Monday, May 30, 2011

Sweet Potatoes - Update



These are the sweet potatoes 'Georgia Jet'. Ordered from Jung's, I received 15 slips two days ago. They looked pretty bad. As you may remember, I couldn't tell what these dead things were when they arrived two days ago. They spent a couple hours in water and then were potted up in compost and placed under the lights on the heat mat.

I will let them root up in the pots and then plant them out in the family garden, probably in about 10 days.

'Georgia Jet is supposed to be the best for our climate here in central Wisconsin. Typical yield is 5 to 10 pounds per slip. Our goal is 50 pounds from the 15 slips.

Planting a Rock Wall Face


This rock wall was planted just last fall. It softens the rock face. Although planted with drought-tolerant plants, it required water to establish. This year, it should require water only during periods of extreme heat.


Planting close-up. In this picture, creeping phlox, ajuga 'Bronze Glory', lysimachia 'Gold Coin', Fescue 'Elijah Blue', and rugosa rose alba.


Planting close-up. In this picture, sempervivrens, sedum, geum trifolia - prairie smoke, and creeping phlox.

For those of you into the before and after stuff, here is the same rock retaining wall in August.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Family Garden and Potager Update

Well, over in the family garden we had some frost. It nailed the tomatillos we had planted there. I'm pretty sure they are goners, but we'll wait and see as we do have some space. It also nipped the very top leaves of the basil, not a big deal. We have more basil, but only one tomatillo plant growing in the potager.

The asparagus bed is sending up its first tiny purple spears. That is pretty exciting. Where I see top growth, I know the roots are making themselves at home as well.

The 'Reliance' seedless table grapes are opening leaf buds. Pretty exciting to see growth on something that is just twisty dry sticks!

And my brother scared up the first rat snake, of what my sister-in-law informs me is an infestation, but so far I have not seen. Sister-in-law says the snake was four feet long and a bit bigger in diameter than a garden hose. That's a good sized snake! I hope it works on the rodent problem of which I have seen more than a bit of evidence.

The weeds are starting to come, mostly grassy weeds, as are the potatoes! The radishes are up, The 'Early Sunglow' sweetcorn has sprouted. This is a type that does well in cooler wetter ground. It looks like a good germination level. So far, with its reported early ripening it looks like the easy winner for our future plantings as well.

We planted the the blueberries in an area that will be enclosed from rodents and birds. We amended the bed with donkey dung, compost, shredded paper, and peat moss. My two-year-old nephews found the spreading of the bags of confetti-like paper definitely the garden chore they have excelled at to-date.

On each edge of what will be an enclosed area for the blueberries and hazelnuts, we laid down black landscape fabric. Sister-in-law cut holes into it and planted tomatoes. The plan is to use the blueberry caging to tie up our tomatoes, saving us the effort and expense of caging them.

In another 500 square foot area that has been covered by black landscape fabric, we planted the first of our peppers: sweet red 'Carmen', jalapeno, and some Cayenne.

Finally, the sweet potato 'Georgia Jet' slips arrived from Jung's. They looked wilted and dead on arrival. I got home at 8 P.M. last evening to be greeted by these dead things standing upright in a bowl of water. My son had gotten the mail and was intrigued by the the small box labeled 'Georgia Jet.' Not sure what he thought they were, he did do the right thing, I believe, by giving them plant CPR. I, in turn, potted them in 3" x 3" x 6" deep pots of compost and watered them and set them on my heat mat. Knowing they like completely warm soil, a week in nice, fluffy compost on my heat mats and under the lights will be like old home week, compared to the cool nights and indifferent daytime temps we have been blessed with here in central Wisconsin.

On the fruit tree scene in my potager, the apricot 'Moorpark' has several half a dime size apricots. I did not hand pollinate this year. The tree was loaded with buds, but I would guess at this time less than a quarter were polinated. That will probably save me thinning fruit. My 'Seckl' pear is boasting handfuls of rust-colored pre-pears at this point, all the petals having dropped last week. My 'Honeycrisp' is in full bloom, or I should say 1/3 bloom; as it appears that cold snap got some of my buds on the north side where it was not protected as it was on the south side by my massive 'Diablo' ninebark. When 75% of its petals have dropped I will spray both it and the pear with Malathion to deter coddling moth. There is literature out there stating a dormant oil in the winter and two well-timed application of Malathion might be a preferred method of preventing the pests most apt to get my apples.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

An Unexpectedly Nice Day-- Weatherwise!


Akebia quinata in full bloom , 2 1/2 weeks late!

