First Post!

I've come to the conclusion, years too late, to start a blog to keep track of my triumphs and failures trying to grow fruit, veggies and flowers here in my back and front yard in the driftless area of southwest Wisconsin. 

I first started gardening as a young boy in my childhood home in La Crosse, WI.  I helped mom out often with the tomatoes, green beans and other easy to grow veggies.  It wasn't much and I soon lost interest (middle school/high school), but obviously the idea sat in my subconscious brewing and festering for many, many years.

After finally moving out (at 19), going to college (sort of), and renting several upscale (yikes!) rentals, I took my first step back into the world of agriculture.  Planting a few tomato plants next to the garage at our rental (in containers).  They grew great and tasted great.  From there on I continued to grow mainly tomatoes and peppers for the next few years at various places we lived.  I attempted several other veggies, such as sweet corn and broccoli.

During the late 90's a high school  friend's mom, who grew a wide assortment of fruit, had me over to his house.  There I roamed and tasted several fruits.  These included peaches, pears, apples, hardy kiwi, grapes? and a wide assortment of veggies.  I was amazed that you could grow these things in Wisconsin

When my mom bought a house on the upper northside of La Crosse (2000ish), we noticed a tree loaded with orange orbs (apricots).  I noticed the tree was diseased (it was a large tree with a thick trunk) and learned it was probably canker.  I ended up removing the tree (it only set fruit occasionally due to spring frost killing the blossoms).  This really set things in motion because in the process of identifying this disease I made my first post on the Gardenweb forums and started those little gears in my brain moving in all kinds of different directions.


Over the years I always ran into one obstacle with growing fruit....land!  I was always renting, so no way to plant trees that wouldn't bear for at least a year if not longer.  That lasted until 2005 when we moved into our home (that we live in now) during a November snow storm (I hate snow).  It wasn't until spring of 2006 that I was able to plant several peaches (all Reliance/or so I thought), plums (Superior and Alderman), pear (Seckel) and 2 apples (McIntosh and Cortland). 

Over the years I've cut down all the peaches (winter kill/peaches weren't all Reliance) and now only have a few various seedlings (I have no idea what they are), but still have the pear, plums and apples.  Along with that I've added sour cherries (Meteor/Evans Bali), sweet cherries (Stella, Lapins, BlackGold, Kristin), apricots (Puget Gold, Harogem, Tomcot), pears  (Harrow Sweet and Rescue).  Add in many seedlings in pots, wide assortment of flowers, various pine trees and of course a good selection of veggies and you have the makings of the Quarter Acre Orchard.