Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Jan. 3

My husband was in the Army for 38 years and we lived in several different climates (coastal CA, central valley CA, Baltimore, Tidewater VA, and Hawaii). We retired to Las Vegas and while I was never much of a gardener, I managed to keep our living quarters looking OK over the years. Not here. Unless you love cactus, this is easily the most challenging garden environment ever. Fortunately I can buy amaryllis bulbs. They are from Eden Gardens, a wonderful garden supplier. They were badly hit by the North Carolina floods, but still managed to fulfill their orders on time.

Anyway, here’s part of my “harvest” this year. The flowers are so large that they sometimes fall over, but this is not a problem because they do really well when cut and put in a vase.

Ps. I always enjoy your thread. Thanks.

Margsnow

A low-key thread on a busy day today, starting with some beautiful flowers!

It's okay to switch between specialty and news threads on the weekend.

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

There are some different varieties of citrus in season here in the Central valley. We recently got some big pink oranges resembling blood oranges, mild and a little on the bland side. They looked a lot like this:

Winter’s sweetest secret! 🍊✨ Packed with vitamin C, fiber, and antioxidants, blood oranges are perfect for juicing, salads, desserts, or even cocktails, delicious and versatile!#McFarlinMindyFarms #BloodOrangeSeason #WinterFruit #HealthyAndDelicious #BloodOranges pic.twitter.com/DcPIc5fyR3

— McFarlin Mindy Farms (@cmcfarlinfamily) December 30, 2025

They were a real contrast to some deep orange, zesty tangerines. Both varieties were seedless. Don't know their names.

The tangerine was smaller than this, and not as juicy.

The juice of Ehime Jelly oranges.

A hybrid of oranges and tangerines originating in Japan, coated with Kaolin, a clay-based powder sprayed on fruit trees for sunburn and insect protection. pic.twitter.com/vlAmUxeP3a

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) November 16, 2025

Have you had any interesting citrus lately?

Puttering

Curled up with a catalog?

Did you know the Internet Archive has 1,000 seed catalogs?

Well, you'd be wrong, because we have over 50,000 seed catalogs.https://t.co/44WxG8ZMUI and https://t.co/meAfqxwynX are the way to start. They're glorious explosions of verbiage and promise towards the ultimate farm. pic.twitter.com/vpAsIs3z7t

— Jason Scott (@textfiles) November 6, 2019

Adventure

Winter in Zurich

They feed Mangels to cattle in Switzerland (see last week's post).

Gardens of The Horde

From Intrepid Liason, in October:

A few updates at the acreage. First up, there are several large pokeweed plants covered in berries. It's an interesting native plant with neat (but inedible) berries and striking reddish/purple stalk. It can get pretty large, too!

I'll probably harvest my quince soon. They are huge, much larger and lumpier than apples or pears, and have lost their fuzz and turned bright yellow.

Finally, as a curiosity, if you've never left your asparagus unharvested and wondered what its seeds or berries look like, I've got a picture for you. I guess they're technically seedy pods, and they were a fairly bright orange for a while, but have gotten fuller over the weeks.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening 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, Home and Nature Thread, Dec. 27

Any thoughts or questions?

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 01:04 PM

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