FOSTERING HEALTHIER SELF-SUFFICIENT, HOME-GROWN ORGANIC GARDENING TIPS, TOOLS, & TECHINIQUES FOR GARDENERS AROUND THE WORLD
Lynn and I welcome you to our Wisconsin Garden website where you can now see all of our new and latest garden videos for free.
Two years ago Lynn started her WisconsinGarden.net website. Now with over 216,000 viewers from 139 countries around the globe watching her personal garden video archive grow, we recently decided to add Wisconsin Garden dot come to our family. WisconsinGarden.net will still continue to archive Lynn's first 300 Video Blogs. So whether you're a first time visitor or loyal subscriber, we will continue to keep you posted on our latest garden adventures and look forward to hearing from you.
We recently released our 26th self-publication Called: “Garden Quotations” 400 Garden Quotes From The Earth To Your Soul”
It's filled with historic proverbs and personal thoughts from writers, artists, philosophers, celebrities, presidents, and avid gardeners from around the world over centuries and Lynn and I would like to give you a digital copy as our “Thank You For Watching” gift.
In addition to our gardening passions, we also teach others how to successfully self-publish their 1st book helping the avoid costly mistakes.
A Fun Read - Get your free copy today!
VISIT OUR "CONTACT US" PAGE TO REQUEST YOUR FREE DIGITAL COPY!
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And YES, We Purchased And Use All Of The Above Products, And More In Our Wisconsin Garden. We only recommend quality Tools & Equipment we've tested and really like and we think you'll like them too. Should you purchase any of the above products you'll also help financially support our mission here at WisconsinGarden.com through an affiliate commission. Thank You!
NOTE: To access more information regarding books, tips, tools, & equipment featured in our video blogs visit our "Q&A RESOURCES" Page to the upper left.
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JOIN OUR TIMELY CONVERSATION regarding: Heirloom Open Air Pollination vs. Gentically Modified GMO seed production industry also on our "Q&A RESOURCES" page. We would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
As we approach 150,000 views on our Wisconsin Garden YouTube Channel alone, we decided to expand our family of Wisconsin Garden websites. We’ve now archived all of Lynn’s first set of 300 garden blog videos on WisconsinGarden.net and starting with Video Blog 301, all of our new garden video blogs will be posted on this new WisconsinGarden.com website. Bookmark us!
GardenSubscription.com will offer up to a 90 percent discount on garden books, tools, and equipment, along with more articles, reviews, books and videos. RIVObooks.com will host all of our own publications, including Lynn’s latest garden book publication called “WI GARDEN Let’s Get Dirty.” GardenDesserts.com is coming soon so stay tuned for more goodies.
600,000 MILES ON CAR OWNED BY 92 YEAR YOUNG LADY FROM FLORIDA
AMAZING - Richard had the unique opportunity to interview 92 year young Rachel M. Veitch (FL) and her incredible 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente she calls “Chariot” nearing 600,000 original miles. This interview took place at the Uptown Motors dealership in Milwaukee on July 14, 2010.
Want to always see what Lynn's up to? CLICK HERE to send her an email and she will keep you updated whenever she posts a new Garden Video Blog.
In addition to our numbered video collection we've reached another milestone, now featuring over 400 Free Garden Blog Videos on our garden websites. Thank you to everyone for clicking the LIKE button, supporting our passion for gardening.
After ignoring our garden this week it screamed at us to see this incredible garden delight. Blooms and blossoms abound everywhere we look, with amazing bouquets of color dazzling our eyeballs and blinding us with their magnificent display. Come join us in the feast of God’s great gift to everyone who takes the time to mingle and live among them.
Every gardener understands the chores of dealing with an unglamourous garden. Today Lynn is having lots of fun digging out clumps of grass, bindweed, Lily of the valley, and maple tree seedlings by the millions. Oh yes, every gardener is an unsung hero when it comes to doing all the dirty work behind the scene.
What to do with a bucket of bulbs that can’t survive colder zones. The solution is to plant them in a bucket or appropriate size container. Today we are planting small Rain Lilies and Paladium bulbs in small containers that we will keep outside near the house until the warm weather sticks around. In Wisconsin that’s not always an easy proposition as the weather can change in a heartbeat. We gardeners are always optimistic.
