February Garden Musings

February Garden Musings

The weather in southern Wisconsin, as everywhere, is alarming. Record one day temperature swings. It was 73 yesterday and 12 this morning. It will be back to the 60’s in a couple days. This new normal will cause mostly grief for gardeners and growers, but I’ll try to take advantage of the warm days to do some garden prep that normally would wait until late March or April. The end of February marks the beginning of seed starting. I’ve put onion and leek seeds into...
A Tale of Two Invasives

A Tale of Two Invasives

Our property is over half wooded and for the last few years, two invasive plants have really made their presence known.  Dames Rocket (Hesperis matronalis) and Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolate) are now well established. It’s interesting that both these plants were grown purposely in Europe before they became a nuisance here.  Garlic Mustard is edible and can be used as a salad green and Dame’s Rocket was a garden flower grown much like phlox, to which it has a...
This Year’s Garden

This Year’s Garden

Every garden year is different.  Because I grow a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, I can usually be assured that I’ll get some good harvests of most things, even if occasional failures occur.  Thirty-three years of growing in the same area also contribute a lot of knowledge of how things work and increase the chance of success. Peppers, Sweet and Hot This year we had a better than average and most bountiful harvest of peppers, both sweet and hot....
Heliopsis

Heliopsis

My gardening interest is in growing food. While I like flowers and ornamental plants, they are not my hobby.  I’m definitely not passionate about growing them, learning their Latin names, or keeping up with the latest introductions.  I’ve often said “if you can’t eat it, why grow it”, but I’m really not that cold about the beauty or necessity of flowers.  We have a lot of colorful plants in the yard, but they are easy-care perennials and the work...
Raining in the Garden

Raining in the Garden

The year has brought us a lot more rain than we really need. The good news is that I’ve barely had to water.  More good news is that water-loving plants like tomatoes, melons, and zucchini are putting out huge crops. Bad news is the tomatoes are splitting from too much water, and leaf blight, always a problem in Wisconsin is rampant again. More bad news is that the weeds love the rain every bit as much as the veggies. Even more bad news is that the mosquitos...
Want Monarchs? Grow Milkweed.

Want Monarchs? Grow Milkweed.

Monarchs love milkweed.  If you grow it, and you’re in the range of their travels, you may get them to lay eggs and hatch caterpillars.   I’ve got milkweed in a few areas on the property, and I always let a couple plants survive in the garden growing area.  The monarchs almost always show up.  It’s going to be tough going for the monarchs if they are to survive, and it will require humans to change some bad habits. As gardeners, our efforts to...

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