Northeast Wisconsin Planting Guide

As many of you know I am as interested in gardening as I am in cooking food. If I had it my way I would probably sell all of my possessions, move out to a big plot of land in the countryside and try to live off the land. However, there are all these other pesky things I need to consider like purchasing the land, maintaining property taxes, health insurance, oh and not just up and abandoning my family so I can go be a mountain man.

Maybe when I sort all those things out I can retire the corporate monkey suit.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am obsessed with saving for retirement. Many would confuse that to mean that I love money and I want to be rich. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I am very cheap and I spend frugally because there aren’t a lot of possessions I truly feel I need. I have an old car, that’s paid off. My wife has an old car, that’s paid off. We live in a small inexpensive home. We don’t put anything on credit cards unless it is being paid off right away, and any spare dollar I can find in the budgets gets squirreled away for the future. So what am I getting at here?

Money to me isn’t about building wealth and showing up the Jones’. To me, money means freedom. Freedom from the rat race. Freedom to live life on your terms. Freedom to take advantage of an opportunity that comes your way. If someday I decide I really want to go live off the land, I want the nest egg to do so. If I decide I want to buy a farm and start my own CSA and farmer’s market stand, I want the financial firepower to make it happen. Or if I just decide I want to have more time when I am older to dedicate myself to my hobbies I want the ability to retire 10 years early.

Whether I am a mountain man, have a farmer’s market stand, or just want to retire and get back to a simpler way of life, it all means one thing: I need to know how to garden.

I have been gardening ever since I was living in an apartment that had a balcony to fit my plants. When I finally purchased my own home my first project was to install an elaborate array of raised garden beds in my back yard. I keep my own personal planting guide on my computer that is tailored to Northeast Wisconsin and I am constantly adding information to it as I learn more about each plant. This includes an excel spreadsheet that I have made to keep track of when I should be starting each of my seeds.

I have copied an excerpt from this spreadsheet below as an easy reference guide for any local gardeners. Please note, these are not the only dates that will necessarily work for each plant, but these are the dates that work for me. There are some plants that I may start indoors that others may wish to start outdoors directly in the soil, to an extent some of it can be personal preference, but I am confident you can replicate my dates listed with success.

When to Plant Seeds in Northeast Wisconsin

*Mild -> Moderately Hot peppers are anything tamer than a habanero.
 *Hot peppers are any that are as hot as a habanero or hotter.

I hope you found my Northeast Wisconsin planting guide helpful.  If you haven't tried gardening before I highly recommend giving it a go.  It is not nearly as difficult as it first may seem.  There is no better way to get a greater appreciation for where you food comes from.

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