Today we’re planting our Honeysuckle trellis with flowering vine plant sections adding lots of color to our floral dog fence. Each of five varieties of Honeysuckle and trumpet vines will spread up each of the 10 trellis sections and along the lower fence sections creating a beautiful flowering border, attracting lots of hummingbirds.
Today is a perfect day to planting some of our May Garden vegetables and herbs. Unlike northern Wisconsin with some incredibly crazy weather, with lakes still frozen and 20 plus inches of snow still on the ground, we feel very blessed to be in SE Wisconsin where the cold spring is starting to get back to normal. While we usually wait until May 15th to start planting, we’re starting with veggies that prefer cooler weather.
We’ve replaced our stacked wood berm fence this summer with a new floral dog fence. If you remember in our video blog #309 the city of Brookfield threatened to fine us $5,000 a day if we didn’t remove all the wood from sight, despite it being there for over 20 years. Oh well, everything turned out for the best and we think the dogs will be equally happy knowing their perimeter which will eventually be covered by floral vines.
One of my favorite flowers is giant zinnas. I reserved a garden spot right outside my kitchen door every year just for my zinnia patch. I love seeing their amazing burst of colors and watch butterflies and bees enjoy the feast that until the first frost. I simply prepare my planting surface for casting my seeds then cover them gently with a thin layer of well-aged vegetable compost and water a couple of time each day.
Last fall Richard designed and built a small experimental winter cold-frame Outdoor Greenhouse. I’ve been monitoring the internal temperatures for the past 6 months to see what we might be able to grow over winter. Temps ranged from 4 degrees in mid January to 84 degree yesterday. We now know we can only prolong our growing season a couple of months but also start our seedling earlier, Even though it’s not May 15th, we feel confident we can start some of our vegetable seeds today.
Today we’re moving our indoor garden outdoors and turning off the grow light bank. Our winter experiment is over and we tried a variety of winter vegetables, herbs, and floral cuttings. Come see which ones did really well and the others that failed miserably. Several weeks we started unplugging all the heating pads because the daily temperature starting reaching 90 degrees. We may attempt tropical plant cuttings in the meantime indoors.
Harvesting compost is the equivalent of a gardener striking a rich vein of golden nuggets. When you think of all those vegetable scraps that simply end up in a heap and start their decomposing magic, Mother Nature surely knows how to write the book on natural recycling. The nutrients hidden within this aged compost is absolutely incredible and will be extremely useful throughout our vegetable and flower gardens again. You must compost!
We came across more blueberry plants to add to our blueberry garden area. While these little starter twigs will take several years to fully develop we couldn’t pass them by since they were inexpensively available at a local grocery store. We also thought it was important to introduce a variety of berry species to this area of our garden.
Today it’s time for our Worm Farm Makeover. In our last couple of videos we discussed discarding all of our worm castings because of the Springtail infestation. While we've since learned that it wasn't unusual, in our last video we sterilize our worm farm condo and today we’re starting over. If you never saw how to prepare a worm farm then join us on today’s Wisconsin Garden Video Blog.
In today’s video blog it’s time to sterilize Our Worm Farm Condo and prepare it for the new red wigglers that just arrived. A couple of videos ago we showed you the infestation of tiny worm-like Springtail creatures covering the entire surface of our worm farm. While the worm castings were wonderful, we were waiting for warmer weather here in Wisconsin so that we could release the old worms into our flower garden beds.
For those of us who live in colder zones, today was perfect day (no snow & 65 degrees) for planting our 5 new Earth Day Trees, which include: 2 Dwarf Honey Crisp Apple, 1 Dwarf Bartlett Pear, 1 Dwarf Sweet Cherry, and 1 Purple Ornatment Redbud Spring Flowing Tree, along with a very healthy Blueberry plant to diversify the species in our Blueberry patch area. It feels wonderful being outdoors again.
Three years ago we purchased some Montauk Daisies specimen plants from Monches Farms. Last year it started to get away from us and became rather unruly but they did bloomed throughout late fall until the killing frost. So now that I’ve cut the tops off I’m going to see if I can propagate and root the cuttings in water.
Now that I finished trimming trees it’s time for spring plant trimming as well. I have to cut the grasses down to ground level, uncover the Sedium, trim some perennial specimens, and even give the tea roses a haircut.
It’s time for spring tree trimming so I’m up in the tree deciding which branches and limbs have to go. With the help of some spray paint I’ll start marking the areas for our son Skye to trim. Then we’re off to trim our peach trees and get them ready for their 3rd year harvest.
