re: 2025 Fall Garden Thread

just to collect the seeds. It does keep them blooming longer

goldenrod is blooming and covered in honeybees

essential pollinator and butterfly attraction for late summer. Nothing else is really blooming right now in the wild. I pull it up every year so it won’t take over, there are always rhizomes left for next year’s growth

yet another reason to attract pollinators...i just watched a very cool scene go down in the garden. last year we planted a yellow cherry tomato that dropped fruit everywhere, this year it came up again i just let it crawl all over the bed. i noticed the other day damage from hornworms, i went to go look again just now and found a massive worm, doing its thing except it was flailing all over the place, twisting and turning and shaking the branch. i looked closer and there was a tiny wasp just fricking this dude up in an aerial attack. this went on for about 5 minutes and then the wasp left,

so i go to look it up, and...

quote:

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A "hornworm wasp" is a parasitic Braconid wasp that lays its eggs on or in hornworm caterpillars, which are a common pest for tomato and tobacco plants. The wasp larvae hatch inside the caterpillar and feed on it, eventually emerging to form cocoons on the host's back before becoming adult wasps. These wasps are beneficial to gardeners because they act as natural pest control, killing hornworms and helping to prevent further destruction of plants. The white capsules seen on a hornworm's back are not eggs, but the cocoons spun by the wasp larvae after they've emerged from the caterpillar

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gnarly



here's the wasp

LINK

about to be covered up in delicata squash. if youve not planted this before its super vigorous and easy. this is about 30 days after planting maybe a little less. squash should be ready in two months or so.



very tasty hard squash and you can eat the rind

After we pulled up the tomatoes and cantaloupes plants my wife today planted cabbage, carrots, onions and turnip greens.

Planted some beet seeds about a week ago and this morning I noticed some of them emerging!


Here’s a look at my pumpkin vines taking over the garden. Putting on a show and yet not much to show for it. The couple of pumpkins I did have growing early in the summer seemed to all rot from the bottom for some reason. Not sure what happened.


But there is still hope. I doubt they’ll be ready for Halloween, though.




Bonus: That’s some good camo.


Beet question. On the last page gumbo had mentioned thinning them. Seems that some recommend thinning and some say you don’t have to. So, to thin or not to thin?

Having terrible luck with beet germination. I may need a new seed pack.

No, but will from now on, thanks.

I’ve got a pretty bad problem with purslane in one of my garden beds…there was always a little bit (came from the manure) but I let the beds get overgrown this summer and it went to seed. Now every time I scratch up an area to plant it comes roaring out.

I see that it is edible which is fine but I really need to get a handle on it. Anyone successfully get rid of it without herbicides? I’m going to try concentrated vinegar and dawn first