Wisconsindead's 2017 Garden

[wisconsindead]

Hey Guys,

Here is what's going on here in Southeastern Wisconsin.

This is my area. I spent a fair amount in late 2016 increasing the size of the plot, redoing the fence, removing stuff etc. So it is quite a nice area now. I plan on only doing 30" beds this year to try to make it a bit more orderly.

I planted my Garlic on October 15, 2016. 6" spacing between all plants. 30" bed ~22' long.

• Chesnok Red
  Georgian Crystal
  German Porcelain

Here is what the Garlic bed looks like

And some of the larger Garlic plants so far...

Then here are my onions that I started on February 12. This picture was taken on March 14. Two varieties - New York Early and Expression.

And on October 22, 2016 I reordered my strawberry plants. I don't recall what type I have, it is a variety. The bed is roughly 35' long (this is the bed with all of the hay in the first picture). I think I did a spacing of 12" x 18". So I hope by June/July to have a lot of strawberries. We'll see. Most appear to have survived. Some died. I just uncovered them today. I believe the few that died were not sufficiently covered. We did get a few very cold nights throughout the unusually warm winter.

Dead plant...

Plant with new growth...

Finally, I planted 6 varieties of Peppers last week on the March 15. I planted El Jefe (Jalapeno), Glow (sweet orange), Wisconsin Lakes (Sweet), Purple Bell, Tiburon (Poblano) and Sweet Chocolate. I also plan on starting Corn, Cabbage, Broccoli, Lettuce, Spinach and Tomatoes. I will plant more raspberries in addition to my heritage raspberry bushes, which have yet to come up.

[AnnaIkona]

Nice looking plot! I can imagine it will look beautiful in the summer once all the plants start growing.
What variety of garlic is that?
It looks like it's an area that gets a lot of sunlight... that's great...I wish I had that much sun coming into my garden.

Good luck!

[wisconsindead]

Nice looking plot! I can imagine it will look beautiful in the summer once all the plants start growing.
What variety of garlic is that?
It looks like it's an area that gets a lot of sunlight... that's great...I wish I had that much sun coming into my garden.

Good luck!

I grew Chesnok red, Georgian crystal and German porcelain.

One side is almost totally full sun. The other side is close. The part by the wall only gets half a day roughly. That corner of the house points to the west. I've grown tomatoes and corn successfully over there so it's enough sun to get the job done.

[wisconsindead]

I planted my Broccoli and Cabbage on March 25. Half of the cabbage seeds have sprouted (March 29).

I planted my tomatoes on March 26

I hope to have two plants of each variety

• Cherokee Purple
  Cherokee Green
  Lucky Tiger
  Green Tiger
  Indigo Kumquat
  Brandywine
  Sun Gold

My onions are doing well, but I am worried I started them a bit too early and now they are too large. I know the bottom of the flat is coated in roots. I hope I can untangle them well enough

My peppers are doing pretty well. The Purple Bell and Tiburon are especially slow to come up but I see some of them just barely poking through.

[wisconsindead]

Here are all of my seedlings. Peppers, Tomatoes, Broccoli and Cabbage.

I will be planting onions, carrots, spinach, lettuce and potatoes this weekend.

[wisconsindead]

Well I got my onions planted the weekend of April 8/9. Here they are at that time. They haven't grown much and are kind of yellow. I'm a bit surprised as I felt that I hardened them off well enough, but they aren't taking to their new home as well as I would've hoped.

I also planted some spinach, carrot and lettuce seeds at that time. However, nothing has come up yet. Not sure how successful that planting was

Here were my tomatoes and peppers on 4/19. I transplanted the tomatoes that day from 1 inch pots. I now have them underneath my Metal Halide light which, unfortunately, prevents any good pictures from developing.

Here is the garlic on 4/19. This is really growing well. I am pretty excited for the scapes and final harvest to see how large they will have grown.

And here are more raspberries coming up from the two original plants that I planted. They are poking through the strawberry bed. I removed most of those and added them to the raspberry bed. They look kind of rough right now from the move, but from my other experiences with them, they seem pretty indestructible.