Today is Graduation Day at Wild Rose and many other small schools here in central Wisconsin. One year from today, my own son will join those that have passed across the dais and join so many others as alumni of my home town, something like dandelion fluff blowing on a May breeze.

I went to today's ceremony. Never before have I been so connected to so many of our graduates. I wish them all the best. Unfortunately, nearly all of our very best and very brightest will leave here, unable to make the sort living for themselves to which they aspire.

There are few choices for careers here, and we are so unconnected here. Internet is slow, at times unreliable. Cursing cell phone coverage and carriers is a daily travail of tears. The only reliable television comes through an extremely pricey cable or via satellite with contract lock-outs and channel blocking. The "local" television and newspapers do not cover activities in the area, and we are served only by a weekly newspaper. Radio transmissions fades in and out.

If you want to know what is going on prepare to be well-connected to gossip, or increasingly, Facebook (although there seems to be no end to the service glitches with Facebook either). Getting a cup of coffee at the gas station or the breakfast and lunch only restaurant might better serve the purpose for finding out the local news.

And here in the village, increasingly the population is senior citizens.

Yet, this is my native earth. When I divorced my son's father, I felt he would need strong male role models, and a good environment to feel rooted. My parents live here, my brother and his family nearby. Men I went to school with have been my son's coaches, his "sports fathers" (important for a boy who would not have his dad around on a daily basis).

My son has thrived.


My son at his Spring Concert. Yes, my jock son (starter for his Varsity Basketball team) also does geek and nerd(High Quiz Bowl and Honor Roll every quarter of high school) really well.





And while espalier has worked really well with my 'Lapin' cherry and my privet hedge has taken to my pruning style; my son has been a bit more difficult to train. Yes, as a mother desiring an easy path for her only child, I did attempt to persuade him to play trumpet, but to no avail.

Like every gardener who learns from their plants, I have learned my son is not my clone; I've allowed him to be his own person.

Besides, at 200 pounds and nearly 6'4", if you would like to discuss his flute repertoire with him, be my guest.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Lilacs and Tulips



Not every year do the lilacs and the tulips bloom at the same time here in central Wisconsin. It is working out this year to glorious effect. Pictured here is an old-fashioned lilac, Queen of the Night, Pink Lady, and Black Hero. The last time I remember them all in bloom at the same time was my brother's wedding day in 2005. That year the bridalwreath was also in bloom simultaneously.

Seed Germinating Tip for Beets, Chard, and Spinach

I read this about this seed germinating tip in "From Seed to Skillet".

I know that stratification is needed by some seeds, but never thought to apply this particular technique to this group of plants. Last summer, I direct seeded some beets and had particularly poor germination. Spring has been particularly cold here and any jump I can get on germination so my seeds are not rotting in the dirt seems like a good thing to me. What Williams does with these lumpy, bumpy seeds is roll them with a rolling pin to crush the outer seed coat. I felt I would surely damage the gymnosperm within, but no.

Upon seeing them crack, I dusted them into a cup of warm water for an hour. Then I strained them through paper towel, folded up the seeds in the paper toweling, and placed them in a Ziploc bag.

Two days later, I could easily see the root panicle emerge and quickly sowed them in the ground in my potager. I also did spinach and placed them in individual cells for planting in the family garden. The spinach on my light rack have emerged from the soil in one day.

With the difficult spring we have had here in central Wisconsin anything a gardener can do to save growing time will be rewarded in your harvest.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

May Rainy Weather



These are my luscious melons. Love that world luscious! As surely luscious is the best way to describe the wonderfully verdant green of these seedlings.

I have them planted 3 or 4 seeds to a 3" by 3" peat pot. They have germinated on a heat mat and grown under lights for 10 days. Then, on trusted reports from NOAA, I placed them on my deck in the shade of my Artic willow to harden off.

When temperatures threatened 37 degrees on Monday night, they came inside. I placed my young plantlings out again only to have them greeted by pretty windy conditions, even protected as they are by the willow.

Out again they went to harden off.

This afternoon I came home with my car thermometer showing a mere 47 degrees (this our "high" for the day) accompanied by a driving rain that felt more like sleet.

Some of these seedling are a 100-day pumpkin named 'Big Max'. Others are heat lover cantaloupes 'Delice du Table' (a French heirloom), 'Charentais', and 'Earlichamp'. I also have some Honeydew in another tray, which I have read do better in cooler, wetter conditions-- which describes Wisconsin this year. Our temperatures are easily 20 degrees below normal and it surely feels like it rains every day.

