by Noel | Apr 29, 2025 | CobraHead, Gardening, Growing Peas, Vegetable Growing
The peas were planted three weeks ago on April 12th. Spring peas are an important and reliable crop in our garden. I try to plant them early, when the chance of another killer freeze is minimal. I make ten trellises using T-posts and landscape fence. The trellises are windproof. The peas get plenty of sunshine and they are easy to harvest between the rows. This trellis is made with 7 ½ foot T-posts and 3-foot-wide landscape fence cut to five-foot lengths. The...
by Noel | Mar 28, 2025 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
I’ve grown food for a long time. I learned a lot about home gardening from my mother who gardened because she had to, as we had little money. I also learned a lot from the neighbor next to us who was a vegetable gardener extraordinaire. Mrs. Martin came from her house in inner Detroit almost daily in growing season to garden a quarter acre plot next to our house in Warren, which borders Detroit on its north side. Rose Martin took a bus route that required several...
by Noel | May 31, 2024 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
I let a lot of plants bolt in the garden. Plants bolt when they are ready to produce seeds. They will develop a flowering stem and if left alone will often develop viable seeds. Gardeners often try to discourage bolting. We want leafy greens, not seeds. Bolting stems are often cut away. Plants are planted in cooler temperatures to reduce bolting and bolted plants are often removed. However, there are many instances when allowing bolting is a good thing. Free seed,...
by Noel | Apr 29, 2024 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
The weather here, like everywhere, keeps getting weirder. I’ve been gardening the same plot for over 35 years and the last couple years have really departed from what used to be normal. This year is extremely wet and warm. It’s been hard to get the beds prepped because of the wetness. I did take advantage of some nice dry days last week to get my peas planted. I try to get them in the ground in April. Later than that can get iffy for full production as peas don’t...
by Noel | Mar 29, 2024 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
March is nearly over and we are getting serious about this year’s garden. I’ve got a few things started in the house and things are popping outside. This flat is bottom heated and top lit. It has peppers, eggplant and cauliflower. The peppers and eggplant haven’t sprouted, yet, but the cauliflower is taking off. I won’t start anything new for a couple weeks since we’ll be out of town the second week of April and I don’t want to burden Anneliese with too much plant...
by Noel | Feb 28, 2024 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
The weather in southern Wisconsin, as everywhere, is alarming. Record one day temperature swings. It was 73 yesterday and 12 this morning. It will be back to the 60’s in a couple days. This new normal will cause mostly grief for gardeners and growers, but I’ll try to take advantage of the warm days to do some garden prep that normally would wait until late March or April. The end of February marks the beginning of seed starting. I’ve put onion and leek seeds into...