Cleaning Out The Worm Farm became necessary due to an invasion of little white jumping creatures. Instead of putting all the contents in our vegetable gardens, we decided to put them around our trees. Even the worm tea and worm castings will make a delicious brew for our new trees. The new red wigglers are on their way so my next step is to clean and sterilize our worm condo for the new batch and start over.
OK, it’s April 15th and it’s finally stopped snowing – maybe I say with crossed fingers. Enough snow already, we need warmer weather. Last week I hit solid ice under the mulch trying to plant some arborvities. It’s been cold and raining (6 inches last week) and even a light dusting of snow crystals yesterday. At least they melted! I don’t know about you but I sure would like to get into our garden areas. Here’s a quick update
After months of winter we have more than cabin fever we have Garden Fever. Yes, the snow is still on the ground but it’s almost 50 degrees and sunny. While we can’t really plant anything yet, there’s a lot of bushes and trees that need trimming. So here’s what we’re up to today.
Today is the first day of spring and the Vernal Equinox with at least 10’ of snow still blanketing our Wisconsin Garden! Arrrrrh! So we move inside to demystify the old myth of standing an egg on its end to prove that eggs don’t need equal gravity between the Earth and the sun on the Vernal Equinox to stand on its end. We do it just for the fun of it.
We recently released our 26th self-publication Called: “Garden Quotations” 400 Garden Quotes From The Earth To Your Soul”
It's filled with historic proverbs and personal thoughts from writers, artists, philosophers, celebrities, presidents, and avid gardeners from around the world over centuries and Lynn and I would like to give you a digital copy as our “Thank You For Watching” gift.
Simply visit our “CONTACT US” page and request our latest book or email Lynn directly at lynn@WisconsinGarden.com.
In addition to our gardening passions, we also teach others how to successfully self-publish their 1st book helping the avoid costly mistakes.
March is almost here so it’s time to start planting your cold weather crops. Yes, if you have some warm indoor space, this is the perfect time to start planting your broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and spinach seeds. The rule of thumb suggests starting these seeds 10-12 weeks prior to the last frost date in your northern growing zone.
Your local coffee shops may already have a free coffee grounds program in your neighborhood. Caribou coffee just launched one in ours giving away lots of freebies you can use in your garden as well. Just think of all your acidic trees, plants, and bushes that thrive in acidic soils. Here’s what we received today. If you want a FREE PH list of acidic loving plants send us an email at (Lynn @ WisconsinGarden.com).
Kids of all ages look forward to enjoying a snow day adventure. This was one of those very special days where every tree and bush was flocked and covered with a beautiful snow frosting. Unlike the huge 38” snow storms on the east coast our little 7” snowfall left a pretty incredible visual winter wonderland here in Wisconsin. Take a peak at our day’s adventure.
How about having a snow day garden project with your kids or grandchildren? Without spending a lot of money you can find and recycle all sort of common items around the house or apartment to create these micro climate indoor gardens. Here’s what we did on our Wisconsin Garden snow day!
The San Ysidro Ranch offers one of the finest restaurants that create their own home-grown gardens that compliment the entrees of the growing season’s vegetables, herbs, and fruits. Considered America’s Riviera, The San Ysidro Ranch Resort in Montecito California, is consider the 4th top resort in the world serving celebrities and statesmen, including actor Ronald Coleman who turned it into a hotel for celebrities in the 1900s. Others include, President John F. Kennedy & Jacqueline Kennedy, Sir Winston Churchill, Audrey Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Bing Crosby, Robert Young, David Niven, Vivien Leigh & Sir Laurence Olivier, Gweyneth Paltrow & Chris Martin who recently exchanged vows here, and now Lynn from Wisconsin Garden.
The words Alcatraz Gardens doesn't immediately come to mind when you think of Jail, Prison, and Incarceration. But just off San Francisco Bay lies a little island called Alcatraz which is now a national park. Originally an Army fortress adorned with beautiful gardens, the Bureau of Prisons took it over in 1933, lobbied and trained inmate gardeners to help maintain these historic garden areas. Come take a quick visual tour of Alcatraz and the colorful gardens both present and past.
What a delight it is to be producing our 100th video blog here in the Redwood Forest at Muir Woods National Monument and State Park. Rick and I always wanted to see the majesty of this amazing garden that nature provided and mankind had the wisdom to preserve. While the Giant Sequoias are older and thicker, don't miss the opportunity to visit these taller gems just north of San Francisco. Absolutely breathtaking!
