by Noel | Apr 16, 2010 | Gardening
I picked the first harvest of asparagus, yesterday. Only nine small spears, but there will be lots and lots to follow in the coming weeks. Judy served it up with egg noodles sautéed with some shiitake mushrooms picked from our logs a couple days ago and fresh spring onions from the herb bed. Just delicious!
by Noel | Jan 17, 2010 | CobraHead, Gardening
It helps to have a plan. For business, for life in general, and certainly for growing plants to eat, planning gives you some control of the future. January is planning month for lots of northern gardeners. My planning includes going though several favorite seed catalogs and ordering seeds to replenish any in short supply in my seed inventory. I also start looking at what is going to be planted where. In January, I print out two new charts for my south and north...
by Noel | Dec 9, 2009 | CobraHead
Border Digging Spading Manure Fork Fork Fork Fork I’m surprised at how few people in the general population of gardeners truly know how useful a good fork can be. Doing all your digging using a spade or shovel is often not the best way to approach the task. For most garden and landscape tasks that require breaking or cutting earth, a fork is the better tool to choose. In actuality, for many...
by Noel | Nov 23, 2009 | Recipes
Two years ago I threw the remains of a horseradish thinning into the compost pile. It rooted, as horseradish likes to do, and I let most of it grow. I’ve always grown horseradish in my regular garden beds, keeping it at one end of the herbs. After this weekend’s harvest, I’m pretty sure the horseradish will stay in the compost area. Digging horseradish out of my clayey beds is always a back breaker and I leave so much behind that I have...
by Noel | Nov 1, 2009 | Gardening
I’ve explained my composting process previously, but I wanted to show a picture of an army of red worms working the sludge mass in a 55 gallon drum that we use to collect kitchen scraps. Boss Cat supervised as I tipped over and emptied the drum. The worms were thick throughout the mostly digested material. I’m building a new compost pile. I do this once a year, as I clean out the garden and get the beds ready for winter. I’ll alternate layers of...
