After having read the headlines about the Eastern Seaboard being hit with snow and power outages to over 2 million people, I just had to add this post. I understand that much of the reason was that the snow fell on colored leaves still attached to the trees there. The sheer weight of the snow accumulating on that vegetation caused many of the branches to snap and fall to the ground, or worse yet to fall onto vehicles and power lines.

I’m feeling a bit sad for those on the East Coast that they didn’t have more time to enjoy those beautiful colors. The pictures on this post were taken by my husband just a few days ago. The brilliance of mother nature’s palette has no equal.
Winter is my favorite season of the year, but Fall comes in as a very close second.

As beautiful as nature can be - it's power is also unparalleled. But I also know that the human spirit working together can achieve great things. This time will pass for those in the snowstorm and they will come out of it like all who live on the Eastern Seaboard. Their love of the land, their determination and their sense of humor will get them through.

When I realized how long it has been since I’ve been back here, I just had to bring you up to date. As I told you back in July, the garden growth just went “nuts” with heat and humidity encouraging the plants to really soar. This year’s harvest includes 30 pints of salsa which includes both red and green tomatoes in the mix; 15 quarts of kosher dill spear pickles and 6 meals (and counting) of stuffed green peppers.

I wasn’t able to get to the store early enough to buy onion sets for this year’s planting, but there were enough “volunteers” from last year that I was able to make 7 braids to use over the winter. The only casualty this year was that I bought 3 strawberry plants and only one of them survived. But, if past experience serves, these hearty little “sweeties” will be back stronger than ever next year.

I used mulch on the gardens this year and that really helped to keep the weeds down. Since we live out in the country, we burn our trash, so we have 2 barrels full of ash to spread on the garden to winter over. Along with a slow-release fertilizer which I put on just before the first frost, the soil should be in good shape for next year’s garden.

I suspect we’ll have an Indian Summer here soon and then the last of the green tomatoes will come in to be included in a tasty casserole. A gardener never knows quite when the season will end and that’s a part of the fun of this hobby.

We have had a series of 90 degree plus days with humidity levels that are off the charts !! As uncomfortable as that is for us – my plants are just thriving in these conditions. The tomatoes especially have grown like crazy. An hour or so of watering every 2-3 mornings has kept the ground moisture in good shape – even though we haven’t had rain in 10 days or so.
Just before the hot spell arrived – I spread mulch under each cucumber, pepper. strawberry and tomato plant and this has really helped to keep the moisture in the soil. I just picked 2 – 9″ cukes and plan to make cucumber salad for supper. The tomato plants have golf ball-sized green fruit on them which is great considering I didn’t plant until the 3rd week in June. This is absolutely the latest planting I have attempted, and still, remarkably, come out of it with produce.
The moon plant in the front of the house has spread from 1 foot in circumference to a 5 foot by 4 foot BUSH!
My secret weapon is a cultivator my husband picked up at a sale. He is very handy with mechanical things and the sign on the machine said – “DOESN’T WORK”. So he paid $10.00 for it, spent an hour working it over and I now have a great cultivator which maneuvers in between all the tomato plants without harming them. It’s great.

The gardens are finally starting to come around.
The retail store's Garden Centers in this area are trying to "blow out" all of their leftover plants. It has not been a good season with such a late start. I believe many of the gardeners are hesitant to buy plants with such a short growing season. But, for those of us who just want to garden - it doesn't seem to matter and we're getting some really good deals on plants !!
My tomato plants aren't very tall, but they are starting to sprout blossoms and that's really encouraging. My perennial garden with all the different lillie species are going crazy right now. And in one of my foundation gardens, the moon plants are up and established again this year.

Ordinarily, we as human beings are a pretty staid lot. We like things done the same way, in the same order and using the same components. But sometimes Mother Nature throws us a curve and the need to adapt becomes the most important part of planning.

This year has been anything but normal. The spring has come late and with it there has been a lot of rain, wind and in some cases – hail. Usually my iris plants are blooming at Easter time, but yesterday was the first sign of color from them. My hostas are doing well now, but not after quite a bit of encouragement in the form of fertilizer and mulch. In a way this has been the ideal start to the gardening season for me. My school year ends this Friday at which point I can devote a lot of time to the gardens.

We have decided this is the year, we will borrow the skidsteer and carve into the earth to finally put our retaining walls in. The rain has made it mandatory that we finish this project this year. Cost will be a factor, but in the end we need to put in 4 retaining walls to preserve the integrity of the parking area and to make sure we don’t have a mudslide into the propane tank.

I plan to take pictures as we go. (It always encourages me when I watch the HGTV shows and see how much better everything is when they show the BEFORE AND AFTER pictures.)

Happy Gardening !

Again this year, the weather has been quite uncooperative. Rainy days, when I’m free to work, have kept me inside while the garden “screams” for attention. Last year’s dead leaves still lay next to this year’s new growth and my standing reservation for a rear-tined tiller at the garden rental shop is still “standing”.

The weather continues to be unpredictable here in Southwestern Wisconsin. Last Tuesday our temperature reached 91 degrees and last night we had a frost warning. However, this has not stopped me from starting my pepper and tomato plants which are enjoying steady temperatures and regular watering on my kitchen table.

We have decided to increase the actual planting area all the way out to the fencing of our 30 foot circular garden. We started with about a 3 foot grassy area between the fence and the plantings so we could get tillers and other equipment into it. But we’ve since decided that having to mow the grass of the perimeter of the garden is just plain extra work.