We’re exploring one of the oldest Missionary sites in California, the Mission in Santa Barbara California. We came to see what grows well in different areas of the country. Come along with us as we respectfully explore the historic lush interior gardens of this beautiful and holy sanctuary.
Here’s a fun recycling project for the whole family that kids of all ages enjoy creating. Now anyone can have a table top garden terrarium using any kind of a removable cover, including reusing 2 liter soda bottles.
Video Blog 75a – My Gourds Revised Video Jan 31, 2013
Decorating my gourds has become one of my favorite artistic winter passions. After growing them in my garden all year and allowing them to cure for a couple of years, I prep my gourds giving them a water and bleach bath, firmly scrubbing off the moldy surface then drying before I can begin the creative process of creating my art gourds and spirit dolls.
Video Blog 68a – Gourd Art Revised Video Jan 31, 2013
Even gardener’s needs a fun thing to do when the growing season ends. One of my passions is creating Gourd Art into Spirit Dolls from gourds grown in my garden. In my earlier videos I discuss the multiple stages required to properly prepare them for artistic rendering. Here’s where my creative process begins.
Several years ago I planted the first of my Elephant Ear bulbs. After that first frost it was time to dig them up and prepare them for their winter hibernation so that each year they could multiply. Here’s an updated video on what I do to save them in order to expand their glorious foliage each planting season.
Making applesauce is a great excuse for a Saturday visit to your local farmer’s market. Today we brought home 50 pounds of mixed apple seconds and filled our kitchen with one of the sweetest aromas fall has to offer. Watch my helper stir and taste test my first batch.
Here’s how I make some delicious Strawberry Treats that I freeze, juice, and make strawberry leather rollups. So when the harsh winter snows cover your summer garden, here’s a great way for you and your family to relive eating delicious organic strawberries with a flavor that just can’t be beat.
Here it is January 29th and we’re having a January heat wave. Go figure it may reach 60 degrees today with flood warnings and tomorrow we’re expecting near zero temperatures with a weather watch snow warning up to 6 inches of snow. Guess it’s time to get out the swim suit, if only for one day.
After several weeks of coughing and sneezing we’re back with our indoor garden update. As most of the United States is dealing with really cold weather, here in Wisconsin we’ve been dealing with several days of sub zero weather. Check out what we had to do with some of our indoor screen porch greenhouse plants to avoid freezing plants.
Even in the dead of winter the January Garden keeps growing thanks to our local farm growers. We often visit our indoor farmer’s market at State Fair grounds in the Tommy Thompson building every Saturday morning. Jenn Farms is one of our favorite stops along with Valentine coffee and Whittgreve’s Rolling Meadows. Unfortunately we missed the spinach this time but picked up these goodies. Come make smoothies with us.
Here we are between the garden holiday of Christmas and New Year and it’s time to do some basic maintenance. Today I’m updating indoor and outdoor greenhouses, creating new worm beds, harvesting worm castings, and thinning and transplanting some basil and lettuce. Happy New Year everyone!
It will be difficult to resist this yummy apple snicker salad once you try it. Here’s another delicious salad recipe that we found on Pinterest we wanted to share. With just a few basic ingredients and maybe 5-10 minutes of your time, you’ll soon add this sweet fruit salad for your next party or family get-together. Try it and let us know how you liked it.
If you haven’t heard of baked pickles as a holiday treat, you may want to give this simple yet delicious vegetable a try. With just a few simple ingredients and 15 minute of your time, you’ll create some quick and tasty H’orderves perfect for any occasion. Try substituting crunched potato chips, pretzels, or even cereals for a variety of toppings on your favorite pickles.
Today was our first measurable snowfall just in time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas From Wisconsin. Rick and I wish the very best blessings for you and your family. Give your children a hug, hold the close, mend all broken fences, and help foster Peace On Earth Goodwill To All Mankind! From our Wisconsin Garden to Yours - We Send You Lots Of Warm Hugs.
Soda bottle bird feeders are pretty easy to create using recycled plastic bottles of any size. With winter coming our little feathered friends appreciate these treats. Here is one we created using a typical 2 liter soda bottle adapted from a screw on kit we purchased at our local American Scientific surplus store also available online.
