by Noel | Apr 28, 2023 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
April brings on the hard work period of the gardening season. I keep looking for ways to make it easier. This old guy doesn’t quickly recover from hard work like I used to. Here are a few pictures of some of the things going on in the garden. The hoop tunnel helps a lot. In the coming days, I’ll be putting starts directly from indoors to the soil in the tunnel. I have a brand new piece of 6-mil plastic for the cover and some easily removable doors. The tunnel is...
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 | Dec 14, 2022 | CobraHead, Gardening
Winter in Wisconsin can sometimes be nice, but this December has started out as a lesson in dismal. The picture above looking out to the garden area from the house was taken a week ago. It was our first significant snow. We received about four inches of really wet stuff that most snow blowers can’t handle and shoveling breaks your back. This picture was taken yesterday. On-and-off rains have melted most of the snow, but sunshine has not been apparent for...
by Noel | Oct 25, 2022 | CobraHead, Gardening
I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that potatoes may not be the best value for work input for a home grower. High-quality organic potatoes from the market are quite inexpensive, and certainly a better pure cost value than our homegrown spuds. However, I have no doubt that planting two beds of potatoes every year is a good fit for my garden. Potatoes are usually a very reliable crop. I’ve got my planting scheme down, and I see the rotation of potato beds through the...
by Noel | Sep 14, 2022 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
The picture represents a very small fraction of the total tomato yield. I have forty plants growing in two beds. The 20 different types I grow our mostly heirloom varieties and a lot are started from saved seed. One hybrid I have grown for a lot of years is Sungold. This small yellow/orange cherry tomato is always the first tomato to produce and it remains very productive right up until frost. We grow several varieties of cherry tomatoes, different paste...
by Noel | Aug 30, 2022 | CobraHead, Gardening
For our first, and probably last, annual award for the worst weed in the garden, this year goes to bindweed, hands down. Weed of the year requirements are simple. What weed is causing me the most grief or the most work to control in the garden? This year bindweed is way ahead. It’s hard to kill, it has deep tap roots that easily snap off. After breaking off the plant from the root, the root quickly puts out new growth. The stems wind around other plants and can...
