[CorvyMarie]

My family is moving to Fenton area in August and being an avid gardener in my current state (CA) I was curious as to what is grown in home gardens in MI. I don't expect I can start anything immediately but when the planting season starts what is generally beneficial? I try to focus on vegetables, herbs, fruits to supplement our grocery budget.

[YAZ]

Tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, squash, etc.

Typically, you'll plant around mid-May.

Although I've seen it frost there later than that. Kinda rare though.

I lived 20 miles south of the Fenton area for 20+ years; don't bother growing sweet corn, as they practically give it away in September.

There are some apple orchards close to your new town....check 'em out.

[Coldjensens]

ALmost everything grows well in most of Michigan. Swamp vegetables (celery rubarb etc) can grow in some areas. Corn, potatoes, everyhthing that is green, carrots Kohlrabi, strawberries, lettus tomatoes, peas, lima beans, every kind of green beans, squash, watermelon, muskmelon, I cannot think of too many things that do nto grow well here.

The soil tends to be clay in many areas, but still Michigan is one of the top produce producing states. The nice thing is that we have plenty of water (and then some). Citrus will nto grow here so fruit trees are mostly apples, pears, apricots, plums, peaches (hard to grow here) and Cherries (Michigan is known for CHerries). Blueberries and rasberries grow very well here too. In fact most wooded areas are filled with wild rasberries.

Alas. Loquats will nto grow here. We really miss our Loquat tree. . . .

[Bydand]

Peaches - hard to grow here? Come on over to the sunset side of the State. Acres of Peaches in a ton of varieties. My personal favorite are the Glo-Havens, but there are several that would be tied for second place and so far I haven't met a Peach I dislike .

[CorvyMarie]

So practially everything I want to grow is viable up there. What are your most problematic garden pests? We get ants in everything here.

[Cliffie]

Originally Posted by CorvyMarie

My family is moving to Fenton area in August and being an avid gardener in my current state (CA) I was curious as to what is grown in home gardens in MI. I don't expect I can start anything immediately but when the planting season starts what is generally beneficial? I try to focus on vegetables, herbs, fruits to supplement our grocery budget.

Well this is Zone 5, so you want shorter-season items or winter hardy perennials. I don't know about the soil in Fenton, but be prepared to either build raised beds or do some serious double-digging and soil amendment. A whole lot of the state has brutally heavy clay soil that won't even support worms.

[MICoastieMom]

Originally Posted by Cliffie

Well this is Zone 5, so you want shorter-season items or winter hardy perennials. I don't know about the soil in Fenton, but be prepared to either build raised beds or do some serious double-digging and soil amendment. A whole lot of the state has brutally heavy clay soil that won't even support worms.

Raised beds are good for another reason. The soil warms earlier, allowing planting to begin earlier. As worms, I couldn't disagree more. Our soil was rock hard. I began by having the grass clippings put on the flower beds. You will have to add peat to sweeten the soil and lots of mulch, and perhaps even some sand; we have a beautiful loam now and our gardens now support earthworms 6" or longer.

One thing I would advocate, and I am mentoring my niece who lives near Howell (in the same neck of the woods), is worm composting. Are you familiar with it? Since she is in the country, they have a problem with racoons getting in the trash. In worm composting your fruit/vegetable peelings go to feed the worms instead of attracting the wildlife.

[Coldjensens]

The clay issue depends on where in Michigan you live. We are on an island in the middle of the detroit river so we have all dense dense clay. However my parents in Lyon Township have execellent soil. You drop a seed and it grows. Weeds are a problem there because the soil is so good, the weeds are hardy.

As far as buigs. mosquitoes were thebiggest problem for us. They bite when you try to harvest. Really the only bug problems that I recall were on the tomotoes, sweet corn and for some reason Kohlrabi. rabbits were a problem with the lettuce. There were some plants that we dusted with Sevin, but I cannot remember which ones. We also grew merigolds in with the vegetables. That was to keep some kind of pest away. We had to spray the apples and pear regularly. Once they outlawed DDT we used a combination of Sevin, Diaznon and something else (Seldane? I cannot rememebr). You also had to spray fungicide regularly and thinner in the spring. We had magnificent apples. Everything grew well, but the squashes and cucmbers were insane. We could nto get rid of them. We used to bring garbage cans full to chuhrch every sunday and give them away week after week. Spagetti squash, acron squash, summer squash, cucumbers, zuccini. Some ofit we just left in the field becasue there was no use for it. Giant pumpkins and sunflowers too. I won a couple of awards as a kid for biggest subflower and biggest pumpkin.

We never used fertilizer except some horse poop and moldy hay that the horses peed on (stinky but effective) and not a lot of that. We had six people in our family and grew enoguh vegatables for a whole year as long as we got everything canned and frozen in time. We also gave away tons of food. OUr garden wass less than an acre, probably less than half an acre.

We also had 22 apple trees. Our property was part of a very old orchard. At least the apples you could sell. During harvest season you prettymuch had to give vegetables away. Everyone had ploenty.

[MICoastieMom]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

The clay issue depends on where in Michigan you live. We are on an island in the middle of the detroit river so we have all dense dense clay. However my parents in Lyon Township have execellent soil. You drop a seed and it grows. Weeds are a problem there because the soil is so good, the weeds are hardy.

True enough, CJ, we are not that far from you (about a 15 minute drive if you take the free bridge) and the clay is just as dense. Both DH and I have cousins on the island and we have helped them transplant many perennials from our garden.

Fenton is almost equi-distant from Lyon Twp and Howell, so it may be a crap shoot what type of soil she will have. Howell's is very dense. I suspect it may have something to do with the way the glaciers dropped their treasures while they were receding.

[Cliffie]

Originally Posted by MICoastieMom

Our soil was rock hard. I began by having the grass clippings put on the flower beds. You will have to add peat to sweeten the soil and lots of mulch, and perhaps even some sand; we have a beautiful loam now and our gardens now support earthworms 6" or longer.

Exactly. Your soil didn't support worms until AFTER you amended it. That's what I'm talking about.