Tea Jay, Author at Tea Jay's Garden

Wisconsin Fast Plants

Hedi Baxter Lauffer Director of Teaching & Learning with the Wisconsin Fast Plants Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Explains the many benefits of teaching with Fast Plants, or Rapid Cycling Brassica rapa

I’ve just posted an interview with Hedi Baxter Lauffer Director of Teaching & Learning with the Wisconsin Fast Plants Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We discuss the development of Rapid Cycling Brassica rapa (FastPlants) as a tool for studying crop disease, and its evolution into a versatile life sciences teaching tool. Fast Plants live their entire life cycle in about 42 days.

Little Crops for Little Hands

Dwarf crops can fit in just about anywhere and stay at a convenient size for kids.

This is the first episode of 2020!

This year my new years resolution was to bite the bullet and lean fully into gardening with kids. I’m a father who works with kids in a Garden Based Learning environment, and I’ve decided to make that a focus going forward.

For the Love of Turnips

I may not be able to find as much on their history as I’d like, but let me sell you on this versatile crop.

The Poet William Stafford spent part of his career writing a poem a day, when asked how he managed that he replied “I lowered my standards”. I have no clue if this actually happened or not, but the advice rings true for me.

I’ve been meaning to put more content up on the site but I haven’t, because every time I sit down I start playing around with the title, then deciding on just the right image, then start writing and freeze up when I realize I haven’t done enough of research on the subject. The most important in blogging is to sit down and blog.

So I’m going to try to get 2-3 posts out a week, even if its nothing more than chatting about what I did in the garden today. Even if I create a bunch of completely useless fluff I’ll still have improved my comfort level with writing these posts.

So to kick things off I’m going to talk about Turnips.

Review: The All New Square Foot Garden

A review of the 2005 edition of The All New Square Foot Garden by Mel Bartholomew with a particular focus on using it to start community and school gardens.

Review: Backyard Market Gardening

I review Backyard Market Gardening: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Selling What You Grow

A Whole Lot More About Corn

I talk about the complex world of hybrid corn.

A Whole Lot About Corn

A brain dump about corn, the different types of corn, where corn came from, and some exciting developments in corn.

Basic Soil Science

A brief overview of the exciting world of Soil Science.

Watering Basics

Answering that most basic of questions: “When should I water my plants?”

Cantaloupe or Muskmelon

Is the sweet summer melon we all know and love a Cantaloupe or a Muskmelon?

… Or both

For years I’ve delighted inbeing a know it all, happily pulling out the tale of mislabeled American melons. But, the tale isn’t entirely accurate. It is true that the fruit called a Cantaloupe in North America isn’t the same fruit called a Cantaloupe in Europe. It is not true that we in the Americas are eating mislabeled Muskmelons, since both kinds of cantaloupes are actually Muskmelons.