Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, July 1

Hi, everybody! Happy Independence Day Weekend!

Well, it's really summer here. How about where you are? Today, we have some flowers that are reminiscent of fireworks, sort of. The photo above is from Lurker Dave, in Oahu. There are more below. And we have some red, white and blue flowers.

We also have more photos of information on edibles coming in, just in time for the holiday weekend!

It is really summer now here. How about where you are? The forecast here today is 109 degrees, so it's probably higher than that in Phoenix. But at least it's sort of a dry-ish heat, compared to some places.

More photos from Oahu. Recognize any of these?

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

From Gordon:

Along with what everyone else is saying, limes are drama queens. There's a reason why all of the mature trees you find around the valley are lemon, orange and grapefruits, not limes.

At least you don't have to shovel snow in that heat.

Gordon also saw this nicely pruned Pomegranate, and wondered if the fruits forming were from an ornamental or an edible variety. I think they could be from either. Edible pomegranates have quite attractive flowers, so it would not be unusual for people to plant them as shrubs.

Desert dwellers have more thoughts?

A story from Black JEM:

I started a strawberry bed a few years ago. My soil stinks, and unlike some of my other gardens, I didn't do enough soil improvement to make life easy for the strawberries. Even with that, I got some good crop, enough to make ice cream, and jam. I constantly fought thistles. SO, this year it became this:

You can see some random strawberry plants in there - but between grass, thistles, creeping violets and other uninvited plants. This is what it looked like when it was in shape. Amazing how fast it went. About 15 months.

Some of us have been there . . . .

So I went out and dug up about 75 strawberry plants. Sprayed down the roots, and wrapped them up and sealed them in bags and stuck them in the garage fridge to replant them once I've fixed my dirt. And gotten rid of the uninvited plants.

How long it takes to get everything done will be a function of whether I hit the place with nasty weedkiller or just roto-till and place and put preen down after I replant. Which may or may not work with strawberries. I admit as I write this I'm not sure if that will work.

The joy of letting the garden go to the birds. I am not sure if it works as an analogy to our country or not. But I do hope to get strawberries once again.

Best of luck . . .

From SKB:

My 3 kid's boxes!

They're off to a good start!

Cooking and Picnics

Got zucchini blossoms? Peppers to stuff?

Have you ever tasted stuffed zucchini flowers? Very delicious! 😋 pic.twitter.com/CMLymtxHHv

— Agriviaggi (@agriviaggi) June 26, 2023

What happened to community picnics with 100 pound watermelons?

Adventure

Courtesy CBD:

Perhaps there are some people who should not travel with friends of CBD.

Gardens of The Horde

Red, white and blue flowers from an old friend of the blog:

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:

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, Puttering and Adventure Thread, June 24

I don't think that CBD was correct when he said about BeckoningChasm's butterfly:

That butterfly is a type of weasel.

I think that Pillage Idiot was right.

I believe that is a Question Mark butterfly.

Did it ever close its wings while posing? If so, it should have looked like an ugly dead leaf on the underside of the wings.

They have impressive camouflage!

Well, maybe not when first hatched. They have a little punctuation mark on the underside, like their relatives, the Comma Butterflies, but with a dot.

Adult punctuation butterflies typically prefer three types of food sources: tree sap, decaying fruit and carrion. As for luring these butterflies to your own garden, the most important thing to know is that this genus of butterflies is rarely found collecting nectar from flowers. You'll see these butterflies more frequently in wooded areas, as their caterpillars host almost exclusively on trees. To draw them to your yard, try leaving out very ripe or even rotting fruit like bananas or oranges. Place the fruit in a shallow dish of water to keep ants off. . .

I wouldn't be surprised if they liked dog poop, too.

You might spot both question mark and comma butterflies during any of the 12 months of the year. They overwinter as adults, tucked into safe spaces, but may come out on unseasonably warm days.

I closed the comments on last week's 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 01:25 PM

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