don Alaska]

We've had some seed frozen for over 10 years now, wonder if they are affected? I plan to plant a few this fall.
Don guess we best start saving seeds from older seeds and plants.
My oldest daughter isn't into planting, my youngest one is so we can save them for the kids. Son also not into planting.

make sure you bring the container out of the freezer and allow it to thaw at room temperature or even in the fridge THEN move it to room temp to prevent shock and moisture damage to your stored seeds. Good luck @Marie Mallory

 

[Marie Mallory]

make sure you bring the container out of the freezer and allow it to thaw at room temperature or even in the fridge THEN move it to room temp to prevent shock and moisture damage to your stored seeds. Good luck @Marie Mallory

Thanks Don. We usually put the seed in peat pellets start them inside, but that is good advice.

 

[Mary Stetler]

It is easy to test for good seed. Put a few in a cup of water overnite. Pour water off then cover with a paper towel and keep that damp. This year I not only had a lot of bad seed, the heavy continuous rains cause a lot to rot in the ground.

 

[Marie Mallory]

It is easy to test for good seed. Put a few in a cup of water overnite. Pour water off then cover with a paper towel and keep that damp. This year I not only had a lot of bad seed, the heavy continuous rains cause a lot to rot in the ground.

Mary I hope our old seeds are ok, and we have the energy to plant a few this year. I'll start them in Sept. since falls comes later here.

 

[Don Alaska]

It is easy to test for good seed. Put a few in a cup of water overnite. Pour water off then cover with a paper towel and keep that damp. This year I not only had a lot of bad seed, the heavy continuous rains cause a lot to rot in the ground.

When I do large-scale germination testing, I use Petri dishes and wet paper towels or paper towels rolled with seeds and put into zipper bags and keep them at appropriate temperatures. Beans and squash/pumpkins are particularly susceptible to rot.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

I just started some red kale and some collards in the aerogarden. Once they have a good start, I intend to transplant them outside into the little garden area in the front yard. It has been so hot all summer, so I have not been outside much to get it weeded, so i have to do that before i can plant anything there.
Then I have to keep the neighbor’s dusks from eating it like they did my mustard spinach !

 

[Don Alaska]

We have five varieties of kale growing and they are all doing fine. No domestic ducks here, as the eagles get them, but we do have wild ones but they don't bother the garden at all. Moose will destroy the kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts if they are allowed to get to them. Ours are surrounded by an electric fence to discourage them. We have about 4 more weeks of garden if we are lucky, then everything gets frozen. The attached greenhouse is heated all winter but only to stay above freezing.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Our neighbor lady has a whole flock of docks and chickens both. Mostly, they are fenced in their back yard, but they seem to escape almost every day, and then they wander over to our yard. Since they eat bugs, I am fine with them being here, but I was not happy that they ate all of my baby spinach mustard.
By fall, she will probably have either sold or eaten them, because there won’t be so many bugs and such for them to eat and she would have to buy food for them. You can’t see the chickens in this picture, but there are a dozen or so chickens in our yard, too.

 

[Don Alaska]

We are swimming in food at the moment. We have the biggest raspberry crop we have had in a number of years. My wife spent the day picking and freezing berries, canning salmon, and collecting cucumbers, zucchini, and drying herbs. I was doing other stuff. We had one friend and one daughter-in-law come over to pick berries along with 2 grandsons and one of their friends. We still have lots of berries out there, and I may get picking a bit tomorrow along with my other tasks. We still have currants, gooseberries, honeyberries and serviceberries to gather...all before the fall blueberries and lingonberries come in.

We have salmon in the backyard to watch, although they are too far gone to eat, and it would be illegal anyway since they are spawning there and soon will die. We sat on the patio tonight watching things around the fire as it is beginning to get chilly in the evenings already. The rainy season has begun, so the slugs are thriving. No cauliflower or cabbage has been harvested yet, but that should begin next week.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

We had service berries in north Idaho, although I thought my dad called them “sarvice berries”, and I have never understood either name. They grew wild in the woods and meadows up there, and were pretty tasteless, as I remember. Nothing like the wild huckleberries, which were delicious, but hard to find.
What do you do with your service berries , @Don Alaska ?
They are pretty bland to just pick and eat like raspberries, so maybe you make jam with them ?

 

[Don Alaska]

We had service berries in north Idaho, although I thought my dad called them “sarvice berries”, and I have never understood either name. They grew wild in the woods and meadows up there, and were pretty tasteless, as I remember. Nothing like the wild huckleberries, which were delicious, but hard to find.
What do you do with your service berries , @Don Alaska ?
They are pretty bland to just pick and eat like raspberries, so maybe you make jam with them ?

We could make jam or jelly with them if we had the need to do so. My wife has a smoothie every morning since she changed her diet due to the discovery that she had so many dietary sensitivities, so she generally freezes them and uses them for variety in her smoothies during the winter. Not all serviceberries are the same. I found one in Anchorage that tasted very much like blueberries, but the ones we have are quite sweet and have a pleasant taste. Like honeyberries, there are a number of varieties, and I suspect the domestics are developed for certain qualities. Like lingonberries, I don't think they are generally available commercially, so you have to grow them or get them from someone who does.