I have never done melons as transplants. They do germinate in just a handful of days provided the ground is warm. Given the much cooler than normal temperatures and very rainy conditions, this year I thought I would attempt to outwit Mother Nature. I have planted cucumbers directly in the ground in the family garden (on May 20). The area I have designated for melons though has had black landscape fabric covering it for two weeks already warming the ground as much as is possible and is ready in anticipation of being slit so as to place these seedlings in warm earth. growing them in the peat pots and setting them pot and all into the ground pot and all will avoid any root disturbance, which melons dislike severely.

As it is, the melons will vacation a couple more days on my counter or on my foyer floor in the evening; and they, and I, will keep dreaming of warmer days.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

What Selection?


Caged peony.


I started a lot of my own transplants this year with some fair success. I attribute the success germinating my seed to covered trays, my heat mat and regular shop lights. The nasty, cold, wet, spring weather has hindered my getting the plantlings hardened off and into the garden. I have a good number of celery to transplant, enough basil, parsley, bok choy, lettuce, chard. I have a pointed cabbage and a Savoy type.

I have at least a half dozen tomatoes including Siberian, Roma, Olpaka, Big Boy, Super Beefsteak, Bloody Butcher. I have Jalapeno, Carmen, an OP Sweet red pepper, and Cayenne peppers.

I have 150 transplants of broccoli, three different types.

Likewise, I have started some more difficult to transplant curcurbita species, too. They look great, but with the weather, I have not started to harden them off.

So last night I am picking up some fencing to cutting in section a foot tall to make peony cages. After I got done making my purchase of the fencing and the cheapest landscape fabric to lay down as a weed stop in my family veggie garden, I thought I would take a look at the veggie transplants.

One word? Bor-ing!

No broccoli, but lots of kolhrabi (people eat lots of kolhrabi? A couple type of cabbage, none of them Savoy. They had no sweet red pepper, no jalapenos...they had a lot of a bell pepper named 'California Wonder'. My wonderment is selling a pepper named 'California Wonder' in Wisconsin... Aren't the California Cows bad enough?

I'm so glad I started my own seeds this year.

End of the World?


Grape fruiting spurs on severely hard pruned grape 'Othello'. Pruning in this way in the spring increasing the energy put into fruiting buds which form closer to the main axials.



Tomatoes 'Roma' and OP sweet red peppers grown from seed harden off in the shade of my mesh wrought iron deck table before being planted in the garden. During hardening off, young plants should be placed in a protected spot for a few days and kept watered.

End of the world today? Is that on your day planner? Like most gardeners, I believe planting seeds is the ultimate belief there will be a tomorrow. And while there may be rapture, it will probably be of a different sort, more connected to blooms and growing things.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Planted!

Yesterday was a big day planting in the family garden. I planted cucumbers, 'Sumter', 'Boston Pickling', and 'Alibi'. Transplants that went into the garden included 'Roma' tomatoes, Florence Fennel, Italian Flat-leafed Parsley, onions 'Ringmaster', carrots 'Danvers', gold tomatillos, tomato 'Olpalka', a radicchio, and a buttercrunch lettuce.

The carrots were planted as if they were scallions.

Finished planting out the strawberries (Ozark Beauty' and 'Honeyoye'. My 'Honeoye' in my potager planted last fall are in bloom.

Double-dug and planted the asparagus 'Purple Passion'. Started laying out the enclosure for the blueberries.

Liberally spread donkey dung as our composted organic manure. We planted some parsnips 'Hollow Crown' and turnips for stews.

Took out the last of the tomatoes to harden them off in anticipation of planting them.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

May Bloom Day

Possibly Our Last Frost Was This Morning

This morning was possibly our last frost date. I have started hardening off tomatoes and tomatillos. Tomorrow, I have another group of tomatoes and frost -tender plants I need to bring out and get under the storm screen.

I will hold off on coleus as they are more tender than most annuals, not liking temperatures less than 40 degrees.

The sweet cherry 'Lapin' is in bloom. The 'Seckl' pear is thinking about it. One of my across the street neighbors has a pear and a small orchardist a block away does also. I noticed that pear in bloom today.

My strawberries are in bloom. Honeoye is one of the earlier fruiting, ten days before many.

The commercial potato farmers have planted most of their potatoes. My first ones, 'Yukon Gold', in my potager have sprouted.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Weeping Red Jade Crabapple


I think this year with the extended winter, my weeping red jade crab apple will not bloom. I have some years feared the same only to have it burst into incredible, miraculous bloom, setting up the wonderful winter ornamentation this weeping crab provides in the form of its persistent dangling bright red fruit.

Too many leaves already, very few little buds...

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Migratory Bird Day

Late last November Marcella Martin died. It was a sudden and totally unexpected passing for me of this good friend. I have not written of her before, but I thought today was a suitable day as she was the most avid bird watcher I knew.

