Getting outside during the summer is every Wisconsinites’ superpower. We wring each moment of light and warmth we can out of the sky. We absorb vitamins through our skin and heart while outside clipping. But this summer, yikes! I have been getting up at five, not just because our kitty wants to be fed, but because it’s too hot to work outside later in the day. The installation of my new metal edging is going very slowly – it’s hard to cut a trench evenly with an improvised painter’s tool (thanks to Tommy at ACE Hardware for this hack!) when my eyes are full of sweat and my hat creates a heat dome on my head.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
This humidity reminds me of living in St. Louis, where everyone’s skin was dewy and youthful but we were all moldy. Milwaukee’s unusually muggy air points to a changing climate. If you add in the particulate matter from wildfires burning across the country and Canada, it’s a reminder that, while we’ve had more rain this year, there is a blazing drought out west. We’re lucky we haven’t had such extreme weather, but I’ve missed my temperate Milwaukee summer. I’ll be looking to August to make up for my lost garden time – good luck to us all!
Great things are happening in the garden despite the heat. Some of my plants love the rain and humidity and are wearing lush petticoats of foliage as a result. Although I had half as many peonies this year as last, the astilbes have gone mad. I moved my birdbath to a better location for them – where they can scan for predators – and a clear viewing path for me. I know my numbers are up because of all the poop they leave behind, and our back neighbor mounted a plastic owl on her deck to shoo them away. Success!
I have been gathering lots of lettuce and green beans to eat, and am on my fourth batch of pesto, most of it given away. (I must remember to freeze some for a winter solstice dinner as a reward for making it through the shortest day of the year.) My new garden hack is making a banana soak that gives a low dose boost of potassium, calcium and magnesium to plants. Take two or three banana peels, cut them up, put them in a jar, add water, then let the peels soak for one or two days. I apply the potassium juice to my hydrangeas and toss the peels onto my compost. Is it my imagination or are my hydrangea blooms bigger, brighter and fuller this year?
I am serious about a fall planting but am having mixed results. My second bed of kale is not very robust – I chalk it up to too much shade for these cranky customers. I started bush beans and dill inside then moved them out and threw down more beans. Everything is doing well. I have been saving money by starting perennials by seed. This year’s lupines have come up, but I just discovered they have long taproots so I better transplant them soon otherwise they will be impossible to move.
I was recently brushed back by a fuzzy brown moth with wings larger in the front than back (a Carolina sphinx moth?) and noticed some branches on one tomato plant withering away. Coincidence? I did not see any tobacco hornworms – we’ve had run-ins before – but I am seeing plenty of wasps who can take care of this problem (look up parasitized hornworms – you won’t forget the image). This is the gardener’s dilemma: I want more pollinators that come from these plant-sucking caterpillars but not at the expense of a whole plant and its fruit. Sorry hornworm, I’m keeping an eagle eye on my tomatoes to stop you in your tracks (and track and tracks).
I do love cut flowers. I’m sure it’s from growing up in Canada where our seasons were even shorter than they are here. Bright bouquets add to the “lively aesthetic,” as my mother says, of our house. The perennial bed that runs north-south to the deck is my “cutting” bed, but I snip samples from everywhere, always leaving lots of blooms for everyone to eat.
Are Swiss chard’s delicate leaves so delicious that the slugs can’t stay away? Normally I apply Neem oil and diatomaceous earth to prevent the carnage, but I need to reapply both every time it rains. I tried beer in a cup once, but you need a lot of cups and beer, and do we really need more Wisconsin drinking? I have laced the edge of my chard bed with copper mesh. I’ll report back if this allows me to pick the leaves for a nice chard bruschetta. Even if your garden space is full, we gardeners are always looking for new plants to try. I use PlantNet to satisfy my plant envy and to identify plants whose tags have gone awol. Try it when you’re out and about, you’ll find something to add to your 2026 list!
I have four pairs of clippers – how many do you have? I keep my green doll house-sized clippers inside for bouquet fine-tuning, and I have three beefy pairs ready for when I misplace one in the garden. In a recent podcast from Joe Gardener (aka Joe Lamp’l) I was reminded to (ahem) clean my clippers to reduce transmission of any fungi across the garden. I soaked them all in isopropyl alcohol, then used steel wool to clean the blades. I bought my own handheld sharpening tool next door at ACE Hardware to keep my cuts sharp. I love buying the right tool for the right job to make myself self-sufficient.
Finally, there are many other ways to just get outside. (Thanks to my friend Frankie, part of my Tosa Wildlife Habitat group, for her constant and inspiring refrain.) Take a break from sweating at home and go enjoy the regional gems listed below that reinforce Wisconsin’s incredible legacy supporting and restoring our ecological landscape. Check out our unique cultural sites of the region too. Apply your Wisconsin superpower to August – continue giving to your garden but make sure you enjoy the world outside too.
A Few Gardening Resources
GET OUTSIDE
- Go visit Aldo Leopold’s weekend shack and the world’s second prairie restoration site (watch out for mosquitoes!) in Baraboo, WI. The first prairie restoration site on earth is Leopold’s work at the UW-Madison Arboretum.
- While you’re in Baraboo, don’t forget to visit the International Crane Foundation. The cranes from around the globe are captivating, and the ICF folks are trying to get them back outside too.
- Also near Baraboo is the Man Mound National Historic Landmark, the last remaining humanoid effigy mound on earth (look at it, don’t walk on it!).
- To understand how artists expand our relationship to the land, visit the Lynden Sculpture Garden to see art in ground and above the ground.
- The Wormfarm Institute, centered in Reedsburg, WI, gives opportunities to artists of all stripes to explore local and global agricultural, spiritual and artistic traditions that frame anew our ancient and contemporary connection to the land.
EDUCATION
- My favorite source for garden hacks is Creative Explained, a guy who looks like Lin Manuel Miranda with the energy of a classic surfer dude high on life.
- I enjoy Joe Gardener’s podcast, but there are a million garden blogs and site you can find on-line—choose a few to learn new things!
- See the Wisconsin Wildlife Action Plan, from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, for information on conservation and protection of species and their habitats. I’ve gotten the names of a few rare native species from this list!
SUSTAINABLE GARDEN INFORMATION
- National Wildlife Federation: How to create and certify gardens for wildlife
- Wild Ones Milwaukee: Specific plans for climate resilient, native gardening by Danielle Bell, Native Roots
