Garden Seeds and Thinking Spring

It’s time to think spring. We’ve just gotten our most serious snowstorm of the season. And my garden seeds have arrived. Just as my mother did for all the years that she and my father lived on the family farm, she ordered garden seeds when the snow was deep and the temperature hung around zero and below for days on end.

For those gardeners interested, my planting strategy, which I have followed for more than fifty years of gardening, I learned from my parents. Order seeds that you know will produce vegetables that do well with your soil type and climate. Always order a variety that is new, and you’ve not tried before. My Dad’s advice, plant something that’s pretty, and plant something that’s unusual

So, here are examples of vegetable varieties I plan to grow in my 2018 garden:

Varieties that have done well:

--Top Crop green beans
--Wisconsin 55 Tomato
--Burpee’s Big Boy Hybrid Tomato
--Early Girl Tomato
--Detroit Dark Red Beets
--Waltham Butternut Squash
--Cherry Belle Radish

What I’ve ordered but never tried:

--Bella Rosa Hybrid Tomato
--Atlas Hybrid Tomato
--Steakhouse Hybrid Tomato
--Bloody Butcher Tomato
--Nirvana Sweet Corn

What’s Pretty:

--Painted Mountain Ornamental Corn
--Fire Catcher Sunflower

What’s Unusual:

--Ornamental Luffa Squash
--Bird House Gourds
--Gremlin Gourds

Why do I grow seven different varieties of tomatoes? I am hoping that at least half of them will do well, resist disease and contribute to our need for several bushels of tomatoes for eating, and making salsa, and soup
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Spring is just around the corner. But where is that corner?


UPCOMING EVENTS:

Wednesday, Feb 28, 6:00 p.m. Wild Rose H.S. Auditorium, Premier showing of Jerry’s
new Public TV documentary on One-Room Country Schools.

Tuesday, March 6, 7:00 p.m. First state-wide airing on all Wisconsin Public TV stations of my hour-long documentary on One-Room Country Schools.

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835
The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:

Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,) and Never Curse the Rain, Jerry’s newest DVD based on his book with the same title.

Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also available are Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.



.