Wisconsin Garden Introduction

Hello Everybody:

I am Warren Buckles, Mary Sousa's brother. I live in Madison, Wisconsin, USA with my wife, Wendy. We own a farm about 100 miles (160 km) Northwest of Madison.

Here’s a map of the North Central part of the US with placemarks showing Madison and our farm.


View Larger Map

Here's an aerial photo of our farm, taken in the Summer of 2008:

As you know, soil reflects the history of a place, and our farm's soil is no exception. As of today it is an alkaline (pH 7.2-7.4) clay loam. 

Europeans settled the area in the mid-19th century and our farm was homesteaded in 1856. At that time the hilltops were open prairie dotted with a few large oak trees (an oak savanna ecosystem) and the valleys were dense forests.

The early European settlers plowed the hilltop prairies, breaking up the thick mat of roots formed by the native grasses. This exposed the soil to erosion by wind and rain.

Wasteful farming practices, such as frequent plowing, poor drainage control, overgrazing and overplanting, stripped the hilltops of soil.

Today there are many places on our farm where the clay base layer is covered with just a few centimeters of soil. The original prairies are gone. Much of the original topsoil was carried away by the wind or washed into the valleys. The valleys have been stripped of their original trees. Although trees have grown back in the valleys, the diversity and quality of the former woodlands has not returned.

By the late 19th century Wisconsin was primarily a wheat producing state, but, as in other parts of the world, this monoculture contributed to the spread of wheat rust, and the wheat-based farm economy collapsed.

Over the next few decades a new economic base was built. This was based on dairy farming. Here is a simplified version of the five-year dairy farm crop cycle:

First year: corn (maize)
Second year: oats or other annual oversown with alfalfa
Third through fifth years: alfalfa hay production and/or grazing
Sixth year: repeat first year
.
.
.

The alfalfa hay planting usually includes other perennial grains (rye, for example) and pasture forbs. These offset the decline in alfalfa production during the latter part of the cycle.

We bought our farm in September 1999. At that time the area where we built our new house was alfalfa pasture near the end of its planting cycle. During 2000 we planted grass around the house along with some trees and a few native prairie plants. We also worked to clear a space for our garden.

Our neighbors plowed the pasture for us. We used a mechanical tiller and shovels to form seven raised planting beds. These beds are about 9 meters long and about a meter wide and are hilled up about 30 cm above the walkways. We also put in a low fence to keep out the local fauna.

Our first garden was planted in the spring of 2001. We have planted seven more gardens since then and learn new lessons every year.

As of last week (28 February 2009) our garden was still covered with snow. Here’s what it looks like from the roof of our porch (looking to the South):





We have made a diagram of our plantings each year. Here is our 2001 garden:

During the 2005 season I kept a photographic record of the garden. This started in June shortly after the sweet corn patch went in and continued into November when the first snow fell. Here is a diagram of our 2005 garden:

The garden photos are arraigned in four sets of views – the cornfield alone, the whole garden looking North, the whole garden looking Northwest and the whole garden looking Southeast. The photos are setup in slideshows, so you can either look at them one-by-one or click on the ‘view – slideshow’ dropdown in the upper left or use the ‘>’ play button on the bottom center. Also note that I use the US Month-Day-Year dating sequence, so a photograph labeled ‘6-10-05’ was taken on 10 June 2005, not 6 October (!).

W&W 2005 Garden Corn Patch Views

W&W 2005 Garden North Views

W&W 2005 Garden Northwest Views

W&W 2005 Garden Southeast Views

If you are interested in further information about our farm as well as many (too many?) more photographs, visit my website at: http://warrenbuckles.com/

Regards,

Warren Buckles