Took this picture today of some flowers, I didn't adjust the image at all the colors pop that much they are so pretty. Hope you're having as beautiful a day 💜

The baby just started hopping out of the nest. It hatched about a week ago, growing very fast.

So, today is July 18, 2026. A storm just rolled through Pittsburgh. I got to actually watch it roll in tonight. It was pretty weak sauce as far as storms go. A couple wind gusts, some rain and that was about it.

But, there was an oddity about it. I noticed it maybe ten-minutes before the front hit. A low rumbling roar. Constant. Almost like the sound an airplane. In fact, when I was trying to figure out what I was hearing, I can practically see the airport, so I initially determined it had to be a jet from its persistence, but then there was no doppler effect.

Sometimes, I would see lightning, but it was all cloud to sky. Eventually, I heard a clap that was real close, close enough that I could discern its pitch from the din. Indeed, I was hearing an unending chorus of dozens of small thunderclaps, starting and stopping at their own accord, but layered together. The front passed through fifteen-minutes ago, and the roar is still going on right now.

I like watching storms come in, and I have watched a few a year for many decades, but I've not ever heard that. Kind of weird. Anyone know if there is a name for that?

A complete digital edition of William Jardine’s 40-volume series on natural history published in the early-to-mid 19th-century.

It has lots of drawings like this:

I'm somewhat particular about what I grow for myself, but as this is more of a group activity, I'm curious what others have had success with.

I'm looking at seeds (and, holy fuck, have those gotten more expensive since I got starter domes [lost in the divorce and never to be used again] from Park Seed back in 2010), and outside of crucifers, I'm at a bit of a loss.

Web search used to be far more helpful, which we all know, but after this much time, getting back to where I was is an exercise in frustration. I've not yet checked out the county extension office (I assume we have these in Texas), but I generally found them to be more useful for things like soil amendments and timing than specific crops.

Have you had broccoli do particularly well in fall? If so, what strain?

then crossed the fence to pollinate the neighbour's soybeans

There were at least 3 more on my milkweed plants in my garden that were gone before they got big. So I decided to take this one in and raise it until it becomes a butterfly. Name is Munchy BTW.

Pics of how much its munched since this morning:

this is so special! her wings are still wet!

Each bundle of flowers will contain several dozen individual blooms (see below)

If you zoom in there are so many tiny pollinators

A handful of lettuces and other greens are starting to bolt, so I'm glad I seeded out another set last week in a different bed. Our replacement peppers are much happier than the old ones, which is nice.

Juniper and I were out picking strawberries and haskaps/honeyberries yesterday. Nothing made it inside, but she was having a blast and was very excited to help out. I was very excited that she was receiving immediate rewards for following directions (beyond praise).

It's uncomfortable enough at the height of the day that I'm potting inside my little workshop in the garage, reserving the early and late hours for field work. Remember to help yourself out with lots of water and good electrolytes!

What's growing on with you all?

I camped up on the plateau last night. First time camping in maybe 8 years and haven't camped up there in closer to 40. It was weird though. No crickets. No tree frogs. That iconic wall of noise at night. Gone.

The only sounds were intermittent motorcycles, trucks, trains, barges and planes. Everything you don't want to hear and none of the things you do.

It was depressing. It's been bothering me all day and we had them last year. Is it just my area or is this the new norm?

We introduced two batches of 300 ladybugs a couple weeks ago, and now we have a thriving ladybug lifecycle.

The larvae do most of the eating.

Eggs are hard to spot.

I brought home several many more plants than I donated, plus another book I have no space for. It's been nice knowing you plant nerds o7

Yesterday I discovered a pot that had gotten moved to an unexpected location, full of what I thought was a "handful"of baby lavenders. After splitting them all into their own pots, I now have 45 baby lavenders. Whoops.

Our self-seeded salad beds are bumping along after some rains and cool days, and I think I'll get a few more rounds of harvests in before they start bolting. I'll have to redo my peppers though. This morning was spent cutting back some of the stuff in our area with living pathways to feed to the veggies, chop 'n drop style.

This afternoon I'm going to hide in the shade (supposed to get up to 90° F) and split out some mob pots with New Jersey Tea and passionfruit (P. incarnata) seedlings. We're a ways north of the passionfruit's native range, so these are more for experimentation than for sales.

What's growing on with you all?

This morning's plant sales got pushed to next weekend because of high winds and low temps, so I brought home all the shallow tomatoes that were donated so I could repot them. They'll go back to the donations tomorrow, but I took a few pictures for you all to help explain how and why to do this.

Here we have an example of what we're starting with. The plant itself is about a foot tall, but the pot is only 1.75 inches. The plant itself looks healthy but a little stressed. The square pot helps, but the whole thing is very top heavy. Planted as-is, this plant will need immediate staking and support or it will uproot itself. It will still have to expend energy creating new roots, and will be susceptible to summer heat. Let's move on to repotting.

Here's a top-down of our tomato in a 1-gallon pot. We're doing this with the original pot in place so we can determine which leaves will be removed and then safely lift the plant to do the pruning. Once we've pruned off a few leaves we'll place the roots at the very bottom of the pot and then fill the pot with substrate.

So, why do this? Every little hair on the tomatoes is an adventitious root - a specialized structure that will turn into a root in the right conditions. And we've just provided the right conditions. By giving the tomato a larger root ball, we're increasing the amount of surface area from which it can draw water and nutrients to produce tomatoes. This will not only improve the number produced, but also each one's nutritional value.

And here we have our plant repotted. It will have the whole week in a greenhouse with folks watering it to grow more roots before the plant sale. If someone asks me for advice on planting it when they get home, here's what I'll tell them:

If you're planting it in a pot, give it at least a 5 gallon pot, but 10 is better. Place the root ball at the bottom of your pot, and fill with your potting mix and fertility. If you're planting it in the ground, bury it as deep as you can, even up to the bottom of the very top most leaves. Then enjoy your tomatoes.

It's plant sale week where we are! Our library and town food bank are both running plant and bake sale fundraisers this weekend. I've potted up a bunch of native perennials as donations for each, and will be spending my Saturday helping to run the library plant sale.

What's growing on with you all?

tværpostet fra: https://feddit.dk/post/22185751

In Sweden and Norway, it is called Baldr's brow, but in Iceland, it is the close relative sea mayweed (Matricaria maritima) that carries this name.[12] In Gylfaginning, Snorri Sturluson explains that the name Balder's brow comes from the plants' whiteness

[Image description: roughly twenty American Persimmon seeds show off their taproots in varying stages of development while resting in my palm awaiting their turn to be transplanted]

I'm really excited that these germinated! We got a notice of poor germination tests from the folks we got the seeds from, so they shipped another ounce of seed out to us but far too late to let them naturally stratify over winter. So these bad Larry's got to stratify in our seed fridge through April.

I finally have passion flower seedlings going strong. Juniper got her own watering can so she can take a more active role in the garden, and loves getting a chance to play with the water and feel like she's contributing.

The cherries and haskaps have finished flowering, but the apples, blueberries, and strawberries are in full bloom.

What's growing on with you all?

[Image description: two purplish blue flowers are open above the white-speckled green leaves of lungwort]

One of the great things about growing all these plants while being a FT SAHD is that literally nothing has plant markers anymore so I get to try to guess whether it's something I'm trying to grow or something I'm happening to grow. All the time.

Here's the clue: this NE US native plant's common name references the plant it resembles.