by Geoff | Jul 28, 2013 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening
Today I finally built some nesting logs for native bees. I got inspired by the frequent postings of Gail Eichelberger about native plants and native polinators on her blog Clay and Limestone. I then used some instructions from the Xerces Society (PDF), grabbed some old oak logs and got to work. Most native bees build solitary nests. Some nest in the ground and others nest in holes in wood or other cavities. According to the Xerces Society, holes for wood...
by Judy | Jul 20, 2013 | CobraHead, Gardening, Recipes
Ortolana di Faenza and Raven ZucchiniThis year we are growing two new (to us) varieties of zucchini compliments of Renee’s Garden. One is a dark green zucchini ‘Raven’ and the other is a pale green heirloom Italian zucchini ‘Ortolana di Faenza’. Both are delicious in their own way and are extremely tasty when grilled. Here’s a recipe we tried with great success: Recipe 4 small zucchinis – about 6-7 inches long, sliced in half lengthwise ¼ cup shredded fresh...
by Noel | Jul 3, 2013 | CobraHead, Gardening
The strawberry harvest is over for this year. There are still a few small berries in the beds, but the days of having to go out morning and night to keep up, and being able to pick quarts at a time are finished. This year’s harvest was good. I’ve done a reasonable job this year of keeping the beds weeded, always a difficult task. I took some pictures of the six weeds that showed up the most this spring. Ranked relative to occurrence and...
by Noel | Jun 2, 2013 | CobraHead, Gardening
Volunteer Salad Greens We’re getting lots of volunteer lettuces and other salad greens this year. I’m transplanting some to the pea bed and elsewhere, but most we are just harvesting the whole plant where they are growing. I talked about letting salad greens bolt and go to seed in a post last September: http://blog.cobrahead.com/2012/09/10/simple-seed-saving/ In addition to some lettuce seed which I saved and scattered throughout the garlic bed, a...
by Noel | May 5, 2013 | CobraHead, Gardening
I try to keep three beds of strawberries in rotation and moving through the garden. Bed one contains the newly transplanted plants. Bed two holds one year old plants, and the third bed, two year old plants. New plants yield little, but the one and two year old plants yield well. Fall transplanting might make for better yields, but I prefer to transplant in spring when my clayey beds are very wet. The strawberries are less susceptible to stress and need very...
by Noel | Apr 29, 2013 | CobraHead, Gardening
Dan Keil is the President of the Stephen Decatur Rose Society in Decatur, Illinois. He has let us know several times that he really likes the Cobrahead Weeder and Cultivator for weeding and maintaining his 460 roses. I’m not a rosarian, but I’ve learned that keeping grass from taking over is a major issue. That’s not much different than for just about anything that’s cultivated, but grasses really mess up roses and Dan does not want to use...
