by Noel | Dec 13, 2010 | CobraHead
In the past when we’ve encountered ladybugs in the house, they have been treated with disrespect and vacuumed up or tossed outside. With the onset of the Asian variety in the Midwest, these garden friends have become a pest solely because of their exploding populations. In winter, they find their way into the house and collect in corners and other warm spots. I found this one basking under the grow lights in the marjoram plant. I’ll let it alone and...
by Judy | Dec 8, 2010 | CobraHead, Recipes
Sweet potatoes are back! We had another fantastic harvest which will keep us in these orange delights all year. They’ll be making their way into all sorts of soups, stews, roasts, stir fries, curries and who knows what else? Make a double batch of this chili and have enough left for an easy meal the next day. Disguise that extra chili inside some great tortillas, add a little sauce and some cheese and a different meal is born. Sweet Potato Chili recipe 2 cups dry...
by Noel | Dec 7, 2010 | CobraHead, Gardening
Less than three weeks ago I posted about my new grow light setup. I’m happy to report that things are working out well. We picked our first small salad today. The top picture shows thinnings and cuttings of a salad mix that germinated profusely. The mix can be seen in the second flat from the right in the second picture. On the far right I’ve got a flat of lettuce mix which did not have spectacular germination, but is still putting out some nice...
by Anneliese | Nov 18, 2010 | CobraHead, Gardening
You may remember that last month we announced an essay contest in which participants were asked to write about a young gardener. Today we are pleased to announce the winning entry was written by Sharon Reed. Sharon chose to write about her nine-year-old grandson, Fisher. Here is her letter and a picture of one of Fisher’s favorite places in the garden. I am a Master Gardener and provide advice to many gardeners in the community, but the most important...
by Noel | Nov 16, 2010 | CobraHead, Gardening
I started playing with LED grow lights three years ago when I bought three small LED spotlights from a vendor I met at the Cincinnati Flower Show. My initial approach to using the lights was very haphazard. I mainly used the spots to augment natural light from the south facing glass wall in the sunroom for starting vegetable seedlings in the spring. The results for enhancing plant growth were noticeable and LEDs are way easier to work with than fluorescents and...
by Judy | Nov 16, 2010 | CobraHead, Recipes
After almost 25 years of living on our 4 acres of partially wooded property Noel ‘discovered’ a crabapple tree. Apparently we were never in that scruffy corner of the woods at the right time or maybe the seed just blew in one year when we weren’t looking and grew fast! Anyway, I was directed to the tree and asked to make crabapple jelly. I picked about 4 quarts of crabapples that ranged in size from a quarter to a golf ball. I washed them and Noel helped me...