Now that our indoor garden is thriving it’s time to automate our garden thermostat. When it gets too hot and more importantly too cold here in Wisconsin, it’s nice to put our garden heating pad on a thermostatic system to help maintain temperature control averaging 55-65 degrees over the winter months.
At least twice a year I end up transplanting African Violets. The ones I transplanted last time have been growing and developing on my kitchen window sill and our southern dining room window area. You can see how I use a self-wicking system to automatically water them in glass baby jars.
Have you noticed early winter budding on your trees, bushes, and bulbs? We were shocked to find our fruit trees, flowering trees, Forsythia bush, and daphodils. You really need to se what we found happening in our zone 5 Wisconsin Garden.
Inspired by ‘Dave’ our Avocado bush/tree, it’s time to create an Indoor Avocado Grove with all the new seeds sprouting on my northkitchen window sill. It’s amazing to see how differently the indoor and outdoor growing approaches developed, one stocky, the other tall and lanky.
Every houseplant has a life span but many benefit with a little houseplant first aid. It’s a good idea to take a closer look whenever a plant starts to lose it’s spunk. A little first aid can give a houseplant new life. Here’s what I did with a plant I received 3 years ago that needed some TLC.
Here are the initial results of a Beta testing phase for our portable greenhouse update. We're keeping a daily temperature chart, placing bales of straw around our greenhouse, and testing both digital and standard thermometers. Check out our beta test.
We’re creating an experimental portable PVC Greenhouse for our Wisconsin winter. After creating PVC framework we’ll cover it with a thermal blanket fabric and see how well it handles this coming winter. If Richard does not behave himself, maybe he’ll be using it as his little doghouse. Just kidding! Excited to start planting!
Here's the Garden Fabric We Used For This Project!
Late fall is a great time of year to prepare a garden lasagna with layers of compost, leaf mulch, and organic matter to enrich your garden soil each and every year. Remember, your garden is only as good as your soil, whether you’re growing in mounds, raised beds, or containers. Feed your garden soil the nutrients it needs now during this important resting period.
Here’s what happened the first 11 days in this indoor garden update. The little seeds have sprouted and are beginning to develop very happy roots. Take a peak at how things are progressing,
Now that the official pre-winter windchill is in the air we’ve creating an indoor garden. With our tropical plants inside, our new indoor greenhouse in place and worm casting ready to go, we’re going to start planting vegetable indoors over the winter. We’re planting carrots, lettuce, spinach and some herbs for starters. Come see what we’ve been up to!
Today is our first time harvesting worm castings from our red worms we started a couple of months ago. We’ll also be collecting the juicy concentrated nutrients to help fertilize our house plants this winter as well as drying the rich soil and worm castings left behind in the bottom layer of our 5 tier worm farm condo.
It’s time for our yearly elephant ears update. Now that fall has arrived it’s time to dig up all of our elephant ear bulbs, separate, dry, and store them over the winter in a cool dark space. Here’s what we do to harvest and winterize our bulbs.
Two years ago we decided to create a grape vine structure we thought would be ample in size. After visiting vineyards in California we knew we had underestimated the height of our tiny vineyard structure. So here’s our latest solution.
Halloween season is a great time to consider winterizing Geraniums and extend your indoor flower garden or simply keep them semi dormant until next spring. Here are some Geranium cutting, propagation, and drying techiques to help get you started. Hope this video wasn’t tooooo scary! Happy Halloween everyone!
Every year we winterize iris to discourage Iris borer infestation which can destroy any beautiful iris bed. Plus, every 3-4 years it’s wise to dig them up, separate them and eliminate any bulb that looks suspicious. Trimming Iris leaves down to 4” in fall can help. You also want to remove all dead iris leaves and avoid putting them into your compost piles.
We never attempted Tamarack cuttings before as we’ve simply trimmed them to keep them shaped and under control. This year we wanted to see if Tamarack propagation rooted easily or even at all.
Our final cotton plant update for this season turned out to be an enjoyable experience for us and our grandson. While our cotton plant never had the full opportunity to mature, watching the flowers turn into seed buds gave us a better idea of what to expect next time we plant one.
Yes, it’s that time of year when we start clearing the garden of all the old plants and take them to our recycling center. Despite the incredible hot summer our garden was bountiful and prolific, especially the tomatoes. It’s also a great time to start thinking about what plants will do well in certain areas and what new plants you’d like to try next year.
