by Noel | Jul 31, 2018 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
Japanese beetles, along with a lot of other other natural disasters, are making the garden a little less fun this year. The beetles have only been in Wisconsin for about a dozen years, and they are loving it here. Their populations seemed to diminish for a few years, but this is the worst infestation I’ve had. They’ve not bothered the sweet corn before, but this year they are destroying some silks. Most years I can keep up with them by just collecting them...
by Noel | Jun 5, 2018 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Farming, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
Bumblebees love Russian comfrey. The plant is frequently recommended as a bumblebee magnet. I often find four or more different varieties of bumblebees in the comfrey along with many other pollinators who also like the plant. My son Geoff introduced me to Russian comfrey (Symphytum × uplandicum) over 20 years ago when he brought home a few roots from the farm where he was working. It likes it in my garden and I have to work to keep it from spreading too far. ...
by Noel | May 29, 2018 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
The garden is off to a really slow start this year. It’s mostly April’s fault. That month gave us very cold weather right up until the end, so nothing got planted. For the first couple weeks in May we were practically under water and it’s only been the last two weeks that we’ve been able to get a lot accomplished. Here’s some flowering horseradish. I’ve promised to take a little better care of my horseradish this year and it’s looking good....
by Judy | Apr 25, 2018 | CobraHead, Recipes, Vegetable Growing
We harvested a plethora of onions last year. We still have yellow copra onions which store quite well. Then there are the red onions which don’t store quite as well. Those are definitely sprouting, so I cut out the sprouts and use what I can. I’ve been using them like crazy but then I use onions in just about everything I cook. I have frozen chopped onions but I wanted to use the fresh onions as much as I could. So I turned to the internet –...
by Noel | Apr 20, 2018 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Garden Tools, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
I first met Mark Highland quite a few years ago, maybe at the Philadelphia Flower Show or at a Garden Writers conference. He already knew Geoff and Anneliese. Mark had just launched his company, Organic Mechanics, to produce high-quality potting soil. Since then, Mark has made a success of Organic Mechanics, and his passion for growing organically has evolved into his becoming a spokesperson for the organic method. Mark is a degreed horticulturalist whose...
by Noel | Apr 16, 2018 | CobraHead, Gardening, Vegetable Growing
I’ve been starting my sweet potatoes from sprouted old roots rather than starting from new potatoes for quite a few years, now. It’s a close to fool-proof method. Here are 25 sprouts in a soil box. I removed the sprouts from the mother plants and cut them into handleable sections before shoving them into the soil. Note that many of the sprouts have already leafed out while still attached to the mother root. Some, however, are just pink sprouts that will quickly...