I still need to get my peas and potatoes in. I have kind of been slacking there. Hopefully this coming weekend. Other than that I don't think I'll have too much left to plant for the next month. I guess I'll use that time to continue to try to remove all of my perennial weeds (dandelions and that grass that spreads horizontally with the rhizomes).

[wisconsindead]

Heres an update.

My garlic is looking really great. Growing fast and looking very healthy. Not perfect all around, some plants are kind of small. This variety, I believe is German Porcelain, is larger than the rest.

My onions have barely grown at all since I planted them. I thought I hardened them off enough, but it doesn't seem so. I think they are about to start growing again, but I can't tell. I hope I didn't plant them too deep. We shall see...

Here are my brassica's (cabbage and broccoli). They seem to be doing OK. I transplanted them on April 23. You can see some raspberries in the background. The strawberries are also starting to grow a bit more and putting out flowers.

Finally, here is my basement set up. I think I had my metal halide light too close originally causing some stunting/cupping of leaves. So I moved my peppers to the fluorescent and raised up the halide light. Hopefully this will fix my problems.

[Gary350]

WOW your garden looks great you sure have put a ton of work into that. What variety of raspberry are you growing? Cumberland Black Raspberries grow wild in TN berries are the size of a quarter, I went in search of some plants several weeks ago dug up 2 planted them in the yard 1 plant is looking very good tripled in size already the other plant is doing nothing. Your garlic looks good too, my garlic is going to seed never had that happen before it must be the 85 degree weather since February.

[wisconsindead]

WOW your garden looks great you sure have put a ton of work into that. What variety of raspberry are you growing? Cumberland Black Raspberries grow wild in TN berries are the size of a quarter, I went in search of some plants several weeks ago dug up 2 planted them in the yard 1 plant is looking very good tripled in size already the other plant is doing nothing. Your garlic looks good too, my garlic is going to seed never had that happen before it must be the 85 degree weather since February.

Thanks. Yea I have put a lot of time into transforming this yard. I am growing heritage raspberries. I was going to buy another variety this year but the two plants I started with multiplied so much that it doesn't make sense. Those wild raspberries sound awesome. We also have some wild berries here but they are like the size of a dime, though I do still pick them from a local neighborhood.

[wisconsindead]

Here are some of the Chesnok Red that are doubling up. Looks like I must have mistaken double cloves for single cloves. Or perhaps it does this naturally?

Some of the raspberries from the original plant that I moved.

And here is a little view of the yard and the raspberry row and garlic.

[wisconsindead]

More mutants at the garden. This time we have one of the tomato plants showing some kind of mutant flower/leaf monster head

[applestar]

It's a megabloom. If all of the fused blossoms are pollinated evenly, you will get a megafruit (you may want to assist). Some varieties are prone to this, and especially strains of varieties selected for competition sized fruits.

[wisconsindead]

It's a megabloom. If all of the fused blossoms are pollinated evenly, you will get a megafruit (you may want to assist). Some varieties are prone to this, and especially strains of varieties selected for competition sized fruits.

Well darn. I actually plucked it off...

[wisconsindead]

I actually gave a nunber of plants that have mega blooms. All different varieties. This seems odd. Anyone have have an idea as to why? All my seeds are from Johnny seeds

[applestar]

I'm tempted to say extra warmth and humidity. I can't remember what year it was, but a winner of largest tomato grew his in a hoophouse in.... Utah? And another year's winner grew hers in one of the Scandinavian countries.

But I really don't know. Some varieties ARE predisposed, and some people intentionally select for those (save seeds from mega/fused fruits) but fused fruits are often a mess of gnarly pithy white core plus the blossoms sometimes mature and are pollinated over several days so the fused fruit ripens unevenly -- and eating quality is poor. So some tomato breeders intentionally eschew the fused fruits.

[wisconsindead]

Thanks applestar. We'll see if they keep popping up throughout the season.

Here is my garden. I really wish I would've planted more greens earlier. Oh well.

