I grew up on a family farm in northern Wisconsin and from a young age, I was part of the family enterprise of growing food and tending to the farm animals. Each spring my dad would plow up our large vegetable garden and prepare the soil to be planted with both seeds for common vegetables […]
Archive for the ‘Vegetables’ Category
Arugula, Spicy Salad Green
Arugula is one of my favorite salad greens. I remember it from my childhood, except then it was called the rocket (the rockets being a corruption of the French roquette). My dad was particularly fond of this peppery lettuce and planted it every year. It had spicy green leaves with sort of a peppery-mustard flavor […]
Growing Cucumbers in Compost
Every year I plant cucumbers in the vegetable garden and usually I get some early cucumbers. Then cucumber beetles find our garden, infect the cucumber vines with a mosaic virus and our plants all wilt. If we escape the mosaic virus, our vines usually get powdery mildew and stop producing. It is all very discouraging! […]
Peas – Planting Experiment
We all know that peas are a cool-season crop and may be planted as soon as the soil can be worked. They are a great crop for beginners and can grown in a variety of soils if you provide good drainage. It is always one of the first vegetables I plant in the spring and […]
It’s the Great Pumpkin!
On our vacation this year we stopped to visit my sister Milly and her husband Jim who live in Cornucopia, Wisconsin. Since I have been writing about gardens, they took us to their son Jim’s pumpkin patch to see his entry for the Giant Pumpkin Fest held in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. It was an amazing sight! […]
Rogue Potato family!
My “Rogue Potato” has been growing all summer in the compost bin and has shared the space with a couple of zucchini plants for most of that time. For the most part the potato and zucchini were good neighbors, but eventually the squash got really pushy and began to shade out the potato. Luckily the […]