Now that our winter garden area is prepped, it’s time to install our garden posts that will give us more options throughout the coming years. We will be able to create a garden enclosure or add garden fencing to our raised beds in our north garden area. Thanks to Miquel and Manny for helping me install 22 new posts in about 5 hours without an aching back.
Now that fall is here, the brisk morning winds create a beautiful palette of falling leaves. Enjoy this musical treat Rick put together as we walk under the majestic crunchy colors that spread a blanket of organic mulch over Mother Earth.
Our Night Garden is our first night time video. Today Rick built a 3” x 5” x 3” indoor green house inside our screen porch. We decided to experiment with growing winter lettuce, spinach, mini carrots, beets, and some herbs. Now that the growing system and heating pads are on, the enclosure is finish and ready for plants. Check out our short video!
Fall is officially here and it’s time to start prepping our winter garden areas for Spinach, Kale, Beets, Lettuce, Carrots, herbs, and perhaps some other goodies. But first, we need to clear out the old plants, rototill the soil, and add compost to our raised beds. Because they are raised beds, we know this area will probably not survive the coldest temperatures.
Our experiment with planting peony tree seeds in containers this summer needed to be transferred into the garden soil to germinate. They like cooler weather and thanks to the help of Steve, one of our viewers, he encouraged us to be patient and shared his approach to planting peony trees. Thanks Steve!
Fall is a great time for planting more bulbs and this year we’re introducing several hundred more throughout our garden areas. With the introduction of more exotic species it keeps many gardeners searching for more color, texture, and variety which has now become an addictive passion.
It’s time to start planting new bulbs in a garden area we discussed in our last video. We’ve removed clusters of bulbs we’ll be sharing with others and introducing two new varities of tulip bulbs, Red Wing and Carrousel. We love their fringing characteristics and so do the deer. That’s why this grouping is now next to our house.
Digging up old bulbs every 4-5 years is a necessary task for every gardener. Depending on the maturity, healthy bulbs multiply each year and eventually start crowding out each other as they begin competing for nutrients. Overcrowding can cause bulbs to lose color, develop oddly shaped foliage, and even lose their flowering ability.
Today we’re removing invasive plants that a couple of years ago my husband encouraged me to add along the front edge of our corner garden area as a ground cover. Fall is a great time to divide, share, or rearrange the existing plants in your garden and that’s what we’re doing this morning.
With over 186,000 visits, thanks to many requests we’re glad to take you on our latest Fall Walkabout so you can compare it to our spring and June garden walkabouts. This fall garden tour is about 30 minute in length. Enjoy! Love all of your supportive questions and comments. Keep them coming!
One of the easier gardens to grow is a Salsa Garden. Even if you’re all thumbs, all it takes is a simple garden area or a couple of basic patio containers and you’re ready for a delicious tasty treat of home made salsa. Here’s a great little video that shows you how to create and personalize taste bud treats you’ll not easily forget.
Today is officially the first day our Fall Equinox Harvest, let’s go out into our garden areas and show you what we’ve picked. Last night it even snowed in areas of Wisconsin and tonight we’re having our first frost warning. While our flowers and vegetables survived the first frost without covering anything, we did cover several plants this evening just in case..
Drying Zucchini is a great way to condense and preserve this vegetable for soups and salads. Dehydration is a great tool for gardeners and an economic way to save money when seasonal fruits and vegetables are on sale.
Today we decided to give the call in the tree professionals for a snake willow trim. Unfortunately, fast growing softwood trees in our area need lots of attention otherwise a strong wind storm will topple a top heaving tree like ours. Just as hard as it is to elect wanting a drastic haircut, so is the task of trimming softwood trees like our snake willow. Thank goodness hardwoods trees grow more slowly, require less maintenance, and have strong deep roots.
Coleus cuttings are one of the easiest methods to expanding this plant around your garden or bring in for the winter months. While cuttings readily root in water we decided to use a root hormone to track this method of rooting. Here’s a short video of what I look for.
Aren’t sunflowers absolutely beautiful? We think so, and while we have fewer this year, the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks continue to keep spreading them all around our property unless Lynn stomps the heads into other garden areas. And to think our sunflower patch all started with Lynn’s father giving her Russian sunflower seeds to plant many years ago.
