2021 Garden Planted

 

 Natasha mulching garden plants. Photo by Steve Apps

Memorial Day—a day for memories.  A time to recognize veterans.  A day for visiting graves of loved ones.  And a time to finish planting our vegetable garden.

We planted our first garden at Roshara, our Waushara County farm, in 1967.  We have planted a garden there every year since.  I should be more accurate about the “we.”  I do little these days except for offering a word of advice, and starting the tomato plants from seed.

 

For the past several years, my son, Steve and my daughter-in-law Natasha have done 99 percent of the planting, weeding, and harvesting. For those interested, in what we plant and when, here is a rundown.   On April 25, Steve and Natasha planted six rows of potatoes, plus onions, lettuce, spinach, kale, radishes, peas, carrots, and beets.

 

May 23, a week early, but my workers schedules had to take first place, the garden two-some planted: sweetcorn, pumpkins, winter squash, zucchini, green cabbage plants, red cabbage plants, kohlrabi, a few hills of gourds, and 6 rows of tomatoes.  We are great lovers of fresh tomatoes, and Ruth continues to make many pints of tomato soup that we enjoy throughout the winter.  Finally, following my dad’s admonition to plant something pretty in the garden, they planted a row of flowers, including zinnias and sunflowers.

 

One of the gardening tricks we learned over the years is to put mulch around the tomato plants as well as around cabbage, broccoli, and kohlrabi plants.  On our sandy loam soil, the mulch helps to conserve moisture as well as keep down weeds.

 

Now it’s up to Mother Nature as to what kind of a garden year it will be—each one has its surprises, both good and bad.

 

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:  Each year the garden is the same; each year it is different.

 

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To purchase my books, (Garden Wisdom for instance) go to 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.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org
If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

Keeping the Critters Out of the Garden

Steve putting up the garden fence. Photo by Jerry Apps     

    When I began vegetable gardening at our farm many years ago, my neighbor, Floyd Jeffers, who

 farmed across the road from me, warned that the critters would eat it all.  He was referring to the deer

 and turkeys, and he also mentioned that raccoons liked to prey on gardens as well, especially sweet

 corn.  What to do?  His answer, don’t grow a garden.  Not the answer I wanted.

            I asked around.  “Here’s what you do,” an old timer in the neighborhood said.  “String a wire around your garden.  Ask your barber to save a bunch of hair.  Put the hair in little plastic bags and hang them every three feet or so around on the fence.”  Sounded like a dumb idea.  It was.  The deer seemed attracted rather than discouraged from having at my struggling little vegetables.  Next idea, dump out the hair.  Fill the little plastic bags with mothballs.  I bought umpteen boxes of mothballs and did that.  Another dumb idea.  Deer seemed to like the smell of mothballs.

            I remembered what my dad did when I was a kid.  When he temporarily wanted to keep animals inside an enclosure, he put up an electric fence.  In a brief moment of thoughtful consideration, I said to my wife, Ruth, “I have the answer.”  She had been chuckling at my failed “keep out the critters” plans.

            “My dad put up an electric fence to keep animals in, wouldn’t the opposite work?” I said.  For many years we have surrounded our garden with a two-wire electric fence.  The top wire about four feet from the ground, the bottom wire about 10 inches.   No more critters in the garden.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Sometimes you have to turn your thinking upside down to find the right answer.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To purchase my books, (Garden Wisdom has more about critters) go to 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.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org
If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

Wild Turkeys Do The Strangest Things

 

Many of us have wild turkey stories.  I have several, but I first want to share what my son, Steve told me about a recent encounter he had with a turkey.  Steve lives on the north side of Madison, in definitely an urban area.  He was sitting at his kitchen table, looking out at his backyard when he spotted this lone turkey strutting around his backyard like it owned the place.  It stopped at Steve’s bird feeders and helped itself to some spilled birdseed.  It inspected several birdhouses.  And then it proceeded to march up on his deck.  Definitely an urban turkey this one.  Steve gently eased open the door to the deck and the turkey didn’t move.  This turkey was definitely comfortable around people.

Steve, a professional photographer, snapped the above photo when the turkey, not too sure about Steve’s little dog, hopped up on the deck’s railing.  When the dog began barking, the turkey flew to the neighbors.

A couple of years ago I had a close and personal encounter with a wild turkey.  I was driving along the country road, through a wooded area, on the way to my farm.  When, without warming, something flew out of the woods and struck the side of my car, breaking the side mirror and leaving an impressive dent in my car door.  It was a wild turkey.  I stopped and looked around, surely the turkey had been killed.  But no sign of the culprit.  Two thousand dollars later, my car was as good as new.  I don’t know about the turkey—it surely must have had a headache.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Wild Turkeys do the strangest things.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To purchase Jerry’s books, go to 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.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org
If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s hometown, Westby and visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.

 

 

Memories of Mother's Day

 I have many memories of Mother’s Day.  It was President Woodrow Wilson who proclaimed May 9,

 1914 as the first Mother’s Day.  In doing so, he asked all Americans, on that day, to give a big

 thank you to their mother and all mothers.

When I was a little kid, back in the late 1930s and early 1940s, I remember several Mother’s Days, when my twin brothers and I wanted to give our mother a little gift, but we had no money.  The Great Depression still gripped the country—nobody had much.  Those of us living on farms, although we had little money, we had a roof over our heads and something to eat.

Just to the north of our farmhouse was a twenty-acre woodlot.  On the far north end of the woodlot was an open area.  Violets grew there, beautiful, mostly purple violets.  On many of my Sunday afternoon walks with my dad, we had discovered this violet patch.  The violets were usually in full bloom in early May, just about the time the trees were beginning to leaf out. Just in time for Mother’s Day.

I remember one year, I was probably six or seven years old, when I invited my twin brothers, three and half years younger than me, to trek out to the violet patch, and pick some violets for our mother on Mother’s Day.

Our mother had the most surprised look on her face, when we came home, and each handed her a little bouquet of violets and said “Happy Mother’s Day.”  I thought she should be smiling, but instead I saw tears in her eyes.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Sometimes the simplest gifts are the best gifts.

WHERE TO BUY MY BOOKS:

To purchase Jerry’s books,, go to 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.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org
If you live in the western part of the state, stop at Ruth’s home town, Westby and visit Dregne’s.  and look at their great selection of my books, including my new ones, or order a book by calling them at 1-877-634-4414. They will be happy to help you.