by Noel | Feb 27, 2023 | CobraHead, Events, Garden Shows, Garden Tools, Gardening
Our big gardening experience for the month of February, other than starting onion seeds, is exhibiting CobraHead tools at the PBS Wisconsin Garden & Landscape Show in Madison. Only 20 miles from home, it’s always been our favorite show. Garden Expo has earned a reputation as one of the best community-oriented gardening shows in the country. it has a complete weekend college of gardening education: classes, seminars, and demonstrations for all levels of...
by Noel | Jun 29, 2022 | CobraHead, Garden Tools
In the summer of 1997 I was working in the garden with an old five-tined cultivating hoe, which I primarily use to shape and work up my open raised beds. One of the tool’s tines came loose and before I put in back in its place, I played with it in the soil. I was intrigued by how well it plowed my hard, clayey soil, but I also noticed that it did a good job of grabbing weeds. From that experience, the idea of the CobraHead Weeder and Cultivator was born. After...
by Noel | Jul 29, 2021 | CobraHead, Garden Tools, Gardening
On July 14th a thunderstorm flattened our two beds of sweet corn. It was déjà vu all over again. I wrote this post in July of 2009: https://blog.cobrahead.com/2009/07/11/corn-corrals/ I usually prepare for events like this by corralling my corn ahead of time using T-posts and jute twine. If I do this while the corn is still relatively small, the stalks will stand up to even very heavy winds. This year, I didn’t get around to it and paid the...
by Noel | Sep 17, 2020 | CobraHead, Garden Tools, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
Potato Bed. Cold and soggy weather deterred gardening for nearly a week. It’s warmer now and drying up, a good time to finish digging up a potato bed that was already mostly harvested. Digging Potatoes. About a third of the bed was left to dig. Harvesting was not difficult, I used a broadfork to loosen all the edges, and then down on my hands and knees with my CobraHead Original to do all the digging. A Seam of Potatoes The potatoes had been planted in...
by Noel | May 18, 2020 | CobraHead, Garden Tools, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
I plant my potatoes in trenches which I make with my old five-tined cultivating hoe. I loosen the soil with the cultivator and scoop it out of the trench with a flat spade. Potato Trenches It doesn’t take long to make trenches about eight inches deep and eight inches wide. Planted Potato Seed I run a row of seed 12 inches apart on one side of the trench and a row on the opposite side, offset 6 inches. This year I planted five varieties, 2.5 pounds of each...
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....
