It’s easy to grow fresh, nutritious and tasty vegetables in your own yard, community garden plot, or even in containers on a deck or patio. The University of Wisconsin – Madison Division of Extension offers home vegetable gardeners a tremendous number of resources to learn how to grow vegetables, as well as how to prevent and control diseases and insects. Browsing our publications and fact sheets will help you be successful in achieving a bountiful harvest.
Making your own compost is an easy, practical, and satisfying way to make use of yard waste and table scraps. With this publication, designed for the home gardener, you’ll be composting like a pro in no time!
Crop rotation in the home vegetable garden involves changing the planting location of vegetables within the garden each season. Crop rotation is used to reduce damage from insect pests, to limit the development of vegetable diseases, and to manage soil fertility. Learn the basics in this factsheet.
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Growing vegetables from seed is a common practice for many home gardeners. Unfortunately, vegetable seed can sometimes be contaminated with disease-causing organisms, particularly disease-causing bacteria. Learn how to use hot water treatment to reduce pathogens that may be carried on seeds in this guide.
Bacterial spot of tomato is a potentially devastating disease that, in severe cases, can lead to unmarketable fruit and even plant death. Bacterial spot can occur wherever tomatoes are grown, but is found most frequently in warm, wet climates, as well as in greenhouses. Symptoms and management are covered in this factsheet.
Bacterial speck is a common disease of tomato that occurs worldwide. The disease can substantially reduce yield when it severely affects leaves early in the growing season, and can have an even greater impact on quality when symptoms occur on tomato fruit. Learn about this disease and ways to prevent it in this factsheet.
Cucumber mosaic is a viral disease of worldwide distribution that affects over 1200 plant species. Hosts include a wide range of fruits, vegetables, herbaceous and woody ornamentals, and weeds. This factsheet covers identification and ways to prevent this incurable disease.
Basil downy mildew is a devastating disease that affects the leaves, branches, and stems of many types of basil (i.e., plants in the genus Ocimum) commonly used for cooking. This factsheet describes symptoms and how to avoid problems with this disease.
Cultivated for thousands of years for both culinary and medicinal uses – and to repel vampires – garlic is a well-known herb in the onion family that produces edible bulbs. Learn more about the many types of garlic and how to grow it, harvest and use it…
Making your own compost is an easy, practical, and satisfying way to make use of yard waste and table scraps. With this publication, designed for the home gardener, you’ll be composting like a pro in no time!
This handy chart lists pesticides that are most effective against common greenhouse pests such as aphids, scales, leafminers, spider mites, and thrips. Formulation, effectiveness, cautions, and other details are provided.
Emerging Agricultural Markets Team Revised: 8/6/2012 Item number: A3900-02 Whether you’re a new or experienced vegetable buyer, you’re likely to find helpful information and cooking inspiration in this pamphlet. It offers tasty recipes and helpful tips for buying, storing, and cooking cabbage, eggplant, and tomatoes (4 pages). Download Article
Emerging Agricultural Markets Team Revised: 8/6/2012 Item number: A3900-03 If you’re looking for a new way to prepare carrots or aren’t sure how to store that zucchini you brought home from the market, look no further. This pamphlet offers tasty recipes and helpful tips for buying, storing, and cooking beans, carrots, and summer squash (4 […]
This publication describes the lives, habits, and habitat of the eastern cottontail rabbit and snowshoe hare, both natives of Wisconsin. These creatures consume lots of different kinds of food, including garden vegetables and flowers in spring and summer, and bark of woody plants in fall and winter—which is why they are not welcome guests in everyone’s back yard.
Fennel is a great ornamental edible, with ferny fronds that add textural contrast in plantings, as well as tasting great. Both the leaves and stems have a light anise flavor. There are also cultivars with dark foliage for color contrast in ornamental plantings and types selected for their enlarged base. To learn more about this versatile plant, read this article…
