Garden Update Jerry Apps Photo

 Garden Update   Jerry Apps Photo

How does your garden grow?  My dad often said June was the magical month for vegetable gardening.  It is the month with the most daylight hours, with the longest day of the year on June 21. What Dad meant was you’d better have finished replanting any vegetable seeds that hadn’t come up.  And, perhaps most importantly you’ve got to get rid of the weeds.  It seems that weeds have a nasty habit of growing faster than vegetables.  If not removed, and removed often, weeds will kill vegetables faster than any bug or disease.  How?  By cutting off the much-needed light that all vegetables need to grow and thrive, and stealing nutrients from the soil that all plants need to grow.

In mid-June, with four inches of rain falling within a ten-day period, our garden is thriving.  So far, we have harvested lettuce.  Nothing tastes better than leaf lettuce cut from the garden and eaten an hour later. The potato crop looks especially good, as do the tomatoes.  The sweet corn seems a little sluggish in getting going this year.  I doubt it will be knee high by the Fourth of July—the goal for all corn growers in Wisconsin.

I want to commend my son, Steve and daughter-in-law, Natasha, as they are the primary caretakers of our big Roshara Garden.  I call them “Weed Warriors.”  Roto-tilling, hoeing, and “down on your knees weed pulling” are what’s necessary to be a “Weed Warrior.” A weed doesn’t have a chance in our garden.

Those reading my previous garden reports will recall the bunny problem we had last year.  They ate almost everything green and growing—save for sweet corn, tomatoes, potatoes and vine crops.  This year, Steve added a third wire to our electric fence that surrounds our garden.  The new wire is about four inches from the ground, and so far, fingers crossed, no bunny has tried to crawl over or under it—as best we can tell.  We’ll see what the following months have to offer.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Vegetable gardening—each year the same, each year different.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

 Have you seen, GARDEN WISDOM, my book where I share some of what I have learned about gardening? You can buy my books at your local bookstore. order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books. 

 

 

 

Canada Geese at the Pond Photo by Steve Apps

 

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The two ponds at our farm are filled with surprises.  They are water table ponds; their water level rises and falls with the water table.  For the last few years, they have been at one-hundred years highs.  Ten years ago, they were but puddles surrounded by marshy land.

The ponds attract a wide variety of wildlife, from song birds to deer, from bull frogs to snapping turtles, and so much more.  We’ve had a pair of sandhill cranes nesting at the north end of one pond for many years. Each spring, the cranes always return to the exact place where they nested the previous year and the year before that.

For the last several years, a pair of Canada geese nested on the south side of the pond, across the water from the sand hill cranes.  I know that Canada geese, with their population on the increase; are despised by many as the geese enjoy grazing on wide open grassy areas.  Geese can digest grass, and they, being always cautious, like open areas so they can spot possible predators.  They leave behind little reminders of their being there—not appreciated by golfers and others who enjoy open, mowed grassy areas.

Steve and I spotted mother goose the other day with her two little goslings swimming on the pond.  Geese mate for life—one of their interesting characteristics.  They are a joy to watch, mother goose in the lead, the little ones lined up behind, paddling furiously.  We’ll watch the little ones grow up as summer moves along, provided a snapping turtle or some other predator doesn’t get them.  Mother goose is always on the lookout for these hungry villains, and is highly protective of her little ones, like all mothers.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Seeing the little Canada goose family reminds me that some things are still right with the world.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

Learn more about the history of my farm by reading OLD FARM: A HISTORY. You can buy my books at your local bookstore. order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore 

End of School Year Picnic Photo: Apps Family Collection

 End of School Year Picnic       Photo: Apps Family Collection

The end of the school year picnic at our country school was the highlight of the year for both the students and their parents.  The school year usually ended about the time when the farmers in the neighborhood had their oat and corn crops in and just before haying season started.  So, the end of the school year picnic was well attended by the families of the students.

Everyone brought a dish to pass, called a potluck today, plus their own sandwiches and silverware.  The school board bought a couple of two-and-a-half-gallon metal tubs of ice-cream, encased in huge insulated containers to keep the ice-cream from melting. The event began with a huge meal, all laid out on planks on sawhorses—the same ones that were used for the school Christmas program stage.  The boards were covered with the mothers’ tablecloths.   

After the meal, the teacher spoke for a bit, thanking everyone for coming.  She especially thanked the parents for  their support during the school year.  “I couldn’t have made it through the year without all of your help,” she said.  And she was right.  For everyone did help out, from building the fire in the woodstove at the school, to making sure that the children did their homework.  The teacher then introduced the eighth graders who had successfully passed the county-wide tests, and were eligible to start high school.

The highlight of the day was the softball game between the students and their fathers.  I remember those games so well.  It was one of the few times I saw my dad play—he mostly worked all the time.  We students usually won the game, as we had been playing softball since the snow melted back in March.  We had played all the nearby country schools, so our softball skills were well tuned.  Occasionally a father would hit a long ball over the fence and into the country road.  But that was rare.

With the school year over, we said goodbye to everyone, and headed home.  Now the never ended summer work began..

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: For those of us who experienced them, fond memories of the end of school year picnic remain with us forever.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To learn more about the  happenings at a country school, see my book ONE ROOM COUNTRY SCHOOLS. You can buy my books at your local bookstore. order online from bookshop.org, or purchase from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering, or contact the librarian: barnard@wildroselibrary.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984.
www.wildroselibrary.org

If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby, visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books. Order a book from them by calling 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.  If you live in northcentral Wisconsin, stop at the Janke bookstore in Wausau (phone 715-845-9648).  They have a large selection of my books.