Garden Time

Finally, the wait is over. It’s time to begin planting the vegetable garden. We are late this year. A couple of weeks ago snowbanks still stood near our garden spot, a little melt water oozing from their sides. Central Wisconsin had a major snowstorm on April10-11—around the time when I usually planted potatoes. And then it turned cold and the snow remained, and remained. Winter is an arrogant season. It likes to come visiting in November, and then like a relative who doesn’t know when to leave, it sticks around until April. What other season gets to stay for five months?

But now, it appears spring has arrived, and the last snowbank has given up in the face of high 70s temperatures for a few days. My little tomato plants, happy under a “glow light” should be in good shape for transplanting after Memorial Day. Never before. Old Man Winter always has a few nights below freezing to throw at us well into May. This year I have six different varieties. Old favorites like Big Boy and Early Girl, and Wisconsin 55. And ones I never heard of, but boast tomatoes as large as softballs. We’ll see.
Seed potatoes are ready for planting—Kennebec is my favorite. So are onion sets—yellow ones do best. And then comes the peas, lettuce and radishes. And cabbage and broccoli plants. Cool weather crops.

So, “hip, hip, and hurray.” It’s time to find the garden hoes and the row marker and get at it.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: A vegetable garden offers benefits that go well beyond the good food produced.

ANNOUNCEMENT: My “Telling Your Story” Writing Class at The Clearing in Door County is set for July 19, 9-4. Call 920-854-4880 if you are interested in attending. The class usually fills, so you may want to reserve a spot sooner than later.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
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May 9, 6:00 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library (Rescheduled because of weather), Wild Rose. Mid-Wisconsin launch of Civilian Conservation Corps in Wisconsin.

May 11, 2:00 p.m. Arcadia Bookstore, Spring Green. CCC story.

May 13, 6:30 Verona Library, CCC Story

May 14, 12:00 Noon, Sequoia Library, Madison. Simple Things

May 18, 10-2:00 Dregne’s, Westby, Book Signing.

June 1, 10:30-3:00, Speaking at 1:30. Stonefield Village, Cassville.

PURCHASING BOOKS AND DVDs:

Order your signed Apps books and DVDs from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

Books for Thinking About Spring

Old Farm Country Cookbook (With more rhubarb recipes)

Living a Country Year (Check writings about spring)

Garden Wisdom (Time to begin planning for the upcoming garden season)

Cold as Thunder (A look into the future)

The Civilian Conservation Corps in Wisconsin: Nature’s Army at Work. (Preorder, www.jerryapps.com)

Ringlingville USA (All about the Ringling Brothers Circus. Plan to summer trip to Circus World Museum, in Baraboo.