by Noel | Nov 19, 2024 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening, Leaf covef for garden
Years ago we could expect a heavy blanket of snow to cover the garden from December until March. Snow cover is a good thing, but we can no longer count on it. Until this week, November temperatures in southern Wisconsin have been way above historic normals. It’s cooling off, but the meteorologists are predicting little snow cover for this year. Snow or not, I try to cover as much of my garden as possible with leaves. Leaves act as a weed suppressant, they insulate...
by Noel | Feb 28, 2024 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
The weather in southern Wisconsin, as everywhere, is alarming. Record one day temperature swings. It was 73 yesterday and 12 this morning. It will be back to the 60’s in a couple days. This new normal will cause mostly grief for gardeners and growers, but I’ll try to take advantage of the warm days to do some garden prep that normally would wait until late March or April. The end of February marks the beginning of seed starting. I’ve put onion and leek seeds into...
by Noel | May 31, 2022 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues
Our property is over half wooded and for the last few years, two invasive plants have really made their presence known. Dames Rocket (Hesperis matronalis) and Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolate) are now well established. It’s interesting that both these plants were grown purposely in Europe before they became a nuisance here. Garlic Mustard is edible and can be used as a salad green and Dame’s Rocket was a garden flower grown much like phlox, to which it has a...
by Noel | Dec 12, 2019 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
Every garden year is different. Because I grow a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, I can usually be assured that I’ll get some good harvests of most things, even if occasional failures occur. Thirty-three years of growing in the same area also contribute a lot of knowledge of how things work and increase the chance of success. Peppers, Sweet and Hot This year we had a better than average and most bountiful harvest of peppers, both sweet and hot....
by Noel | Sep 19, 2019 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening
My gardening interest is in growing food. While I like flowers and ornamental plants, they are not my hobby. I’m definitely not passionate about growing them, learning their Latin names, or keeping up with the latest introductions. I’ve often said “if you can’t eat it, why grow it”, but I’m really not that cold about the beauty or necessity of flowers. We have a lot of colorful plants in the yard, but they are easy-care perennials and the work...
by Noel | Aug 16, 2019 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
The year has brought us a lot more rain than we really need. The good news is that I’ve barely had to water. More good news is that water-loving plants like tomatoes, melons, and zucchini are putting out huge crops. Bad news is the tomatoes are splitting from too much water, and leaf blight, always a problem in Wisconsin is rampant again. More bad news is that the weeds love the rain every bit as much as the veggies. Even more bad news is that the mosquitos...
