In mid-April I'm going to be moving into a flat in Madison, Wisconsin
that has several raised veggie gardens in the back yard, as well as
blackberry bushes, pear trees, an apple tree, and grape vines. I'd
like to keep this up while I'm living there, but know nothing about
gardening. Are there veggies that come back every year or do I have
to start from scratch? When do I plant different vegetables (zuchini,
lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, onions) and should I use seeds or what?
Do I have to do anything to the fruit besides pick it?

Hilary wrote:

In mid-April I'm going to be moving into a flat in Madison, Wisconsin
that has several raised veggie gardens in the back yard, as well as
blackberry bushes, pear trees, an apple tree, and grape vines. I'd
like to keep this up while I'm living there, but know nothing about
gardening. Are there veggies that come back every year or do I have
to start from scratch? When do I plant different vegetables (zuchini,
lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, onions) and should I use seeds or what?
Do I have to do anything to the fruit besides pick it?

I'd recommend a really excellent book with a highly unfortunate title:
"Gardening For Dummies." I am not flaming you nor is this
intended to offend. This particular book has the basics of
everything you'll need. It has been very valuable to me, & I've
gardened for many years.

When you plant veggies depend on what zone you're in.
Look it up on the net; search for last frost date for your city/town.
I'm right on the line between Zone 6/7 myself, my last frost date this
year is between April 20-30.

For the rest of your questions, search & study. Good luck,
gardening is fun. It's a thrill to see things grow & produce food
& beautiful flowers.

Minteeleaf

Minteeleaf wrote:

Hilary wrote:

In mid-April I'm going to be moving into a flat in Madison, Wisconsin
that has several raised veggie gardens in the back yard, as well as
blackberry bushes, pear trees, an apple tree, and grape vines. I'd
like to keep this up while I'm living there, but know nothing about
gardening. Are there veggies that come back every year or do I have
to start from scratch? When do I plant different vegetables (zuchini,
lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, onions) and should I use seeds or what?
Do I have to do anything to the fruit besides pick it?

I'd recommend a really excellent book with a highly unfortunate title:
"Gardening For Dummies." I am not flaming you nor is this
intended to offend. This particular book has the basics of
everything you'll need. It has been very valuable to me, & I've
gardened for many years.

When you plant veggies depend on what zone you're in.
Look it up on the net; search for last frost date for your city/town.
I'm right on the line between Zone 6/7 myself, my last frost date this
year is between April 20-30.

For the rest of your questions, search & study. Good luck,
gardening is fun. It's a thrill to see things grow & produce food
& beautiful flowers.

Minteeleaf


Hilary,
I'll add _Gardening in the Upper Midwest_, by Leon C. Snyder to the book
list.

I'm in southern Minnesota, and I usually start planting summer crops
around Memorial Day. I'm planting tomato seeds indoors today (a little
later than I like, but I've been too busy). I am going to try some cool
weather crops this year in April (cabbage, bok choi, onions, sugar
peas). You are much closer to Lake Superior than I am, so your spring
may start earlier and have more stable temperatures than here.

It's gonna be tough growing apples and actually getting any usable fruit
without using pesticides. I spray mine with "Fruit Tree Spray" every 2
weeks after petal drop until late July. Then I spray them twice with
Diazinon to control apple maggots, and I stop spraying them after that.
I only have one tree. I need to investigate "integrated pest
management", or whatever it's called, because I still get too much
insect damage.

Best regards,
Bob

--
Have a Windows® computer that is powered on for hours at a time? Join
the search for a cure for cancer: http://grid.org/projects/cancer/

"Hilary" wrote in message
om...
In mid-April I'm going to be moving into a flat in Madison, Wisconsin
that has several raised veggie gardens in the back yard, as well as
blackberry bushes, pear trees, an apple tree, and grape vines. I'd
like to keep this up while I'm living there, but know nothing about
gardening. Are there veggies that come back every year or do I have
to start from scratch? When do I plant different vegetables (zuchini,
lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, onions) and should I use seeds or what?
Do I have to do anything to the fruit besides pick it?

Brigham Young University www.byu.edu/ has an excellent personal enrichment
course on gardening. It is in two parts and costs $20 for each. Learn about
soil, planning, spacing etc.

Anyway, be sure to enjoy gardening.
--
73 de Bob NS9G

In mid-April I'm going to be moving into a flat in Madison, Wisconsin
that has several raised veggie gardens in the back yard, as well as
blackberry bushes, pear trees, an apple tree, and grape vines. I'd
like to keep this up while I'm living there, but know nothing about
gardening. Are there veggies that come back every year or do I have
to start from scratch? When do I plant different vegetables (zuchini,
lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, onions) and should I use seeds or what?
Do I have to do anything to the fruit besides pick it?


I live in west central Wisconsin. If the blackberries and grapes are
wild, you won't have to do anything with them except pick the fruit.
If they are a domesticated variety, you will probably have to do some
pruning. I don't know much about pear and apple trees. Sorry.

I don't know about Madison, but in this part of the state, we
"generally" feel that we're past frost by the end of the May (you're
about 200 miles south). A few years ago, however, a hard freeze we had
in mid-June was very hard on all of the corn.

Plant lettuce and onions first. We usually plant our onions (from
sets) the first part of May. Lettuce is a cool-weather plant and does
better when it's planted earlier (also the first part of May). If you
buy tomato plants, set them out at the end of May, unless you're
willing to cover them if frost is predicted. If you start tomato
seeds, you can do that indoors now or in the next few weeks. Carrots
won't germinate well until the soil is warm so you might be better off
waiting until toward the end of May. In this area, this is true of
most vegetables started from seed. If you plant them too early and the
soil is cold, they'll just sit there and will rot in the ground, or
they'll wait until the soil warms up and THEN they'll sprout (lettuce
is somewhat of an exception). (Peas are somewhat of an exception, too,
and seem to tolerate cooler temperatures.)

Good luck with your new garden.

LeAnn

http://ruralroute2.com

Hi Hilary,

Not sure whether you are moving within Madison or from somewhere else, but
if it is the later, welcome to Madison!

As a previous poster mentioned, you won't need to do much with the
blackberries and grapes, except prune them back when they start to take
over.

The website for Olbrich Gardens in Madison has some good information for
gardeners, most of which is tailored to our climate: www.olbrich.org.

The Dane County Extension is another good resource:
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/dane/hort/hort.html.

One thing to keep in mind is that, as I understand it, the lakes keep us
about half a USDA zone warmer than the rest of Dane county. The zone here is
5a, rather than 4b. The last killing frost is supposed to be in the last
week of April/first week of May he but I think that is a bit optimistic.
I usually start planting cool weather veggies (lettuce, chard, spinach)
in the first couple weeks of May, then the veggies that like it warmer
around the last week of May.

Personally, I buy tomato and pepper plants, since our season is a bit short
to seed them directly outside, and I never manage to get the seeds started
indoors. Peas, beans, lettuce, zucchini, corn, etc. can all be seeded
directly outdoors. If you go to Jung's or Johannsen's to buy your seeds, the
folks there are a wealth of information, and will be able to give you more
specifics on when to plant what.

Good luck!
Shelly

"Hilary" wrote in message
om...
In mid-April I'm going to be moving into a flat in Madison, Wisconsin
that has several raised veggie gardens in the back yard, as well as
blackberry bushes, pear trees, an apple tree, and grape vines. I'd
like to keep this up while I'm living there, but know nothing about
gardening. Are there veggies that come back every year or do I have
to start from scratch? When do I plant different vegetables (zuchini,
lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, onions) and should I use seeds or what?
Do I have to do anything to the fruit besides pick it?