Full Stack Gardener is a journal of firsthand experience from an organic kitchen garden in South-East Wisconsin. What began with a few tomatoes and peppers in patio pots grew over eighteen years into a 2,000-square-foot (185-square-meter) garden of raised beds, climbing vegetables, indoor winter greens, and harvests preserved for the cold months ahead. These articles and photographs document our 2018 growing season and share the experiments, practical ideas, and lessons that may be useful in other gardens.
Gardening in USDA Hardiness Zone 5B means working with a short outdoor season. Our winters are long and freezing, leaving four reliable warm months—from June through September—to grow outside. To make the most of that window, our strategy is to choose crops that give multiple harvests, plant them closely in untreated-lumber raised beds, and train vining plants vertically on sturdy steel cattle-panel trellises.
Neither of us started out as experienced gardeners. Over the years we learned through trial, mistakes, gardening books, and the generosity of experienced local gardeners, organic farmers, and neighbors who shared cold-climate seeds, worm castings, compost, and practical advice on foliar feeding, vertical trellising, and soil care. Friends and family also showed us that favorite Asian gourds and specialty vegetables could thrive in a northern backyard when started indoors ahead of the season.
Expanding from two small raised beds to three fenced gardens and two open plots taught us how to stretch a summer harvest across all twelve months. What we do not eat fresh is pressure-canned, pickled, dehydrated, or frozen, while indoor trays of microgreens and wheatgrass supply fresh greens through the middle of winter. We are grateful to the gardeners who helped us along the way, and we hope these notes prove useful and enjoyable in your own garden.
Thank you for visiting our garden.