First time here as well! Currently away on a trip and hoping that when I get back the sunflowers will be ready and the birds will have left some for me.

I was just visiting New Mexico, and I enjoyed seeing all the wild sunflowers growing everywhere in the desert.

My experimental Loofa plants are starting to produce! They were strange - sent out female flowers way early in the season, then a run of only males, and now finally I’m getting a mix.

I’d like to try making some biodegradable sponges out of them.

Physical anti-tamper, while important for this type of device, wouldn’t have helped for this particular attack. It’s an electromagnetic side channel, so they don’t even have to be touching the the thing to collect data.

Thinking about propagating some wild black raspberry I have in my yard - when would you recommend cutting canes, and should I root them before planting out? I’ve seen people store dormant canes over winter and plant out in the spring, what are the advantages/disadvantages there?

It’s been cool and wet enough recently (thank goodness) that some self-seeded lettuce and arugula from the plants that bolted at the end of spring have sprouted - I had been missing the fresh greens!

I’ve also been enjoying seeing the joe-pye weed, goldenrod, and all the other summer wildflowers in full bloom!

What other squash varieties are you growing? I have the pumpkins and butternut this year but I’m interested in trying some more next year.

Those wildflowers look divine, my goal for next year is to have a patch like that!

Here’s what I’ve got -

Sunflowers!

Tomatoes have been doing great, especially the cherry variety I’m growing

The vineborers got half my pumpkins but I’ve harvested a few good ones, as well as a healthy crop of butternut squash

Bonus brood of wild turkeys from my living room window, there have been quite a few families with cute little fluff balls in the yard recently

This is a great presentation, thanks for the link!

I’ve got a normal compost bin going as well, but I’m trying the anaerobic method for the first time on this bucket. Just filled it up with invasive plants and water, added some leaf mold, put the top on and stuck it in a sunny spot. We’ll see what happens!

Not growing in my yard, fortunately, but I realized that the interesting looking shoots I had been seeing come up in the patch of woods on my way to work are actually japanese knotweed.

I know it’s not going to kill the plant, but those shoots are pretty satisfying to kick over, they just go flying… between the knotweed and the garlic mustard I’ve got plenty of invasives to deal with if I ever feel like going on a plant murder rampage. I’ve already pulled up a 5 gallon bucket full of garlic mustard in my yard which I’m turning into a gardener’s revenge liquid fertilizer.

My shelves were pretty crowded with the onion starts and I just waited a few days too long before rearranging things to make room. I thinkt eh bigger issue now is poor soil, though, I’ll need to top them off with compost, or honestly just plant them out sooner.

A fan is definitely something I’m missing - will have to set something up

Two 4x8 raised beds from reclaimed wood turned into two raised beds + 4 ground beds when we had some leftover compost… the extra beds will probably be purely experimental / chaos gardens, gonna throw some nitrogen fixers like chickpeas in and see what happens.

Most of my summer vegetable starts have germinated, which is exciting, though I think I’ll need to replant the brassicas because they got leggy and the old soil I put them in wasn’t great… the pumpkin seedlings look great though!

Next step is to finish the anti-rabbit fence and finally plant out my onions.

It’s been kinda depressing to learn how many of the plants in my lawn are Eurasian invasives, but at least I’ll get to make lots of garlic mustard pesto!

Finished one 8x4 raised bed with my salvaged lumber, and the second should go much faster now that I have a powered saw. I’ll be getting 2.5 yd³ of topsoil/compost blend from a local municipal composting company next week.

It’s windy and snowy even here in more southern New England, so I’m glad that the spinach, lettuce, and arugula I sowed last weekend in some railing planters hasn’t germinated yet. My grow light shelves are almost completely full trays of seeds I planted a couple days ago, all the tomatos, cucumbers, and squash. Despite the weather today it’s an exciting beginning!

I’m worried about bunnies this year as well - how tall were the fences you put in?

I’m building a new garden for the house I moved into last fall!

Hoping to get some raised beds built later this week using some wood from a deck that I’m tearing down (tested the wood, it’s free of arsenic!). Onion seedlings seem to be doing well, they’ll go in as soon as the bed is ready and I’ll be starting a bunch of other seeds indoors this weekend. Next step is to find a local source of bulk compost and topsoil to fill the beds.

I ordered a couple of apple trees, Honey Crisp and Baldwin varieties, which will arrive in late April or May - later than I’d like but better late this year than waiting for next year!

Someone else recommended fedco to me and I’ll definitely be ordering from them, I love everything they’ve got going on.

I’ve read elsewhere too that honey crisps seem more prone to diseases and pests. What other varieties do you have?

Starting a new garden after moving from an apartment to a house last fall. Planning to do two 8’x4’ raised beds with some scrap wood and put a squash tunnel between them. I’ve started 32 onion seedlings indoors and will be starting the brassicas this weekend!

Also thinking about getting apple trees - any suggestions for good varieties to grow in zone 6b (New England)? It’s tempting to get a honey crisp but I hear they’re pretty hard to grow.

Which launcher are you planning to use?

Which recording of the audiobooks? I’ve been enjoying the recent Andy Serkis ones, but I hear great things about the earlier versions as well.

There is still a quantum attack against symmetric key crypto like AES, but it just reduces the effective key size by half. If you use long enough keys (256 bits) you’re still fine.