Sally, the name by which I knew her, was 90 years old. Her age did not seem part of the equation for me. She had while aged, become ageless. She lived alone in her own home here in the village, where she had moved when she already was in her 80s after the death of her husband. I met her while gardening in my yard one day, while she and her granddaughter were out for a walk and had stopped to admired some plant growing in my front yard. I invited her to come and walk through the rest of my garden.

She often collected botanical items of interest and put them on display in her home. Sometimes it was a particularly colorful bit of quartz, or an interesting rock she had picked up from a stream while canoeing with her children. She had a glass apothecary jar filled with sweet gum seed pods she had picked up in southern Illinois, which now sits in my living room. (I am so glad her daughter Vicki thought to give them to me!) There was always something new from her walks or trips with children or grandchildren that she would put on temporary display so she could admire its unique characteristics.

She tracked the birds that came to her feeder everyday. She had tracked them for years. She adored sparrows and more than once mentioned that she worried about them and was concerned that something was going on with them, as there were so many fewer now than a few years back.

Cardinals, jays, grosbeaks, pine siskins, finches, woodpeckers, nuthatches, robins, and many more vied for the food she grew for them or with which she filled her feeders.

Sally had lived through the near demise and resurgence of our raptors. She had tracked and by her own records could see changes in the migratory patterns of birds and the push northward of range of some species and often commented on it to me.

The spring, when I saw a kingfisher sitting on a wire over a millpond, I has one of those momentary flashes that I should tell Sally. She would be excited about that. Or when the great horned owls called from one white pine to another one evening, I wanted to check with her, because I don't think she had ever recorded them in town before.

While bluebirds were probably her favorites of all, sparrows had a special place in her heart. While weeding this spring, I scared a momma sparrow off her nest in a decorative torch in my yard. In the nest, at eye height, are six sparrow eggs.

Sally, wherever you are, the sparrows are having a great year.

Congratulations to My Favorite Team!

Warning... not a garden post!

Congratulations are in order for one of our school's winningest teams ever, even in the off-season. The Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Academic All-State Team Award for student athletes was awarded to the Wild Rose Boys Basketball Team in Division 4. The guys managed a 3.69 grade point average. This was the second highest in the entire state across all divisions. What it doesn't say is that the team also included our Senior class' Valedictorian and Salutatorian (and probably next year's as well). They were two of our starters.



Not only were the guys back-to-back Conference Champs (21-4), they beat the only team to beat the Division 4 State Champions.

This team has been our school's dream team. We had high hopes of something a bit more golden sitting in our display case at the end of the season, but this is just validation for us here, during what was an incredibly long winter in central Wisconsin, that our boys are winners both on and off the court.

Congratulations!

Friday, May 13, 2011

What do May Showers Bring?

Probably mosquitoes!


Leek 'Lincoln' seedlings grown for transplant to the family garden.


I know the deer ticks are out already. With all the showers, farmers and gardeners alike are growing increasingly behind on planting schedules. With the full moon coming Monday, we are going to run into some cooler temperatures here again in central Wisconsin during the overnight hours. The carrots 'Little Fingers' I planted in my potager are coming in very nicely with the many showers.

On Thursday, I transplanted leeks 'Lincoln' into the family garden only to be caught up in a sudden torrential cloudburst. We were using a metal fencing post as a dibble to make the holes to drop the leeks into so they can blanch as they grow. At one point, my sister-in-law and I looked at each other and questioned the efficacy of using a metal post as a dibble cum lightening rod.

The minute the first fat droplets hit the ground we were into my car to wait it out hoping it was a 5-minute sprinkle. It was not the case. Within 5 minutes of our taking cover, a lightening bolt hit an electricity transformer across the highway, blowing it up in an electric blue crack.

Garden was at an end for the day.

After the showers, I took two trays of tomatoes plantlings out to harden off under my shade screen. I will need to cover them Sunday and Monday night, no doubt.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

What's Blooming in a Wisconsin Zone 4 Garden


A species purple hyacinth...

a bunch of fritillaria mich*&^&%^&$%$ (I don't remember the rest of the Latin's species name. I'll have to look it up, it's not the hens and "checks" one with the checkered bloom, nor the nearly mythical, here in zone 4, Imperialis.)...

second year bloom from some ivory tulips...

and my PJM rhododendron back by a weeping larix which I am torturing into an S-curve.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Today in the Potager and the Family Garden


Lettuce planted on April 22.


Strawberry 'Honeyoye transplanted last September.


Sugar Snap Peas planted in April.