There is garlic on the left. Then I planted yukon gold and nortland red potatoes and some dragon carrot just to the right of that bed.

Left to right - Bed 1 - Onions, Spinach, lettuce and in the way back Bed 2 - Onions, Carrots and peas Bed 3 - Strawberries, broccoli and cabbage and Bed 4 - raspberries.

And here is a close up of some broccoli or cabbage. Not sure which.

[wisconsindead]

Little Update.

Here is the entire plot. Starting to green out. Garlic growing really well. I've noticed that my hay mulch is full of seeds. I've begun taking it off. I'm really trying to prevent having to deal with perennial grass weeds. I like using mulch, so I'm not sure what the plan is from here.

Here are some potatoes. This is Red Norland with Yukon Gold in the background.

Here are the tomatoes. They did just fine being planted on the 21st of May. I am hard pruning them this year. All indeterminate varieties.

And here is some cabbage. The broccoli and cabbage are growing really well.

[wisconsindead]

Here we have the onions, spinach, lettuce, carrots and strawberries in the bottom. Just beyond the carrots and shaded are the peas.

Here are the raspeberries (right), strawberries, and cabbage/broccoli in the back. The corn is in the upper left below the compost pile.

Watermelon Seedlings. Blacktail Mountain

The double red corn.

Here are the peppers in the back, carrot and lettuce seedlings and potatoes up front. Red Norland and Yukon Gold. The garlic on the right (chesnok red, german porcelain and georgian crystal) are starting to yellow and put out scapes.

Here are some baby Tavera Haricot Vert beans

And the Broccoli heads are just beginning to form. This is my first time growing broccoli.

[wisconsindead]

Everything has been going pretty well here at the garden. My peas and broccoli were a failure. I also haven't gotten nearly the amount of strawberries I was hoping for. But all in all I am pretty happy. I harvested my first peppers the other day. The first tomatoes are ripening. And I plan to harvest my garlic this weekend. I hope I haven't waited too long :/

June 18, 2017

July 3, 2017

[KitchenGardener]

So impressed. I get garden envy when I see a big (by my standards) healthy garden. I WISH I had the space for a big garden, with rows of peppers, tomatoes, a whole patch of garlic and a whole patch of potatoes not to mention all the other great things. But then I think of the work it takes to get that whole area ready and planted (and how many seed starts you must have going in your garage in early winter) and I'm reminded that you've got a gorgeous garden because you've worked so hard for it. As for me, my little urban oasis/patch will do for now.

Well done - enjoy the fruits of your labor!

[wisconsindead]

So impressed. I get garden envy when I see a big (by my standards) healthy garden. I WISH I had the space for a big garden, with rows of peppers, tomatoes, a whole patch of garlic and a whole patch of potatoes not to mention all the other great things. But then I think of the work it takes to get that whole area ready and planted (and how many seed starts you must have going in your garage in early winter) and I'm reminded that you've got a gorgeous garden because you've worked so hard for it. As for me, my little urban oasis/patch will do for now.

Well done - enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Thank you for the kind comments. You're right, it has been probably hundreds of hours of work/visits since last fall. I feel you on space, this garden is at my sister's. She lets me do what I want with the yard so I'm very lucky. I live in a small apartment with no yard!

[KitchenGardener]

So impressed. I get garden envy when I see a big (by my standards) healthy garden. I WISH I had the space for a big garden, with rows of peppers, tomatoes, a whole patch of garlic and a whole patch of potatoes not to mention all the other great things. But then I think of the work it takes to get that whole area ready and planted (and how many seed starts you must have going in your garage in early winter) and I'm reminded that you've got a gorgeous garden because you've worked so hard for it. As for me, my little urban oasis/patch will do for now.

Well done - enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Thank you for the kind comments. You're right, it has been probably hundreds of hours of work/visits since last fall. I feel you on space, this garden is at my sister's. She lets me do what I want with the yard so I'm very lucky. I live in a small apartment with no yard!

Lucky Sister!!

