by Noel | Aug 6, 2012 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening
I’ve done battle with the caterpillars of the small white and yellow cabbage butterflies for as long as I’ve gardened. The most destructive caterpillar, known as the Imported Cabbage Worm, is from a white butterfly native to Europe called the Cabbage White Butterfly (Pieris rapae). These insects have only been in North America since the 1860’s, but they like it a lot on this side of the ocean and are a truly destructive pest. The small green...
by Noel | Aug 5, 2012 | CobraHead, Gardening
I missed one of the largest flushes of mushrooms I’ve ever had by three or four days. I didn’t even think to be checking for them in our summer heat and it was just chance that I looked over in the woods, today, to find these. They are on three year old logs, which is all the more surprising. We’ll see if we can dry a lot of them. I think we can, but many are spent and black. Too bad, the fresh shiitake are one our favorite crops....
by Geoff | Jul 26, 2012 | Gardening
I garden year round in Austin, so there is no point at which I “put the garden to bed”, as is often done in more Northern climates. I never get to start with a clean slate for the next year’s season. At any given time in my garden I’ll have recently planted sections that are often still months away from harvest, sections in peak production, sections that are still producing but well past their peak, and sections that need to be removed. During peak planting...
by Judy | Jul 24, 2012 | CobraHead, Gardening, Recipes
Kohlrabi is one of our favorite crunchy summertime veggies. We like it best when peeled, sliced and sprinkled lightly with salt. It has a mild cabbage flavor with a turnip-like texture. Kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea (gongylodes group)) is best picked when less than tennis ball size because it can tend to get woody or fibrous in the middle. We are trying a new larger variety this year, Kossak, a hybrid from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, that is not supposed to...
by Noel | Jul 24, 2012 | CobraHead, Gardening
Here Come the TomatoesWith this year’s warm weather, we’ll be picking things from the garden a lot earlier than most years. I’m often late getting things started, but I did a good job of getting the tomatoes, peppers, and cole crops into the ground before the end of May. The early start coupled with the hot weather is giving us veggies in July that we normally don’t start harvesting until August. All in all, it appears we will have a...
by Noel | Jul 4, 2012 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening
We have not had significant rainfall for six weeks. I was told that June was the driest recorded here since they started keeping records. Today and tomorrow will be among the two hottest days in south central Wisconsin since the weather service started logging meteorological data. 103 was reported as a high today, highest ever for July. The all-time high temperature record here was 104 in August of 1988. Tomorrow may be hotter yet. In most of the 26 years...
