We had about a week period in late June where we seemed to be between harvests. The strawberries were just ending, the lettuce was at peak, and the peas were just starting. A stretch of 90 degree weather followed by rain pushed the garden to another level. Peas have peaked, and with early peppers, allowed a couple of stir fry dinners. The heat and the nearly 5 inches of rain we got this weekend were not too kind to our onions, causing about a quarter of them to flop over. We

This season, we took another step in trying to grow cut flowers. The past two seasons, we have grown them from seed and planted into containers. This season, we tried to plant a 50-foot strip of flowers, which I dubbed the 50-foot flower farm. Killing grass for the cut flower garden The first observation I have is that it is a lot of work to grow flowers. A new bed had to be created and tilled. I had planned the garden assuming all the seeds would germinate and grow, which di

The short strawberry season is starting to wind down in the Driftless Area. A few roadside signs are up, with the local Amish selling their crops. Our strawberry patch ended up doing much better than I had thought it would. We got anywhere from a pint to a quart of strawberries each day over the season. While we ended up with enough for a pie, we have been enjoying them in other ways. Maggie likes to eat them as-is, or cut up with a bit of sugar. I baked a batch of homemade s

One gardening challenge we have had is our attempt to grow strawberries. I think our strawberry bed is on at least Year 4. The first year we had a drought and no fence, and thirsty critters dug up our plants. We built a fence and replanted the following year, and fought weeds to get plants established. Last year, I accidently burned part of the bed trying to flame weed, and replanted yet again. This year, the bed has filled in pretty well, although there is one bare spot. Wee

While at first glance it seems like this is the start of the garden season, in reality we have been working on our garden for the past 5 months. During January snow, we prepared our garden plan and paged through seed catalogues. In February, we went from generalities like 'tomatoes' to planning which eight varieties we were going to grow, checked our seed vault, and ordered seeds as needed. Things began to pick up speed in March as we started onions, peppers, brassicas, and h

Straw As Mulch Around Newly Planted Blueberry "Bushes" Back in early winter when things were dreary, we got a fruit plant catalog in the mail. Looking through it, I got carried away and made a pretty significant and somewhat crazy order. I ordered blueberry bushes (we really don't have the right soil and will need to stay on top of amendments), gooseberries, elderberries (we have wild elderberry bushes but I wanted more...), a rhubarb variety that I wanted to add to our "col

Despite the freezing rain we got earlier in the week, the calendar says we are slowly marching towards spring. April is a month where it seems like you should be able to do more things outdoors than you actually can. It is too cold to plant, too wet to work soil. This is the month we use to wrap up stray projects and start getting ready for warmer weather. We have most of our seeds started. This year we are trying to grow onions from seed, and the results have been a mixed ba

This week, we cleaned up our seed starting shelves and re-installed all the outlets, timers, and heat mats. We then kicked off the 2026 garden season by planting two flats of onions and shallots. We usually grow onions from starts, but since we were successful in growing shallots from seed last season, we decided to try our hand at onions. We are trialing four day-long onions from Johnny's Seed: Red Carpet (red onion), Frontier (white onion), Patterson (yellow onion), and Ail

Yesterday, November 8, brought the first snow of the upcoming winter season, putting a bow on the 2025 garden. There is still work to be done, but the garden will largely stay untouched until next year. Our weather station reported snow had fallen The snow brings an opportunity to reflect on the hits and misses in the garden this year. Hits Landscape Fabric . We have tried several approaches to controlling weeds over the years, including no-till, mulch, and nonwoven landscape

Given the size of our garden and the crops we grow, it takes several weeks for us to put the garden to bed for the season. It is important work, because anything we can do now to control weeds and build soil fertility sets the stage for spring. This year we have had the extra challenge of the weather - it has been too nice! Although most of our plants have faded and there is less daylight, it has approached or exceeded 80 degrees on some days. As a result, we have continued t

One of the challenges of growing winter squash and pumpkins in a big patch is that it is impossible to tell if we actually have any...

Two Half Gallon Jars of Fermenting Cabbage and Kale and ... One of the remaining cabbage heads appeared to be going soft in the garden,...

Here at the end of August, our large slicing and paste tomatoes are finally ripening. We took a little time to gather some to evaluate....

One and a Half (Plus) Crates of Potatoes In the past, we've never been successful growing potatoes. Having now grown potatoes somewhat...

The tomatoes have slowing been ramping up over the past couple of weeks, and have reached peak. This year, it seemed like it took a while...

Growing corn in the garden has been hit or miss for us. If it grows at all, we find that racoons get to the ripe ears before we do. This...

July was harvest month for our onions, garlic, and shallots. We unfortunately waited a little too long for onion harvest. Onions get...

Several weeks ago, I was walking through an IKEA store and saw a shallow cast iron pizza pan. Rather than being simply a flat piece of...

Like most gardeners, when conditions are right, we end up with a lot of summer squash. One would think we would learn from year to year...

Wild raspberries are in season, and we have been picking them from several patches for the past week. We end up with less than a pound...