[applestar]

Looking really good! I hear you about some of those failures -- they are what you might call compost for your knowledge-base. Accumulate those failures, turn them over in your mind, and what you get are fertile ideas for improvements to be made in the garden next season.

My garden is poised to begin mass production, too. Many green tomatoes, my new peppers seeded this year are still small but some have begun to bloom, and some the overwintered fully mature peppers are pumping out harvestable fruits already, while others are setting massive numbers of fruits.

I actually have some that need to be planted still -- either in the ground or larger containers.

[wisconsindead]

Looking really good! I hear you about some of those failures -- they are what you might call compost for your knowledge-base. Accumulate those failures, turn them over in your mind, and what you get are fertile ideas for improvements to be made in the garden next season.

My garden is poised to begin mass production, too. Many green tomatoes, my new peppers seeded this year are still small but some have begun to bloom, and some the overwintered fully mature peppers are pumping out harvestable fruits already, while others are setting massive numbers of fruits.

I actually have some that need to be planted still -- either in the ground or larger containers.

Thanks Applestar. I actually think the stress of being in pots too long (i started my peppers too early) allowed for some earlier fruits as the peppers were flowering well before I ever planted them outside. Have you ever experienced this? My plants reverted to vegetative growth after a week or two outside and are the best looking peppers plants I've ever grown. Very healthy looking.

Here is the majority of my garlic I harvested this weekend.

This tub is full of Chesnok Red.

A few of the bulbs are very nice looking.

And here is almost all of the Georgian Crystal (left) and German Porcelain (right)

[wisconsindead]

Thank you for the kind comments. You're right, it has been probably hundreds of hours of work/visits since last fall. I feel you on space, this garden is at my sister's. She lets me do what I want with the yard so I'm very lucky. I live in a small apartment with no yard!

Lucky Sister!!

My sister would rather eat store bought-pesticide sprayed-weeks old berries than fresh ones that have touched the dirt from her own yard. So, this is really just less lawn for her to cut. As far as I can tell, she is crazy. But whatever, I'd probably rather she not touch my berries

[wisconsindead]

July 18, 2017

Things are going well here. I've been harvesting carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers. Beans are forming. Onions should be done soon. I'll have a lot of empty space soon

[KitchenGardener]

Looks so green and healthy! So what do you do with your empty space? Is there anything you can put in for a Fall harvest?

[wisconsindead]

Looks so green and healthy! So what do you do with your empty space? Is there anything you can put in for a Fall harvest?

I will be planting peas, a couple types of lettuce, spinach, carrots and possibly potatoes and beans if I plant soon. My plan is to make a poly tunnel for the lettuce, spinach and carrots to have them last through the winter. I'm hoping to be harvesting that stuff in the heart of winter. We will see!

[KitchenGardener]

Good luck - sounds great. Question is: will you be willing to drive over to your Sis's house in the dead of winter to get your produce?

[wisconsindead]

Good luck - sounds great. Question is: will you be willing to drive over to your Sis's house in the dead of winter to get your produce?

I would bet. I can only be gone from the garden for so long...

[wisconsindead]

July 31, 2017

Here is the garden while I was harvesting onions. All are curing now. New York Early and Expression yellow onions. Plus two red onions that were in my seed packets

Here is the other side. Potatoes dying off, peppers doing great. Dragon Carrots doing well behind the peppers. Winter butternut squash in front and the tomatoes.

As you can see, my tomato support is a mess. I really need to rethink how I am going to do this.

My strawberry patch is really coming along. The runners are starting to fill in the voids and I am actually getting a decent amount of production. Almost enough for me. Next year should be

Here is the blacktail mountain watermelon. I have a few growing.

And a very pretty Glow sweet pepper.

[wisconsindead]

Here's a little box I put together for a friend. Shows almost everything I have to harvest or have harvested. Very colorful. Good season so far!

[KitchenGardener]

Here's a little box I put together for a friend. Shows almost everything I have to harvest or have harvested. Very colorful. Good season so far!

1.JPG

Absolutely gorgeous!