The potager is coming along. The rain on Monday afternoon really helped the germination percentage. The lettuce in the cold frame, germinated under lights two weeks after the lettuce direct-seeded in the garden, pricked out, and transplanted is exponentially larger than the direct-seeded.

The peas in cells in the cold frame have yet to germinate. Those planted in our cold wet April look nice. My experiment this year is to grow them on my grape trellis and into my privet instead of using pea sticks.

At the family garden I planted three blocks of sweetcorn and a 4' square of radishes, 'French Breakfast'. I choose three different varieties of sweetcorn: 'Jubilee,' 'Country Gentleman,' and Early Sunglow'.

The 'Early Sunglow is a very early 62-day hybrid. I will plant more of 'Early Sunglow' in two to three weeks from now to ensure sweetcorn throughout the summer.

With all the GMO varieties of sweetcorn and extra sugar gene-spliced varieties, we wanted to keep it simple, going with heirloom or old-fashioned F1 hybrids. 'Country Gentleman' is an heirloom non-hybrid variety which will take 92-days to ripen. I'm a little worried about that one. If the 'Country Gentleman' actually sprouted by May 14, that puts the earliest harvest at August 15, and probably much later than that.

They usually start counting from the time the seed sprouts. We are supposed to have rain tonight, possibly tomorrow, and temperatures in the 70s-80s on Wednesday and Thursday. Typically, the ground should be 55 degrees to 75 degrees to ensure good germination for sweetcorn. We have had like four days of temperatures in the 60s this year. I can't imagine the soil temperature is above 55 degrees yet today, but possibly it will be by the time it rains all day tomorrow. Corn seed will rot rather than germinate if the soil is too cool or wet. The 'Early Sunglow' is specifically grown in areas where cool temperature are considered normal.

'Jubilee' is a F1 hybrid and a 87-day variety.

I planted each variety in short three row blocks, with each row about two feet from the next, because of what I assume will be vastly different tasseling/pollination times. As corn is typically pollinated by wind-borne pollen, and kernels will not form unless the silk leading to that kernel receives pollen. It is counter productive to pollination to plant in one long row.

We are going to go pesticide- and herbicide-free on our sweetcorn. We will be planting a legume to fix nitrogen in the soil around our sweetcorn and a squash to provide a ground cover to prevent weeds. This is a traditional Native American method of growing sweetcorn. They would plant the three species in each hill and then revisit their garden in thelate summer to harvest.

We intend to layer green compost materials, which are higher in nitrogen, around our sweetcorn as a mulch. Sweetcorn is a heavy nitrogen feeder. I am not sure we will be able to go chemical fertilizer-free, but we will make the attempt and I will watch for how the plants look and whether they show signs of nutrient deficiencies like yellowing, pale color, or a purple tinge to lower leaves.

Blood Root Here and.... There!

I have had this clump of bloodroot for about 8 years. A nice clump, I think. Obviously, the ants think so, too, as they cart the seeds here and there.



I'm not the only one gardening here! (The ants go marching two by two! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mothers' Day Daffodil Parade

I don't think I've ever been able to utter daffodil and Mothers' Day in the same sentence before.







I don't know the name of any of these daffodils. Some were parts of assotments, others given to me.

This morning I spent a half an hour pricking out baby bok choi. My son had floated into my growing room and wished me a happy Mothers' Day and hung around to chat. He watched me carefully press the tiny bok choi into their own individual cells for transplant to the family garden in 10 days or so. I sent him out to the cold frame with them. Later we visited my mother and went to a movie.

When we got home, I asked him to water the plants in the cold frame. A little too much water, not enough care. Half an hour of his mother's time-- busted.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

The Family Garden: Potatoes!





Nothing says potential like a fallow field that has been prepared for planting for the first time in a number of years. Such a number that one day of prep was my brother and I cutting and clearing several 1" diameter boxelders from the site of the garden.

Then my sister-in-law found a guy on Craigslist with a small tractor and digger-- not really a plow nor a disc that I am familiar with, but something more like a many-tined cultivator that is dragged along behind.

As we are attempting something while not totally organic, is at least minimally pesticide-free. Two years ago the area suffered a bit of a grass fire. It killed any evergreens on the site, not the ubiquitous boxelder, though. We figure there is some latent potash. Turning over the sod has released an odor reminiscent of Milorganite. We are not quite sure why this should be. I haven't seen anywhere near the number of earthworms I would like to see. My sister-in-law said she saw one big, fat wiggly fellow. I hope he tells his friends there will be no chemicals here!

