When I stuck my head outside this morning, can you
believe it, it smelled like spring. And
what does one do when the smell of spring is in the air—well what I do is begin
thinking about my vegetable gardens.
Yes, I have two of them. A big
one at my farm, where we grow vegetables for three families. And a tiny, raised garden in my city backyard
that is but three feet by eight feet. You
would be surprised what can be grown in that tiny space.
My garden seeds arrived the other day, and this
afternoon I’m sorting through them and visualizing what wonderful (don’t we
always hope) vegetables each packet will produce. I plant both heirloom as well as fancy new
hybrids. This year my heirloom seeds are
Tenderpod bush beans, Acorn Table Queen squash, Connecticut Field pumpkins,
Nantes Half Long carrots (they are the best), Detroit Dark Red beets and Large
Bottle gourds.
Each year I try something new. Last year it was Collards. I’d never grown collards before, but they did
well and Steve and Natasha enjoyed collard greens. This year I am trying a Sweet Seedless Hybrid
tomato. I anticipated the seed packet
would be empty when it arrived—after all the tomato is supposed to be seedless. But the packet contained 10 seeds for which I
paid $5.95. That amounts to dang near
sixty cents a seed. I have yet to tell
my wife. I’ll let you know later how these special tomatoes turn out.
I've got two
more “new” tomato varieties: Cloudy Day Hybrid (a variety for summers with
limited sunshine), and Fourth of July Hybrid, which is supposed to have fruit
ready for the table 49 days after transplanting—not 50 days, not 48 days, but
49 days. I always plant Burpee’s Big Boy
tomatoes, too—they've been a sure thing for me.
I’m trying a
cucumber variety, Spacemaster, that’s supposed to grow seven inch cucumbers on
vines the third the size of ordinary cuke vines. We’ll see. This year I’m trying a new variety of peas called
Easy Peasy—how could you not like peas with a name like that? Besides I have 200 seeds in the packet for
which I paid $4.95, which amounts to about two and half cents a seed. Compare
that to my seedless tomatoes going for sixty cents a seed.
Of course I have all the other usual vegetables,
sweet corn, winter squash, summer squash, radishes, lettuce, rutabagas and
more.
Keep the warm
weather coming, I’m feelin’ the garden urge.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Thoughts of spring are thoughts
of gardening.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Sunday, March 22, 3:00-5:30 p.m. Schumacher
Farm Volunteers Recognition. Waunakee Village Center. Stories from the land.
Wednesday, March 25. Noon. Banquet speaker for
Wisconsin Agriculturist Magazine Farmer of the Year Award Program.
Oshkosh. Farm Stories.
Tuesday, April 7, 6:30. Heritage Hill
Museum, Green Bay. Garden Wisdom
Tuesday, April 14, 7:00 p.m. Friends of
Eau Claire Library. Eau Claire, WI. Stories from the land.
Sunday, April 19, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon
Historical Society, Lebanon Community center. Stories from the land.
Monday,
April 20, Noon. Fox Valley Book Festival, UW-Fox Valley. Whispers and Shadows
Wednesday, April 22, 6:30 Patterson Memorial
Library, Wild Rose. Mid-Wisconsin Launch of Whispers and Shadows. Fundraiser
for the library.
Friday, April 24, 8:00 p.m. Ice Age Trail Org.
Wis. Dells, Winter Green Resort. Old Farm
Tuesday, April 28, 6:30 Black River Falls
Library, Sky Line Golf Course. Stories from the land
Purchase Jerry’s
DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin
(a fund raiser for them):
The library now has available signed copies of
Jerry’s DVDs, Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter
with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps A Farm
Story.
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books
including The Quiet Season (on which
the DVD A Farm Winter is based), as
well as Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm, (which are related to the DVD
Jerry Apps a Farm Story). Also
available is Jerry’s new novel, The Great
Sand Fracas of Ames County.
Contact the library for prices and special package
deals.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
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