Garden Report

As summer reluctantly moves into autumn, it’s time to report on Roshara’s vegetable garden. We’ve planted a vegetable garden for more than fifty years, and each year, we see failure and success.

Overall, I’d rate this year’s garden as below average compared to other years. The green beans were an exception. Last year the green beans did nothing. This year they win a solid A.

I must award our tomato crop a D. I planted seven different varieties, and all of them, every last one of 50 some plants, was taken down with blight, some affected more than others. We managed to harvest a couple bushels, but many of the individual tomatoes were far from the perfection that we expected.

As for the potatoes, they started out well, looked great all through June, then, the heavy rains came and the high humidity. And the blight. Maybe two plus bushels.


The sweet corn crop ranked a D as well. Poor yield. Same for the squash and pumpkins—a dozen or so squash and only four pumpkins. Pathetic.

On the other hand, an A to the radishes, lettuce, kale, and zucchini. But as the saying goes, if you can’t grow zucchini, best you hang up your hoe.

The weather has a lot to do with a vegetable garden’s success. We started the season with lots of rain, then an extended dry spell, then fifteen inches of rain in ten days, along with 90 degree plus temperatures and equally high humidity.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Remembering his father’s oft said words: Next year will be better.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

--Sept. 28, 5:00 pm. Platteville Farm-Town Dinner Meeting. Speaker

--October 6, 10-2:00 pm, Dregne’s, Westby. Book Signing with daughter, Sue.

--October 7, 1-4 pm, August Derleth Center, 300 Water Street, Sauk City, Guest Speaker.

--October 13, Wisconsin Book Festival, 3:00 pm. Wis Historical Society Museum on the Square.

--October 20, 6-8:00 pm. American Legion Post 306, 518 Water Street, Green Lake. Fund Raiser for Princeton Public Library. Phone 920-295-6777 for ticket information.

--October 21, 1:00 pm. Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello.


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.