So the shape of the garden has ended up a bit unusual. It is two overlapping squares each about 100 feet by 100 feet. With the overlap we have several rows that run over 175 feet.

We planted five rows that length with potatoes today! We planted Kennebec, Red Norland, Fingerlings, Russets, and Yukon Gold. Our gold is a minimum of 400 pounds of potatoes. I don't think the Fingerlings will be a tremendous producer. I like the buttery goodness of the Yukon Golds. The Red Norland is a better keeper than the Red Pontiacs, which is why I chose the Norlands. Kennebecs and Russsets are standard long keepers, although the Yukon Gold does well on this point as well. Another added trait of the Yukon Golds is their uniformity.

We dug holes over a foot deep and about two feet apart. I chitted the potatoes, slicing them into pieces about an inch to two inches in size, each with a couple dimples called eyes. We covered them with about 1 1/2" of soil and watered them well. After the sprouts have sent up some green leaves we'll cover them level and hill them a couple weeks after that.

About 10 to 14 days after the foliage dies, we'll be digging potatoes-- That's if I can control myself and avoid digging in at the side on one of the hills and "stealing" a couple Norlands or some Fingerlings. I can taste new-boiled potatoes now!

Vegetable and Fruit Planting in Central Wisconsin


The Rhubarb that Ate Elgin, Illinois.

Pictures tomorrow, but today I will doing some planting on the family garden! I will be laying down black landscape fabric to warm the soil for melons, tomatoes, peppers. Potatoes, which are always planted in April around here, also need to get planted. I am establishing raspberry, strawberry, and blackberry beds today, too. More on this tomorrow.

Today, I am sharing a picture of my rhubarb, part of a hill that I will be transplanting some of to the family garden. It came to me as part of the rhubarb planted in the garden of the first house I owned in Elgin, Illinois. This rhubarb was so spectacular it was said to be abundant enough to fee the entire city of Elgin in the 1940s and 1950s when the population of Elgin hovered around 50,000. This was back in a time when it was not unusual to have the neighborhood grocer bartering for produce.

When I first bought that house, the first cousin of the deceased previous owner of my house lived next door. He was in his 90s at the time and was the sweetest guy. I remember him bringing me a huge armful of carnations when my son was born.

He told of how the area where our houses were was the first annexed subdivision in Elgin and originally the site of Elgin's harness racing track and stables. My soil was always wonderful and had so much latent fertility. I even found a horseshoe, which was the largest thing I ever found in the yard while gardening.

At the time the track was sold for housing lots it was the late 1920s. The cornerstone on my house is dated October, 1929.

The whole family, a cousin, an aunt, the previous owner of my house and his parents all got together and bought half of the city block. Their backyards all opened up on one another and it was more a compound than a housing division.

I have wonderful stories of the house and those people. My ex still lives there; and I, well, I have this incredible rhubarb!

Friday, May 6, 2011

I Hate Poorly made Garden Equipment!


My scree and rock garden showing off some dsedum, fescue, and sempervirens.


I seem to end up buying much more of some garden equipment than I feel I should. I do a lot of watering with a hose. I have splitters and hand-held spray nozzles. The latest one, a Nelson hand-held long neck 5-spray nozzle sprayer with trigger control, was great the first couple months. I really liked it. It has the right assortment of different spray choices, was well-balanced, and easy to use without getting tired hands or wrists.

Unfortunately, just a couple months after purchase it leaks EVERYWHERE! It leaks all the way around the Nelson nameplate and EVERY seam as well as where the the head meets the handle and the handle meets the decorative metal where it screws onto a hose.

Don't buy this. It breaks too early to be worth it at any price!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Blooming Potential!


Pear 'Seckl' flower buds, maybe hundreds of buds!

Where there are flowers, there is the potential for fruit! My mini-orchard is starting to bear up to its promise.





















Apricot 'Moorpark'

Cherry 'Lapin'


Grape buds! Finally!


My 'Honeycrisp' apple, for the first time looks to have buds of some sort. Some are flower and some leaves, until today, I had very little to tell me the tree was anything other than dead.

Not all the flower buds will be pollinated and not all will bear fruit. There is always the possibility of a killing frost this spring, and pests.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Wow! It's 62 Degrees in Central Wisconsin and Indicator Plants Are Indicating What?


Daffodils blooming on May 1.

Skies are blue and the sun is shining! My car thermometer says it was 62 degrees at 3:30 P.M.

Wow! Our first really nice day and I was inside with students who would much rather play video games than learn to keyboard. When I first got home I took a few moment to sit and soak up the sunshine, check out my daffodils, and notice the hepatica was in bloom.

