Tater wrote:
I just bought my first house and it is on 1.4 acres. I can finally
have a garden! now I have never done my own garden before, and I dont
want to devote a lot of time to working it. what should i plant?
looking for foodstuffs rather than ornamental, low maintenance. An idea
of when to plant would be good too. maybe next year i'll put up a
greenhouse to extend the growing season. many moons ago when i dreamed
of my own garden patch there was a method called french intensive
farmin, just a fad? sounded fairly care free....

no-till gardening, which you can achieve by also doing the lasagna
thing Carl suggests. if you want low maintenance edibles, plant
raspberries, potatoes, garlic, multiplier onions, asparagus,
serviceberries and mulberries. Plant in full sun, everything except the
potatoes right now or in the next few weeks before the soil freezes.
You can also plant mushrooms in full shade, using a variety of
techniques (google it). You should also consider ostrich ferns in part
shade for fiddleheads, those, too, are as low maintenance as it gets
and in fact they multiply so you get more for no work. There are some
ancient greens that are perennial (Good King Henry), as are most herbs
(for your climate, sorrel, mint, oregano, thyme), all in full sun.

For summer crops, besides the aforementioned potatoes, beans (shelling
and string) are quite trouble-free, but of course the deer may get
them. If you have deer, anything you grow will turn into trouble. Cukes
and melons, I also find to be fairly trouble-free, but of course in
part it is because I accept that my cukes will die of disease after a
short bearing season. After you achieve good soil, and if you can water
properly, all sorts of greens become an attractive, trouble-free crop.
After you get - or if you have- loose soil, carrots are a fairly
trouble-free crop.

To really minimize maintenance, you should mulch every square inch of
garden where you do not plan to seed. Plant seedlings by digging
through the mulch, and large seeds like beans, garlic and potatoes also
through the mulch.


I live in medford wisconsin. just about in the exact center of the
state. pretty close to the center of the western hemisphere I guess, 90
lat 45 long (or is that 45 lat and 90 long?)