by Noel | Aug 30, 2021 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
After years of growing half a bed of pole beans and half a bed of bush beans, I’ve given up on bush beans and I’m not going to plant them anymore. This bed was planted about July 16th. It was previously a bed of garlic inter-planted with lettuce. I’ve had very good luck planting a late crop of green beans mid-July right after the garlic is harvested. We don’t grow beans for drying. Organic dry beans in bulk are quite inexpensive, so it doesn’t...
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 | Jun 30, 2021 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
I used to fence the garden regularly, but for the past several years I tried to get away from doing it. I had purchased some electric deer repellers, but they were only moderately effective. Deer Damage This year I decided to go back to my old fence setup. I put up a four foot fence and I thought I’d be okay, but the day after the fence went up, deer jumped over and dined on my young peas, so I added another two-foot section atop the four-foot one. Set...
by Noel | May 25, 2021 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
May is the month of plants and my busiest month in the garden. I have beds to prepare for seeding and planting, and I’m trying to get as many live plants and seeds into the ground as I can. Like every year, I’m way behind where I would like to be at this time, but I always end up with a decent garden so I just keep plugging along and hoping for the best. Here are a few things I’ve been working on. Pea Trellis Peas and Lettuce The peas are looking very...
by Noel | Apr 27, 2021 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
Sweet Potato Starts Last month I wrote about a failure of my own making with some onion starts. This month the news is much better. I have a healthy and happy box of sweet potato starts that should be large and strong when it comes time to put them in the ground at the end of May. I get my starts from 2 year old sweet potatoes that I’ve allowed to sprout in the basement. I’ve talked about this method before: ...
by Noel | Mar 26, 2021 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
I’m usually pretty good with my seed starting. I’ve got a light and heat setup that I’ve been modifying over the years and I almost always get good starts from my seeds, especially onions. This year I messed up. I had two flats of yellow onions under a grow light and over a heat mat, and I didn’t pay attention for one day. That proved costly. The onions were just starting to sprout, and they got too dry and too hot. I killed off most of them. I wasn’t sure...
