Early Garden Crops Planted

We’ve made history this spring. The first time ever that I planted garden in March. I plowed down my winter rye on March 20th, and on Saturday the 24th, when my helper crew arrived, we began planting. A little reluctantly, I might add, as a year ago on that date there was still snow on the ground. We planted lettuce, radishes, carrots, beets, onions, peas and two rows of early potatoes.

The temperature was in the 70s, a pair of sandhills was raising a raucous in the valley to the west, and two pair of very noisy Canada geese were staking out nesting claims on either end of the pond. We could hear them, but we kept working. A pair of bluebirds worked as hard as we, as they were building a nest in the bird house to the north of the cabin. All the creatures at the farm are hustling and hurrying, believing that spring is really here and a month early.

On April 2, we planted ten rows of late potatoes. The radishes are up, the lettuce is poking through, and the peas are deciding if they want to face considerably less warm weather than we experienced a couple weeks ago. But the rest of the garden crops—especially the tomatoes will sit on my window sill until near the end of May.

One of the reasons I keep gardening is the mystery of it all, and never knowing what will happen, and whether things will grow or not. So far, this season appears to have the most mystery I’ve seen in my more than 60 years of vegetable gardening.

CHECK THIS OUT: Listen in to Wisconsin Public Radio, the Larry Meiller Show on Friday, April 13 at 11:00. We’ll be in front of a live audience, and I’ll be talking about my book, GARDEN WISDOM.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: If it’s surprises you’re looking for, try growing a vegetable garden.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
April 12, 7:00 p.m. McMillan Library, Wisconsin Rapids. Garden Wisdom

April 13, 11:00 a.m. Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio. Broadcasting at Fox Cities Book Festival. Garden Wisdom.

April 13, 2:00 p.m. Fox Cities Book Festival, Neenah Library. Garden Wisdom

April 14, 10 a.m.-12 a.m., AAUW, Lacrosse, WI (Garden Wisdom)

April 15, 12:30 p.m. -2:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, LaCrosse (Campfires and Loon Calls, and my newest book, Garden Wisdom)

April 21, 1:00 p.m. Cedarburg Public Library. Garden Wisdom

April 22, 11:30 a.m. Fond du Lac Historical Society (795 Fond du Lac Ave). Dinner. Remembering our Rural Heritage.

April 27, 4:30 p.m. Friends of Wisconsin Historical Society: Old World Wisconsin (Eagle, WI, Dinner, auction, and presentation on BARNS OF WISCONSIN.

April 28, 11:00 – 4:00. Wisconsin Public TV at Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose. Residents of the area are asked to bring in family farm photos for possible inclusion in a documentary film about farm life in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s that Wis Public TV is doing. Photos will be immediately scanned and returned.

April 29, 2:00 p.m. Lucille Tack Center for the Arts, Spencer, WI. I will be discussing my Ames County series of novels: THE TRAVELS OF INCREASE JOSEPH, BLUE SHADOWS FARM, IN A PICKLE and CRANBERRY RED. Free to the public