Garden Chats

I’m gonna assume front-pager Major Major Major Major won’t mind me, um, repurposing this…

Spending some quality time with my overwintering peppers ?? gonna harvest some habanadas from the rear middle shortly, very small though, cherry tomatoes, but pretty cool that it’s still producing at all

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— ???????? hoopy frood ??? ?????? (@huwupy.kawaii.social) January 9, 2026 at 2:18 AM

The one on the bottom right is some weird super tall species I didn’t realize I was growing, and it apparently really appreciates humidity, so I got it a little humidifier. The bench now has 50% humidity which isn’t bad

— 🍅🥔🫐🌽 hoopy frood 🌶️ 🥑🍫🌵 (@huwupy.kawaii.social) January 9, 2026 at 2:23 AM

I might need a tomato cage

— 🍅🥔🫐🌽 hoopy frood 🌶️ 🥑🍫🌵 (@huwupy.kawaii.social) January 9, 2026 at 2:25 AM

It’s twenty five degrees and snowing outside so it’s nice to have my summer plants around

— 🍅🥔🫐🌽 hoopy frood 🌶️ 🥑🍫🌵 (@huwupy.kawaii.social) January 9, 2026 at 2:26 AM

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This is the weekend when, historically, my winter SAD starts to lift just a bit — hope I’m not the only one. Speaking of hope for the sun’s return:

It is time.
It’s 11 weeks until the first big plantings. It’s time to crank things up & get started on the seedlings.

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— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) December 27, 2025 at 2:43 PM

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What’s going on in your garden (planning / prep / retrospectives), this week?

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Indoor GardeningPost + Comments (24)

 
A bit of a well-deserved victory lap, from staunch photographer / master landscaper Dan B:

It’s a gray evening here after partly sunny and 50°. The Cascades are snow covered and more plants are blooming.

Satby mused that Seattle is having Spring. I quoted a pundit who said, “Seattle has two seasons: early Spring and late Spring.” The past three years we’ve had two months of real summer — if days over 80° and nights above 65° count as summer then days over 90° and nights near 70° might also.

Top photo: We planted a hybrid Camellia called ‘Buttermint’ along the south property line. It’s starting to cover the ugly chain link. It’s much appreciated. The flowers shatter and cover the ground with snow white petals instead of holding onto them until they turn brown. The blooms are modest in size but prolific.

This Garrya x Issaquahensis, Issaquah Silk Tassel, hides the truck from the street. It was bred by acquaintances of mine to be hardier than other Silk Tassels. It’s named after the town, Issaquah – headquarters of Costco, where they lived. Little birds shelter in it so the local Hawk and Eagle can’t find them. In a few weeks the tassels will be shedding heavy, non allergenic, pollen.

Arctostaphylos ‘Sunset’, bred by Sunset Magazine, is in full bloom and the peeling bark is gorgeous. Its forebears are Manzanitas that inhabit dry coastal California and Southern Oregon. I’m not sure what pollinates them in California but there are no actives bees here and the flowers don’t seem to interest our resident Hummingbird.

The Hellebore which I believe is ‘Wedding Party’ is very precocious. The previous post of mine had only one fully open bloom. My photos from other years that are as advanced as this are dated mid February and March. Several other plants have one flower open so our warmest ever December has primed them to go full blast.

Here are a couple more showing color. It was 50° today, Friday, so they’ll be opening soon.

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: More Garden Successes in the PNWPost + Comments (20)

 
Master landscaper / photographer Dan B, once again stepping up:

The last set of garden pictures I sent were mostly mistakes. This batch are successes and my opinions on why they are successful. Some are from this winter and late Fall. Others are from other seasons.

Top photo: I planted two Abutilon, Flowering Maple, in big pots. This one is a Coral orange. My partner bought a rich red one that bloomed profusely for months. There are a couple flowers still open in January.

The orange one has lived through two winters. This past winter we had below freezing non-stop for five days and hit 15° several times. Abutilon are supposed to die below freezing. Good drainage may be the trick. I’m hoping the new red plant will be as tough.

By the driveway I planted several silver leaved, red flowered, Epilobium canum, a selection of a California native. We had less than an inch of rain per month from May through September and they did fine. They bloom late – September. This photo is from late December. I love this crazy late bloom.

Also in front at the entry is this red Peony and dark blue P.C. Iris. These break the rule of pastel blooms in front but they’re early and the Epilobium is late. The rest of the time the pastels are spared competition from these showboaters.

It’s my belief that flowers that are vivid colors work together. If either of these were paler they’d clash. Many rich colors get along well.

