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...

With the lack of rain each of the past two growing seasons, especially the 2023 drought, gardening has recently been a challenge. While...

Four Year Old Cherry Tree With Cherries We planted this cherry tree about 4 years ago (maybe even 5 years ago; Ed would know for sure). ...

We have started to let our asparagus bed go to fronds, so the plants can recharge for next year. The garden has started to produce the...

Fingerling Radishes on Counter They may not seem like much but they are a lot to me: our first radishes of the season (minus the one I...

Newly Planated Garden With Hay Mulch It's official - our garden is now fully planted (mainly due to Ed's hard work). While I planted 3...

As things started to green up this spring, I was anxious to see if the lavender I planted last year survived the winter. The good news...

Like most gardeners, our spring and summer are spent fighting a wide variety of weeds. Over the years, we have employed several methods...

Spring usually brings two large jobs. One is fairly fun, which is getting the garden planted. The second, less enjoyable job, is mucking...

Although it is still a little cool out, we have begun planting for the 2025 garden season. Last weekend, Maggie planted peas, carrots,...

First Of The Season Asparagus Poking Through In The Garden Today is April 29th here in SE WI. I'm not sure we've ever had asparagus poke...

Older Seed Starts On Garden Shelves In Front of Window Some of our seed starts have gotten too big for their initial home. (We start our...

One project that I was able to squeeze in was inoculating some logs for shiitake mushrooms. I cut these logs back in December, so I only...

Four Bales of Last Year's Hay (Grass Really) - No Chemicals While we did get woodchips delivered last fall for the garden, I've been...