Dreaming of Spring Gardening in the middle of a Wisconsin winter

[lazy gardener]

Hello, I am trying to start. I got a bunch of seeds started and a ton of plans in my notebook. I heard frogs croaking last night so the frost must be out of the ground. A little bit of snow ain't gonna stop me. I have plans to plant my cold crops in the next week or two as they can take some snow and light frosts. Gardening season has begun.

I shouldn't shared this over the winter, but I had a knee replaced and wasn't in the mood. My husband built me some lovely raised garden boxes so I'm excited to give them a go this year, hopefully it saves my knees and back.



There they are, out in what appears to be a pond. We still need to put gravel in the walkway and fence it off from the chickens. I plan to lazily sit in a chair and tend my garden.

OGM, if you have plenty of water access, and want more gardening space, you might put in a couple of hay bale gardens as well. They get the gardening "up off the ground", but they require frequent watering.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Thanks LG, I'm attempting to downsize and simplify all my garden beds. Some are coming out, some are going up and some are being thinned out. I can no longer do everything I could, especially in the last few years. Now I'm a old lady gardener.

I have read about straw bale gardening, it does seem like an interesting way to go.

 

[lazy gardener]

Downsizing is good.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Now that it's winter I'm thinking of gardening again. All the aches and pains it caused are forgotten, all the weeds, long since gone. Anyone want to share next year's dreams with me again?

Since my last posts I got a good summer under my belt with my raised boxes. It was the easiest and most productive garden season I've had in a long while.



I grew my cucumbers up a cattle panel arch, picking was so simple.



It was the first year I was ever able to get a fall crop of lettuce.





I planted my tomatoes in a totally new area, and they all got blight pretty bad, so next year they are going in my boxes. I might need a ladder to pick them.

I grew mini hooligan pumpkins this year, and they were very productive as well as extremely delicious, so more of them next year for sure.



I'm still working on simplifying my large perennial beds so they need very few annuals, and very little weeding to look good.



Though a few marigolds and zinnia are always a welcome sight.

So anyone else scheming and dreaming? Care to share your plans again? It's gonna be a long winter again.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I am so going to suggest you send these pics to better homes and gardens!!

Every time I see them I go emerald green with envy.

I will have to think on my gardens some.....

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I am so going to suggest you send these pics to better homes and gardens!!

Every time I see them I go emerald green with envy.

I will have to think on my gardens some.....

Glad to have you back. I'm looking forward to hearing your dreams for the coming season, or even what you may still be up to.

 

[CapricornFarm]

I am dreaming of building my greenhouse! Never had one and it is darned well about time!
We moved to Virginia this past May and have been working our butts off getting things fixed and built, soil amended, trees cut down. We got rid of carpenter bees and honey bees in the house. Had a workshop and a garage built, i built an 8x10 coop mostly by myself. And a 8x16 hoop coop. We hired guys and they made a bigger deck and ran water hydrants and power to the workshop and garage. They are working on a goat shed now.
I had a late start on the garden but made 5 raised beds and planted in 3 of them. I am trying to adapt to this climate after FL so it is a challenge. I hope to start some plants indoors this spring.
I did make 2 raised beds in front of the house and filled them with bulbs and a few bushes.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I am dreaming of building my greenhouse! Never had one and it is darned well about time!
We moved to Virginia this past May and have been working our butts off getting things fixed and built, soil amended, trees cut down. We got rid of carpenter bees and honey bees in the house. Had a workshop and a garage built, i built an 8x10 coop mostly by myself. And a 8x16 hoop coop. We hired guys and they made a bigger deck and ran water hydrants and power to the workshop and garage. They are working on a goat shed now.
I had a late start on the garden but made 5 raised beds and planted in 3 of them. I am trying to adapt to this climate after FL so it is a challenge. I hope to start some plants indoors this spring.
I did make 2 raised beds in front of the house and filled them with bulbs and a few bushes. View attachment 1205869 View attachment 1205870

You have been very busy CF. I'm tired reading about it all. We used to have your energy.

You garden beds are adorable, we put in some of those retaining block stones too. They are pretty easy to work with.

Do you like the climate, or do you miss Florida?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

No real flowers going on in November, just chickens scratching around.

 

[rosemarythyme]

So anyone else scheming and dreaming? Care to share your plans again? It's gonna be a long winter again.

Wow those raised beds and perennial beds look wonderful! I currently have 3 small raised beds but I'd like to add another 2 or 3. My current ones are just cheap kits from a home improvement store, but I can't decide if I should make the next set of beds or buy a higher quality kit (there's some really nice looking ones out there, in a variety of materials).

I just got a glossy color catalog of heirloom seeds in the mail a few days ago and now I can't stop planning my spring and summer veggie garden. Some seeds I'd like to try this upcoming year: green and wax beans, albino beets, mizuna, "spinach" chard, white cherry tomatoes.

I need to clean up the greenhouse too. It's not really that usable (it's a small walk-in kit type that the previous owners assembled it but stuffed it with junk and left it like that) but I need some place to get seedlings going in spring.