A Wisconsin couple is using technology to help others be successful gardeners.
They’re helping people around the world grow their own food, from southeastern Wisconsin.
“A square foot can hold nine bean plants, 16 carrots, 15 radishes,” said Joey Baird of the Wisconsin Vegetable Gardener website.
In the 1,700-square foot of backyard on the southwest side of Milwaukee, Joey and Holly Baird are taking urban farming global.
The radishes the Bairds are harvesting come out ready to eat after years of practice.
The two share their organic gardening journey with the world for free on the web with videos of their experiences.
“We show the problems. We show the issues that you have, and we also show our mistakes,” Joey Baird said.
The Bairds said one of the biggest mistakes they see people make when they’re gardening is that they try to rush things. They said you can’t rush because you have to let nature determine your schedule.
“There’s cool weather crops, and there’s warm weather crops, and people try to push the weather and try to put tomatoes in much too early or try to plant radishes or lettuces which is a cool weather crop in the heat of the summer,” Joey Baird said.
Some of they things the Baird said they’ve learned that are helping people from as far away as Russia are the places you can plant, which include a yard, a raised bed or in a container.
They’ve found space generally only matters for crops with vines like watermelon or pumpkin. They can take up to 30 square feet.
“You can’t grow something like a banana or an avocado in Wisconsin, but you can grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, peas, beans, lettuce,” Holly Baird said.
The Bairds said sharing their love of healthy, less expensive backyard farming is a fun hobby, but it’s taught them while gardening is local, the Internet makes it a worldwide project.
The Bairds started with a Facebook page in 2010 and now share gardening advice with people in Australia, Turkey, Malaysia and Canada.
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