My bloodroot, which goes by fairly quickly, although I have it planted in the shade on the north side of my house is very sensitive to that 50 degree number; shot up its still unfurled leaves. I figure two days of this type of temperatures and it will bloom.

I saw my first dandelions in bloom today. My forsythia is in glorious full bloom. All this leads me to the next thing gardeners need to think about. The calendar for when to do what in the garden is all messed up. For those of you who plant potatoes when the first dandelions bloom, here you go! That forsythia says to plant those peas. For those of you looking for a wood tick, get out your repellents.

And those of you looking for that biofix date where you will see a codling moth in your traps three days in a row and whatnot, you better hang your traps and start thinking about pheromone baits.

Normally, you would spray a dormant oil on fruit trees sometime in March when the temperature was to be above 40 degrees for the next 6 hours. If you have not done that you need to do it ASAP. You want to spray your dormant oil before the buds have green tips and the leaves begin. You also want to allow 10-14 days between your different treatments. I sprayed my fruit trees with dormant oil around the 22nd of March.

With April so incredibly cold and raining or snowing, all the typical dates are way off. According to data taken at the Wisconsin Rapids weather station between 1961 to 1990, the first daffodils bloom around March 26. This year, I think it was April 29.

So here goes a short list of indicator plants on what to do when here in the garden in central Wisconsin based on temperature tracking at the Wisconsin Rapids weather station and the resources compiled by the UW-Cooperative Extension.

When violets open apply crabgrass preventer.

When forsythia are in full bloom, tent caterpillars and pine sawflies are hatching.

When common lilacs are first in flower, the first generation of codling moths emerge to lay their eggs. This is the time for pheromone disruptors. About three days after the first lilac begins to bloom, if you are going with your typical spray programs then would be the time. If you are hanging Tanglefoot-treated red balls, have them up before the lilac blooms. Keep the sticky ball about 5 feet from the ground and be sure to re-coat before July 1 to catch any early apple maggots. (Just a note for those of you fearing catching beneficial insects, I used these with Tanglefoot one year and did not catch a single bee of any sort nor any beneficial insects.) Recommendations are for one trap per 50 -100 fruit. On my heavily laden 'Honeycrisp this would be about 4 traps!)

In addition to traps, pheronome disruptors, using landscape fabric to prevent access to soil, be sure to clean up and bag any windfall apples as soon as they fall and pick off any apples showing frass (the jelly like goo that indicates and insect's larva is working that apple).

If you are using traditional fruit tree sprays for coddling moth control, for example malathion, spray at 75% of petal fall, again at 7-10 days after petal fall, and then on a cycle every 10-14 day thereafter.

At this time, the first onion maggots lay their eggs. An organic gardener shared this tip. Interplant onions and carrots by rows, a row of carrots, a row of onions. Carrot fly doesn't like onions and onion maggots are confused by carrots. These two make great planting partners.

So by the time lilacs are in full bloom, those coddling moths are laying their first hatch of eggs on your apple trees. When this group of eggs hatch they will pupate in the ground. If you have laid down black landscape fabric around your fruit trees you will cut down on a large part of this population getting to and out of the soil.

Also around the time the lilac is in full bloom the cabbage maggots first generation of eggs hatch. You might want to think about row covers for your cabbage family of crops. This would make it much more difficult for those yellow and white "butterflies" (I'm told they are really moths.) to lay eggs on your cabbage plants.

Traditional spraying methods for codling moths are spaced about every two weeks throughout the growing season. There have been studies showing two or three properly time application of dormant oil will do the trick versus having to follow a nearly religious twice a month traditional spraying schedule.

If you are attempting to time dormant oil applications on fruit trees, I would time them to the peak moth emergence times, before they have a chance to lay eggs. One application of dormant oil in mid-March (decidedly before green tips), the second application three days after the first lilac blooms, and the third application in typical years about August 3rd (or using indicator plants, a week after the wild bergamot is in full bloom). If you have apple maggot, this third application should take care of those, too.

Some additional correlations for other garden chores:

Plant beets, carrots, cole crops, lettuce,and spinach when lilac is in first leaf. Plant corn when oak leaves are the size of a squirrel's ear. Plant beans, cucumbers and squash seeds when the lilac is in full bloom. Transplant eggplant, melon, and peppers when Irises bloom.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Sounds of the Night

Last night, coming up the steps with my son, he suddenly shushes me.

"What?"

"Shush!"

I listen.

"Hoo- hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo---!"

I continue to listen. I hear it from the top of the white pine a block away, then the top of my majestic white pine, then I hear it across the street in the Norway spruce. Again and again it repeats.