A new addition to the tomatoes, onions, peppers and herbs will be a raised bed or 2 of strawberries – an everbearing variety.

With 3 weeks left until school is out – my planner is already full. Now – Mother Nature – could you just find the water spigot and turn it off please???

It is at this time of the year, when gardening season in Wisconsin comes to a screeching halt, that I have a chance to finally clean and organize my garden shop.

My “half” of the shed is sometimes hard to get to as my husband has his four-wheeler, riding lawn mower, air compressor and various and sundry tools scattered in it as well. Because of this, I’m a great believer in peg board and hooks. There is one workbench and also a 6′ X 12′ overhead shelf that extends from the back of the shed. I have all of my garden stakes and tomato towers stored in this overhead compartment. Plastic seed starter pots are stacked upside down below the workbench. Terra cotta planters that have survived the season are also stored upside down in the same area. Each year when I buy new ones, I coat them with a clear spray to help slow down their deterioration.

Each of my hand tools is given a bath in oil and sand. I fill a 5-gallon bucket with builder’s sand, coat the metal part of my spades, forks and bulb planters with oil and sink them all in the sand for 2-3 days. After that I pull them out and clean off any excess rust. I re-coat them with more oil and hang them on the peg board for a winter rest. This really helps to eliminate the growth of more rust on the tools and extends their useful life span.

Window planters and other pots used on my decks are dumped of all nutrient depleted soil and dead plant material and soaked in a mixture of 1 part bleach to 10 parts water. I do this to make sure that plant diseases don’t have a chance to winter over and affect the new plantings next spring.

Fertilizers and other soil enhancing materials in the shop are checked for freshness. When I buy these products I take a permanent marker and write the date of purchase on each one. I’ll usually keep these for about 2 years – after that amount of time, I believe they lose their potency and effectiveness.

Sprinklers, hoses and hose attachments are checked for leaks and allowed to thoroughly dry out before I hang them for the next 6 months or so. Water frozen in the hoses or sprinklers can cause real damage.

In the Spring I like to know that all my supplies and tools are ready to go so that when Mother Nature loosens up the soil I won’t have any reason not to get right back to playing in the dirt.

If you’re like me when the end of summer comes, I go through a bit of withdrawal. I really like being surrounded by colorful flowers. Houseplants have their place and I have many of them in my home, but nothing replaces a combination of brightly colored blooms to brighten up a room.

Well, I’ve found the answer. I’ve discovered

Aero Gardens

These are indoor, no dirt, seed propagators. Seed packet combinations for flowering plants are available in many different colors and textures. After planting, the device lets you know when to water and when to add nutrients. There are several different models to choose from and color schemes to brighten up any space. You can plant seeds to grow lettuce, herbs, start seeds for your spring planting or bring color into your home for those long winter months.

Along the sidebar of my website is a link to these terrific products. You can even ask to receive their catalog free.

Happy Propagating !

My son came downstairs one morning last week and asked me, “What’s with the holes all over the front yard, Ma?” To my chagrin I realized that the moles had overtaken 2/3rds of the yard. As I walked out to get a closer look, my feet sank into the ground just enough to see that these industrious critters had made several tunnels circling the areas around our fruit trees and the flower gardens.

I understand that they are looking for grubs – which to them is a “delicacy” (UGH!) and can find them within 6 inches of the surface of the lawn. My guess is that if you got rid of the grubs, you could alleviate the mole/vole problem as well. But with two dogs who roam this same yard, I’m really hesitant to put any kind of poison down.

I’ve seen a lot of advertisements for eradication methods for both moles and voles – (don’t really know the difference between the damage each of these does) but never took much stock in it. When I was a kid we used to stick firecrackers in one end of their tunnel and set them off. (please don’t tell anyone !!) Or my brother would stick the garden hose a foot or so down into the hole and try to flood them out.

No matter what, it always seems like as soon as the 20 degree temps start, they dissapear. However, the damage that they inflict on the lawn is unmistakable.

Does anyone out there know if there really IS a method for getting rid of these burrowing critters? I’d love to hear it.

Looking at the calendar, I couldn’t believe that here it is the middle of October and I still have peppers and tomatoes coming from the garden. The temperatures are cooling off at night and this week’s weather calls for 50′s for the daytime temps. I’ve only covered the tomatoes and peppers once this fall.

The 30′ round garden is 3/4 of the way cleared and I had tremendous yields (so far) with both the peppers and tomatoes. My total number of canned tomatoes for this gardening season stands at 54 quarts. This will provide our family with quite a bit of staples for chili, lasagna, spaghettic sauce and other tomato based foods.

As unlikely as it sounds my other big harvest has been from the Knock-Out Roses I planted in the foundation garden. During September they just shot up out of the ground with beautiful color and fragrance. I’m so pleased with the purchase of these 3 beauties. During next year’s season I’ll need to trim back the Moon Plant – as you can see I had to use my shoe to push the Moon Plant back so you could see the one rose plant.

Next year, I’ll need to thin out the perennial garden and get some of those lillies up near the left side of the foundation garden. Our two dogs love to lay in the shade of the house, so I’ll need to devise some sort of fencing to keep them out of there until the lillies can establish themselves. The plan for the perennial garden is still in my mind, but it is severely overgrown and in need of some attention now. I’m also hoping to finish the extension on the right side foundation garden. It will involve providing two good sized retaining walls in order to keep the land from washing away.

I figure the landscaping will be ongoing for several years, but as long as I continue enjoying the work – I’ll keep thinking up new projects. No signs of slowing down at this point !!

Happy Gardening