Here’s our outdoor Avocado update. Earlier this year Richard’s sister Barbara and her husband Dave sent us some avocados from their California orchard. Normally we start our Avocado seeds indoors and wanted to see what would happen if we planted one in our outdoor garden area.
Now that our Yucca plants has matured and bloomed for the first time, it’s time to harvest our Yucca seeds. While we enjoy the several plants we already have, we didn’t want the seeds to broadcast themselves and spread. So we are beginning to collect the mature seed pods. Also wanted to update you on our little cotton plant which is also maturing.
Due to many questions we’ve received here’s our worm condo update. After filming this video we realized we added new bedding to the wrong worm farm container and simply moved eveything back to the top of layer 2. I doubt if any of the worms minded. As a side note, no worms were harmed in the making of this video. Sorry, couldn’t resist.
For the most part we finished planting the areas related to the official $5,000 a day warning. As soon as the weather cools down a little we will head to the recycling center for a final load of mulch. We hope we’ve complied to all that’s required, in good faith, to appease the city of Brookfield inspector’s warning.
Freezing Peaches is a great way to preserve them and less time consuming than canning them. Now that we harvested several bushels of peaches from our 2 peach trees, they are ripe for preserving. What a great way to enjoy the fruits of your labor especially in the dead of winter. Yummy!
Here’s my powdery mildew solution formula that I spray on my plants. It consists of a mixture of water, Murphy’s Oil, and baking soda into a spray bottle and I’m armed and ready to attack any plant with a mildew problem.
I’d like to update you on my gourd patch and how they are progressing. I’ll also show you some of my gourds that are still drying and curing along with some of my gourds that have already been prepared for my art designs.
Every now and then we come across an amazing mushroom discovery around different areas of our garden. Here’s a brief cross section of some of the fungal kingdom we’ve discovered over the last couple of years.
Here’s an update from our $5,000 A Day Warning Video. Now that all our wood berm has been officially removed it’s time to address new mound plantings. We’ve made our perrenial plant selections; 21 Chrysanthemums, 6 Asters, 11 Grasses, 2 Roses, and 5 Bluebeards. With some help from our neighbor, we planted everything in less than 5 hours. Thanks Ginger for your help, muscles, and enjoyable company!
Still flying under the public radar lays a timely topic over deadly concerns surrounding access and usage of certified Heirloom seeds vs. Genetically Modified seed production that is forcing farmers out of business via an agricultural treadmill system. It’s estimated that the “Big 6” now control the majority of patented seed production and smaller partner seed companies currently distributing their GMO seeds through a multitude of repackaging outlets worldwide. The ultimate question remains, “Will heirloom seed plants be finally destroyed through open air GMO cross-pollination?” Join this discussion on our Wisconsin Garden Q&A Resources Page.
Here’s a spontaneous simple little video capturing butterflies and bees that graced our garden path today. It’s a short little video that doesn’t interupt the beauty of their search for nectar. Enjoy!
At this year’s Wisconsin State Fair we met a beautiful young girl selling Hawaiian Plumeria cuttings. After talking with her we decided to add 3 different color species to our indoor flowering plant collection. It’s pretty simple and something you may be interested in planting yourself. We also take a quick look at our little Cotton Plant.
Here’s another daily video blog update regarding our August 18th Harvest in the north garden areas. While the weather has been much cooler here in Wisconsin, we recently received almost an inch of rain so now tomato production has lessened a little bit. But it’s akso time to start pulling up some onions and garlic.
Yesterday we received an official notice from the city of Brookfield giving us a $5,000 A Day Wood Warning and possible imprisonment if we don’t get rid of wood berm the city considers garden debris within 3 weeks. Anyway the Craigslist response for our wood has been incredible to the point we had to immediately delete our ad as we began receiving more requests than the amount of wood that we had on hand, again turning a lemon into sweet lemonade warming the future hearths of many.
Having an indoor grow light system comes in very handy year-round, especially if you live in cold northern climates. Whether starting seeds for your garden, propagating plants, or having an indoor winter garden, here’s the growing systems we recently added to our garden that’s perfect for the garage, basement, or spare room.
It’s amazing to see how much our peach trees have grown. We planted 2 peach trees last spring and after this incredibly hot summer and with storm warnings on the horizon we think it’s time to pick, sort, wrap, and start the exciting process of ripening peaches. Many of the branches are weighed down and we didn’t want to wake up in the morning to see them broken or peaches on the ground badly bruised.