Three male Great Horned Owls each in his own tall tree, right here it town; I hear no female cries. maybe she is waiting to see which of her young suitors develops the best song. The thought there might be a whole "parliament" of owls living right in my block is wonderful news.

I knew those rabbits that killed my burning bush last year had it coming! Sounds like it might be a bad year for moles, voles, and shrews, too!

Yeah!

"Ding Dong the Witch is Dead"


Heck. This post is not about gardening.

Every year on Easter weekend while I was growing up, the network television stations (back when there were only three and television was free) would re-broadcast "The Wizard of Oz". What person over 40 doesn't have almost the entire movie virtually memorized?

So, I supposed it is only natural that the lines between Dorothy and Glinda, the Good Witch, and the Wicked Witch should run through my mind on the occasion of bin Laden's death, spring, and tornadoes and their havoc.
(I'll paraphrase.)

"You've killed the Wicked Witch of the East. You've killed my sister! I'll get you my pretty!" screams the Wicked Witch of the West as she stomps her broomstick and is off in a cloud of smoke.

"Who was that?" asks the naive Dorothy of Kansas.

"That was the Wicked Witch of the West. She's twice as bad as the other one." replies Glinda. "She's a powerful enemy. I do hope you have brought your broomstick with you!"

Possibly being from Kansas is its own cautionary tale? So, once again, I am rooting for the good guys, as always.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Damping Off and Using Compost as Part of the Seed Starting Mix

I personally do not use seed starting mixes. When I have, I suffer damping off unless I use some sort of fungicide drench-- another product to buy.

I have personally touted the benefits of using a local soil packaged as topsoil by Wal-mart and labeled Waupaca brand topsoil. This year I used a mix of spaghum peat moss, sandy loam, and compost. I did not have damping off this year either.

I think organic gardeners will be interested in this outtake from YouTube as it backs up my thoughts on the matter as well.



You probably will not see any studies on this as those studies are generally done with funds from some corporation trying to sell you something.

Best Garden Advice - May Day


Apricot
'Moorpark', a self-fertile and very hardy variety for the north.

Edible pod peas, 'Sugar Snap' planted on April 19. Good germination!


Radishes 'French Breakfast,' also planted on April 19.


Celery 'Tango' under glass along with Swiss Chard 'Prima Rosso'


My parsley 'Italian Flat Leaf' that made it through the winter.


Kale 'Tosca lacinato' or "Dino Kale"


Hardneck garlic planted last fall, 'China Purple Robe'.

It is easy to get discouraged in the garden. Consider my blog of yesterday and finding the disheartening cause of a few more brown needles than I would like to see on my Austrian Black Pine (picture added). Last year I lost a beautifully -shaped 4' tall burning bush (euonymus compactus) from rabbit damage.

My mother confided that she stopped vegetable gardening after losing her squash crop to late blight one summer, literally overnight.

One of my favorite blogs is by Marie, "66 Square Feet". She lives in New York City and gardens on a rooftop terrace that is 66 square feet in size. That's half the area I covered yesterday with a porous, black landscape fabric to warm soil in which I intend to plant "a few" tomatoes, melons, and peppers!

She talks about foraging some beach plums last this coming summer from trees currently in bloom under the Brooklyn Bridge. Yesterday, I had an espalier session with my Lapin cherry, a variety which produces a sweet cherry similar to Bing (of grocery store fame) which is not hardy though here in Zone 4.

I then moved on to Margaret Roach's blog, A Way To Garden, another good one. It should be, she used to be Martha's head garden writer. She is decidedly a good gardener in her own right and has the space to do it, unlike myself. She is blogging about May garden chores on this May Day.

These two gardens bookend mine in size and mostly zone. One is written by Marie, a fairly observant gardener, but no where near the knowledge level I am guessing Roach may be hiding up her proverbial sleeve. In this way, they probably bookend me as well. Reading their blogs this morning, I did realize a couple things. One, gardening is a VERY local event. Two, everywhere on the internet we tend to use the words "varieties suited to your conditions," or "heat-tolerant varieties," or "cold tolerant varieties". That word "varieties" pops up again and again, without telling us the very important part! What is actually going to grow for us.

So, it has made me think very closely about how I will attempt to blog this growing season. I will make every attempt to include how a particular variety does for me here actually growing in the ground and containers in Zone 4.

I am hoping I can provide some tips, and good garden advice, and maybe come up with some things that you have not heard of that dramatically improve your gardening experience. These are times when all of us, good gardeners and wannabes alike need to excel at developing our self-sufficient gardening skills in uncertain economic times to not only feed our families, but connect us to the greening of our world.

Today's humour!

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