Garden Report

My daughter-in-law, Natasha called this a bouquet of radishes. Not to brag too much, but these are the best radishes we’ve grown in our Roshara garden in many a year. Usually they are tiny little globes filled with worms and impossible to eat. Not this year.

So what else is doing well and not so well in the Apps vegetable garden on July 4th, 2018? I give the various crops a grade of 1 to 5, with 5 being outstanding, and 1 a total failure. Potatoes-5, Green beans-5, tomatoes-4 (seeing a little early blight), kale-5, lettuce 5, peas-4, sweet corn-3, zucchini-5, cucumbers-5, squash-3, pumpkins 3, carrots-2, beets-2, sunflowers (must have some sunflowers)-4, cabbage-4, and broccoli-1. Most of the garden crops seem to flourish with rain and hot weather—so far at least. Unfortunately, with our sandy soil, a half inch of rain every few days is better than three inches at one time—and then two weeks with none.

We surround our garden with a two wire electric fence, the top wire to keep away the deer and the turkeys. The bottom wire to keep out the raccoons and woodchucks. Over the years it has worked well. But this year, we’ve had to repair the fence four times.

The broccoli would have received a 4 had not a hungry deer confronted our electric fence—successfully—and walked down the row of broccoli and ate every one. It must have gotten a message from its mother that broccoli is good for you. It didn’t touch anything else—left the sweet corn, left the green beans, left the lettuce, left everything but the broccoli. So if you happen to see a very healthy looking deer, it has probably visited my garden.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: For the non-broccoli eaters, remember, even deer know that broccoli is good for them.


UPCOMING EVENTS:

--July 27, 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County

--August 3, 1:00 p.m. Chilton Library. With Sue. Old Farm Country Cookbook.

--August 7, 5:30 p.m. Downtown Madison Historical Museum. With Sue. Old Farm County Cookbook.

--Sept 8. 10 a.m. Mt. Horeb Library, Once a Professor.

Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and 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
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available).
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,)
Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)
The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also 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.