by Noel | Apr 24, 2019 | CobraHead, Garden Tools, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
I took advantage of some really warm April days to set up my low hoop tunnel. Several years ago I stopped doing an additional potting off of my seedling starts and instead I’ve been placing the small starts directly in the soil of a bed covered with a low tunnel. I first had to clean off a leaf covered bed and loosen up the compacted soil with a broadfork. I then added 25 gallons of composted soil. Ready to Plant I had to work in the compost and shape up the bed....
by Noel | Nov 24, 2018 | CobraHead, Garden Tools, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
I planted garlic yesterday, November 23rd (Black Friday). Coincidently, I did this last year, when the Black Friday temperature was 66 degrees and quite pleasant with the soil warm and soft. This year was a different story. The ground froze early, and like last year, I was left waiting for a warm spell. That warming almost always happens in either late November or early December but this year it didn’t happen yet and the forecasts looked bleak. I was faced...
by Noel | Feb 26, 2018 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening
Last week it rained heavily on top of solidly frozen ground. The result was a lot of localized flooding and ice ponds everywhere. The water had nowhere to escape. Our closest large drainage is Koshkonong Creek which runs more like a ditch under Highway 18 about three blocks west of here, then through downtown Cambridge and on its way to the Rock River and the Mississippi. Here’s an ice pond on my property. There are ice ponds everywhere in the area, and...
by Noel | Jul 19, 2016 | CobraHead, Gardening
I advocate the use of open raised beds for home gardening. I’ve been working with open beds for over 30 years. There are lots of advantages over both conventional planting in rows, and also over assembled, boxed in beds. I’ve got two plots with open beds. The area I call the south beds is a very geometric layout of 18 beds, each about 5 feet wide by 20 feet long. The north bed area is a lot more haphazard. It borders on a weedy, woody area “where the wild...
by Noel | Nov 3, 2014 | CobraHead, Gardening
I try to plant garlic in late October. This year we were a day late and the garlic went into the ground on the first of November. I had previously prepared the bed so all I had to do was soften the soil a little and with a steel rake make three relatively equal ridges running the length of the beds. The garlic was shoved into the top of the ridges until it was just covered. I also scattered a lot of lettuce seeds, salads greens and cilantro along all the slopes...
