Word of Mouth - The Crust & Fades Contest

[julian-wolf]

The big pumpkin vines in the corner have been getting bigger by the day—and we had our first cycle of blossoms this week!

You can tell the female buds (above) by the fruiting bodies at their bases. The male buds (below) look similar, but sit directly on their stems.

 

Each plant (of this species, Atlantic Giant) puts out one female bud for every linear meter or so of vine, and around a half dozen male buds per female bud. The ratio needs to be high, because at least one male blossom needs to be open at the same time as a female blossom in order for the latter to get fertilized, and blossoms only stay open for around half a day.

The timing for this first round wasn’t perfect. Our first female blossom opened Monday morning, and our first two male blossoms opened Tuesday morning. There were still plenty of little bugs in the female at the time, though, despite it already having started to wilt away, so we’re crossing our fingers. If this doesn’t work out, we have at least 4 more female flowers on this set of vines, so there’ll be a few more chances.

[ATWM]

[ATWM]

^ browser's being finicky and not letting me add text to above post.

Anyways. One good garden deserves another. I've been pretty lazy with ours this year - but any work has been done in the WMJ. But that's the nice thing about a native/pollinator space, after a few years if you're lucky most things start to more or less thrive on their own and it's just a matter of preference - to an extent - if you want to manipulate what spreads more or not.

2nd photo is most current as things start to die back in the fall, paradoxically probably my favorite time for color in the garden. Coneflowers are faded, black eyed susans past their peak, alliums wilted, the baptisia, which I should have trimmed back more has seed pods turning almost black and the milkweed starts to turn yellow. But the mist flower just went bananas the last two years. 

[julian-wolf]

@ATWM That’s looking great! It’s filled out quite a bit since last time you posted an update. Overall, yours is more or less just where I’m hoping a big chunk of mine’ll end up in another couple years. Envious of how happy yr rudbeckia and yr echinacea seem, in particular

[ATWM]

@julian-wolf - can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but when we had bought our house, this garden was underway. The previous owner was a landscape ecology professor and she used her grad students to delete the grass in the front yard and start something new. Not necessarily a selling point for many wanting the suburban plot but for us, huge bonus. Lots (but not all) of the plants were about two to three years in, I think, before we came here. So I've been trying to learn and add and essentially not mess this thing up as we've been here - which has felt a little overwhelming at times with a toddler, but at the same time it's been really gratifying. The main thing I would say is that the sense of time has to expand. Many things I've planted have really seemed to fail to thrive for the first year or even two (possibly I gave them too much attention), only to explode and thrive on the third year when I've essentially given up on them. They just needed time to fortify underground I guess. My brother has had a similar experience starting from scratch in Illinois. In the end, to me, good soil and consistent watering etc don't seem to do much of anything! These things are made to just get on with life as it is.

At this point my primary job now is more about curating and trying to keep a balance - we're not trying to have it look like a totally feral prairie, which I can appreciate but at the same time we've won over neighbors more inclined towards a sort of cookie cutter vision, with lawn pesticides and irrigation systems by showing that a native garden can look good and not just like wilderness. To me that's a powerful act of persuasion.

Not much weeding needing to be done anymore, though still some. Lots of stuff has signs of successful self seeding, popping up in new places etc. Once mid summer hits the place is just full of bees and moths and this year we've even had a few monarchs. It's sort of wild how densely the bees stay within the boundaries of the garden too. 

[beautiful_FrEaK]

Made a little walk to a nearby volcanic crater lake.

 

[Jared_Lee]

Took a long weekend for my birthday on Thursday. Used some of that time to visit the San Gennaro festival in Little Italy and correct my mechanical errors from the week prior.

I had broken off a clutch plate bolt inside the clutch basket last weekend when replacing the clutch plates. Problem solved this weekend and we're back on the road.

Strap hanging on the way out to Citi Field. Mets blew a 2-0 lead with two outs in the 8th with Edwin Diaz on for a four-out save. Such is life as a Mets fan.

44. Wishing for more compassion and peace in the world. Been wishing on that for a while, but some muscles take more effort to develop than others, I suppose.

[UkeNo]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎂            @Jared_Lee 

[chicote]

Happy birthday @Jared_Lee! Congrats on the birthday tiramisu, the supreme birthday dessert choice in my opinion. And even more so congrats on getting your bike back on the road!

[MJF9]

@Jared_Lee Happy Birthday!!

[Alec Leamas]

Happy Birthday @Jared_Lee, a wonderful wish to make on your birthday too!

[reallypeacedoff]

Phone starting to peek through...

[aho]

Been slacking 😅

[Hopethisoneisnttaken]

@reallypeacedoff this is exactly why I never put my phone in the front pocket 😅

[bartlebyyphonics]

late happy bday @Jared_Lee

it’s been a minute 

finally back in them as things cool:

but a muddled motley update of summer beach reading and static (non)fades and autumn harvests

 

[Jared_Lee]

bike life butt fades

[beautiful_FrEaK]

@ATWM that's a lovely colour they got!

[ashgiovanni]

Jeans are looking great guys!

 

I did another wash this past weekend 

 

[julian-wolf]

@ashgiovanni Looking great

 @bartlebyyphonics Giving me major reading on beach envy

[nopal]

On 8/2/2025 at 1:29 PM, nopal said:

Four-wash @ 30 degrees, spin 800 for 45min.

I’ve mostly been wearing shorts since last - still, they were smelling musty so in they went but gently this time.

Five-wash @ 30 degrees, spin 800 for 45min.

Been on and off. I imagine they’ll stay on in the time to come.

No wild lifestyle activities here to tear them up 😊

[ATWM]

Just passed the halfway point a few weeks ago, so seems like a good time for a check in. From where I stand, hard to perceive much change in the past few months. I like these jeans a lot though - we’ll see where they will slot all time but for me pretty high. Wear them 80% of the time or more. Wash every couple of weeks or sometimes even a bit more. They’re basically Ooe/Fullcount soft for me at this point. Lots of darning done about 3 months ago, haven’t had to do any repairs since. 

 

Edited October 2, 2025 by ATWM

[Jared_Lee]

[ashgiovanni]

@Jared_Lee sick! That patch is looking awesome too!

[srudy]

Beautiful @Jared_Lee

[Broark]

Been kinda slacking on my pair, I've gotten distracted (as expected).
But here they are now! Still pretty dark, but I'll start wearing them a bit more regularly going forward.

[CSL]

It's been a bit over a month so time for an update. Bright sunlight so perhaps showing a bit paler than is accurate. Bottom pic is in the shade.

 

Edited October 8, 2025 by CSL

[UkeNo]

I can’t be wait to see you wearing these in a bath to preserve the fit! 😂 @CSL
 

Go on…Do it…You know you want to?! 

[CSL]

9 hours ago, UkeNo said:

I can’t be wait to see you wearing these in a bath to preserve the fit! 😂 @CSL
 

Go on…Do it…You know you want to?! 

Haha! I've been tempted to do a soak at least. 

The one time I tried the wearing in the bath method, I got out dying to pee, struggling desperately to undo the fly, which had tightened up from the shrinking. It was like an episode of Larry David...

Edited October 8, 2025 by CSL

[MJF9]

Some great, nicely worn pairs there lads 👏👏

I’ve been wearing these probably a day or so a week on average… so I need to up my gas

I’ll hold off washing until they really need it

Dressed by Sufu... @UkeNo Two Moon sweatshirt, @Geeman Warehouse pumps, Simo 5150s and, of course, @beautiful_FrEaK pose!! 

Edited October 9, 2025 by MJF9

[vIGGiou riou]

freshly washed....