Discover Wisconsin features FSPA land on St. Joseph Ridge
Take a virtual tour through our land and gardens on St. Joseph Ridge
North Garden
The North Garden contains a raspberry patch, row crops, and is surrounded on two sides by a sunflower deer fence. Sunchokes protect a third side. Popular crops in the garden include our heritage 'Hildegard' green pole beans, garlic, lettuce and peppers.
Digging potatoes
Garlic row
Lettuce row
Marne, Clare and Hannah harvesting garlic
Rasberries
Sunflower deer fence and row crops
Water diversion
North Garden from above
South Garden
The South Garden is surrounded on two sides by the sunflower deer fence. This garden contains raised garden rows with classic garden crops such as peas, yellow straight neck squash, tomatoes and radishes. We use companion planting to maximize use of space and pest control. This includes planting marigolds near cabbage plants (to ward off the cabbage butterflies) and peas on a trellis in the middle of a row to allow for shorter crops, such as radish and lettuce, to grow at the trellis base.
Basil
Herb garden and south garden
Beth Piggush with cabbage
Companion planting
Eggplant
Hannah with strawberry harvest
Interns pull onions
South garden from above
West Garden
The West Garden houses crops such as butternut squash, asparagus, sweet potatoes and rhubarb. Asparagus grows in long, wide rows with butternut squash planted in the walkways to maximize space. Our squash grow large and contribute the greatest total weight of our garden crops. Some weigh up to 15 pounds each!
Viterbo nursing students with sweet potatoes
Jacoba's Greenhouse
Jacoba's Greenhouse, named for a companion of St. Francis of Assisi, allows us year round vegetable production. Solar panels and a geothermal system provide power and heat. We collect rain from troughs as well as the nearby quonset shed to water our plants. Our greenhouse grows seedlings, to be later planted in the gardens. Eventually, we harvest beets, carrots, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, herbs, swiss chard, microgreens, banana trees and various potted plants.
Beets
Broccoli seedlings
Storing squash
Banana blossom
Gerbera daisy
Solar water feature zinnias
Radish microgreens
Katelyn with alfalfa sprouts
Greenhouse from above
Orchard
Surrounded by a wire deer fence, the orchard contains a variety of fruit trees--apple, pear and apricot. Shrubs include blueberries, currants and hazelnuts. We spray our orchard in early spring with neem oil to minimize pests. We also cover our blueberry bushes with mesh when the berries are in season. Along with the garden plants, we feed our orchard compost tea weekly.
Currants
Hazelnut bush
Hazelnuts ready for harvest
Pears
Pears and hazelnuts
Plum
Orchard from above
West Flower Garden
Cut flowers in this garden are used to adorn the Villa St. Joseph chapel altar and sisters’ living spaces. Flowers grown include calla lilies, cosmos, peonies and gladiolus. We also grow a few herbs!
Roses
Peonies
Siberian iris
Onion chives
Bachelor button
North Flower Garden
The North Flower Garden serves a similar purpose as the West Flower Garden. Cut flowers are grown here as well as wildflowers, a white pine tree, pussy willow, cannas and clematis vine.