In late summer the pastel Lilies and the white Vitex agnus castus bloom. I love the contrast of flower size but the hummingbird likes both sizes.

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Successes in the Pacific NorthwestPost + Comments (31)

Like a white Christmas… JeffG166:

12.14.2025
The heavy wet snow on the garden scrubs and trees.

 
… Or a nicely wooded ‘Green Wall’. From Popular Mechanics, China Planted 78 Billion New Trees—and Seriously Messed Up Its Water Cycle:

… China began growing the Three-North Shelterbelt, or “The Great Green Wall,” in 1978 as an effort to combat soil erosion and decrease desert storms. The project, the country’s state-sponsored media announced, was finally complete as of last year.

According to Reuters, China grew 116,000 square miles of trees, increasing the country’s total forest coverage from 10 percent in 1949 to roughly 25 percent in 2024. But a new study published in the journal Earth’s Future, shows that all those additional trees (roughly 78 billion since the early 80s, by some estimates) come with some unforeseen consequences for China’s water distribution.

Scientists from Tianjin University, China Agricultural University in Beijing, and Utrecht University in the Netherlands found that between 2001 and 2020, increased vegetation reduced water resources in both the eastern monsoon region and the northwestern arid region. That’s a big deal, considering these areas make up roughly 74 percent of China’s total land area, according to Live Science.

According to the study, regreening efforts like the Great Green Wall—along with other tree-planting initiatives, such as Grain for Green Program and the Natural Forest Protection Program, with both started in 1999—have increased evapotranspiration, which is a portmanteau of evaporation and transpiration (the process through which plants release water vapor through tiny pores known as stomata).

“These shifts caused changes in precipitation, directing more moisture to the Tibetan Plateau, which saw an increase in water availability,” the authors wrote. “In contrast, eastern and northwestern China experienced a decrease in water availability, with the northwest losing the most due to substantial moisture moving to the Tibetan Plateau.”

By studying these rapid land use/cover changes (LUCC), the authors also note that certain zone transitions—such as grasslands-to-forests or croplands-to-grasslands—impacted evapotranspiration, precipitation rates, and water availability at varying rates. For example, grasslands transformed into forests increased evapotranspiration and precipitation, but negatively impacted water availability.

Unfortunately, China’s water availability isn’t conveniently distributed for its population. According to the study, the country’s northern regions contain roughly 46 percent of its population and more than half of the arable land, but only 20 percent of water availability. The authors argue that these altered hydrological cycles need to be taken into account when planning future reforestation efforts…

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Be Careful What You Wish ForPost + Comments (26)

You guys, I just love this garden so damn much. Six months ago, this was a dying lawn!

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— Kingfisher & Wombat (@tkingfisher.com) July 24, 2025 at 6:52 PM

Since I’m out of photos (*hint hint*), here’s part of a very long thread on thoughtful desert gardening from Ursula Vernon, who some of you may know as T. Kingfisher. Since some of y’all have been helping Cole out designing his new desert-friendly backyard…

This is a Mojave Sage, S. pachyphylla, and it is just ridiculous. There are cultivars in the trade, and if you’re in the Southwest, it’ll probably grow for you.

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— Kingfisher & Wombat (@tkingfisher.com) July 24, 2025 at 7:07 PM

This is Fringed Sage, Artemisia frigida, and I am utterly in love with it. It’s just this structural silver clump and it anchors the whole bed while all the flowers grow around it. I think Native Plant Guy watered it a couple times when it was planted, but it’s not on the drip irrigation.

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— Kingfisher & Wombat (@tkingfisher.com) July 24, 2025 at 7:12 PM

This is a small bed and because of camera angles you cannot see the mountain that basically hangs over it, alas. The orange are Agastache cultivars (I suspect they’ll be short-lived but I’m willing to try) and we’ve got a couple non-native Salvias, a dwarf rabbit bush, and a volunteer skeletonplant.

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— Kingfisher & Wombat (@tkingfisher.com) July 24, 2025 at 7:25 PM

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I live in New Mexico, a weirdass state where the Great Plains runs into the Chihuahuan Desert runs into the Colorado Plateau and also there’s some mountains thrown in for fun. Like a dozen ecotypes run cheek by jowl, frequently a mile up. Ecoregions rarely divide super neatly so it’s a mishmash.

We can safely say that most of it, however, is either desert or very desert adjacent. The rough definition of a desert is “receives less than ten inches of rain annually.” Albuquerque is therefore a desert, and in practice the vegetation is sorta like the last gasp of the Chihuahuan Desert.

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Desert YardscapingPost + Comments (58)