In garden maintenance part 4, this is our final mission for the day as it’s time to walk around our flower beds, pull out weeds, and trim over-grown bushes and trees.
In garden maintenance part 3, this is the third task for the day where I’m also pulling out some squash and cucumber plants that didn’t survive the heat and planting some potatoes.
In garden maintenance part 2, this is the second task for the day and I’m pulling out some old garden plants and planting a second crop of peas and carrots.
In garden maintenance part 1, I decided to finish an entrance walkway that our son Skye installed last year. Now that we’ve had a little break from the heat and drought, it’s time to complete some of the unglamourous garden maintenance jobs that need to be addressed.
Yesterday we created video #301 called Full Moon Harvest where we collected at least 50 pounds of tomatoes. Now it’s time to enter the kitchen and start canning tomatoes. And for those who are new to our garden websites or YouTube channel, video blog #181 also covered this topic, while this video covers what our garden just produced this week.
Yes I’m hot and sweaty again picking a full moon harvest earlier in the day before it simply gets too hot to be out in our garden. It’s August 1st and today I’m harvesting around 50 pounds of tomatoes, some for our neighbors, some for canning, and some for our own eating pleasure. If you’re new to canning tomatoes, watch our Wisconsin Garden Video Blog #181 Canning Tomatoes to help get you started.
CLICK HERE To Access ALL 300 Previous Archived Garden Videos.
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So, you really want to know what else Lynn and I have been up to lately? For those of you who know us best, you know that we do things in a grand manner. Every year we set out to accomplish lots of new goals. While our passions are diverse, yet compatible, they are always thoroughly creative and enjoyable. After all, if you're not having fun in life, why bother!
We've always pursued our entrepreneurial spirit and over the years we started several business ventures. We met an interesting woman who told us about her latest work on the Internet. It sounded rather new and exciting and we eventually asked her to help us set up our first online website in 1993.
Little did we know back then how important it would become for our enterprise venture to establish itself online. Four years later our business incorporated in order to deal with larger companies.
Over the years we gained a great deal of experience recording and archiving megabytes and terabytes of valuable information. Who knows, we may all be on our way to gathering Petabytes, Exabytes, and maybe a few Zettabytes. And that brings us to the purpose of this website.
2012 is the year we dedicated to self-publishing. And on January 2, 2012 we submitted our first book series "Action Headlines - That Drive Emotions". It turned into 6 volumes, with a 7th in the works.
As of March 3, 2012, we've published 21 books on a variety of niche topics that focuses on inspirational marketing ideas for entrepreneurs, online and offline small businesses, Internet marketers, ad specialists, professional speakers, teachers and students seeking to improve their skills in learning how to paint dreams, sell ideas, and ultimately market their message.
If you were thinking you'd like to finally publish a book idea you have, but don't know how or where to start, we'll be glad to show you how we do it and how to get started in the right direction. All you need to do is Ask!
Lynn and I welcome you to our RIVO Books - Digital Bookshelf website.
It's time to get dirty in the garden. Yes, we just released our 21st book this year and our “WI Garden – Let’s Get Dirty” publication is now available as a helpful guide helping you start your first garden. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or newbie, you’ll enjoy the tips and techniques we use to produce a healthier home grown organic garden.
92 year young Rachel M. Veitch (FL) and her incredible 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente “Chariot” nearing 600,000 original miles interviewed by Richard on July 14, 2010.
His "Digital Quilt" series was meant to be a multi-layered optical illusion composition wherein each work was based upon an kaleidoscopic abstraction of a person, place, or object in our life and our Wisconsin Garden environment. Each original canvas section is 38" x 38".
DPC # 2626 "Butterfly Circle" by Artist Richard Voigt (RIVO)
Here’s one of over 500 38" x 38" sections of Richard's Digital Quilt Series inspired by butterflies feeding on a small flower bed outside our kitchen entrance.
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As we approach 150,000 views on our Wisconsin Garden YouTube Channel alone, we decided to expand our family of Wisconsin Garden websites. We’ve now archived all of Lynn’s first set of 300 garden blog videos on WisconsinGarden.net and starting with Video Blog 301, all of our new garden video blogs will be posted on this new WisconsinGarden.com website. Bookmark us! 
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Interview 
Interview 
DPC # 2626 "Butterfly Circle" by Artist Richard Voigt (RIVO)