More True Life Adventures
I was digging horseradish roots out of the compost area when I uncovered a little spotted salamander. They seem out of place here. I would expect them in much wetter areas, but I come across them frequently so I guess they like the garden surroundings. Judy was...
Garlic 2010
Yesterday, two weeks past my target October 24th plant date, I got my garlic into the ground. That's a lot better than being six months late, and with the very warm fall we are having, I'm sure the garlic will do just fine. Here in Wisconsin, garlic does best when...
Madison Herb Fair
Saturday was a beautiful day to be out in Southern Wisconsin. It was sunny and crisp with a high temperature of about 47 degrees. For the first week of November it was quite pleasant. Our fall has been a lot warmer and drier than normal. As nice as it was outside,...
Moving Up in the Gardening World
Here is some recent CobraHead news that I want to share. Anneliese was elected to the Mailorder Gardening Association Board of Directors. The Mailorder Gardening Association has been an excellent organization for CobraHead. Many of the major garden catalog firms...
New East Austin Vegetable Garden
Last week I gathered up some folks to help dig a new vegetable garden with friends Natalina and Kiko and their new daughter, Lola. Natalina grew up with gardening in San Antonio and Kiko spent part of his childhood on a coffee farm in Colombia, but this was their...
Eggplant Parmesan
Our eggplant harvest was prolific this year. The extremely hot summer we had in Wisconsin probably had something to do with that! Eggplant is a great addition to pasta sauces and veggie sautés’ but our all-time favorite is eggplant parmesan. The original recipe came...
Tell Us About a New Gardener and Win Great Prizes!
Do you know a young gardener who you would like to help succeed? We would love to know more about them! Tell us about a young or new gardener in your life, and you could win great prizes for that gardener and yourself! The Contest: Let us know about a new gardener...
A CobraHead Fan in Ireland
As a small business without a big advertising budget, CobraHead relies heavily on testimonials from happy users to get our story out to the world. Yesterday, we were exceptionally pleased to be made aware of Ciaran Burke's Garden Blog. Ciaran, a professional...
Plant Television
A couple of weeks ago I got rid of the television and canceled cable. Yet I still found myself staring at the empty space that the TV used to occupy. What to do? Time for plant television. Now I can still sit on the couch, stare across the room, bits of drool...
What’s this Moth Doing in My Potatoes?
This big guy showed up while I was down on my hands and knees digging potatoes. It landed right in front of me and didn't try to fly away when I picked it up. It is a really pretty moth. Almost the whole underwing is pink, and the moth shows off the bright color...
Battle of the Predators
A few mornings ago I saw a praying mantis just outside my front door. I rushed to get my camera and as I took the pictures, I wondered why she continued to pose for me. Then I realized that a spider web enveloped some of her feet. I broke off the strand of web as...
Fall Garden Planning in Austin
It’s past time for planting my fall garden in Austin, and yet in my limited garden space the overgrown but still producing summer crops take up most of the four beds. Between nine foot tall okra, supposed bush beans that turned out to be super-spreading pole beans and...
Whole Wheat Couscous Summer Salad
Here's another fast food lunch from the Valdes kitchen. Did you ever get the feeling that most recipes are just recycled over and over again in various forms? I'm an avid recipe reader and sometimes they all start to look alike. Maybe one or two ingredients are...
Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day September 2010
This morning I walked around my yard and snapped a bunch of pictures for bloom day. Then I decided I didn't really care all that much about the pictures I took. So this afternoon, Judy and I headed over to our friend Eve's place so we could take pictures of her...
Identification time!
It's not really a big secret that I am not a plant geek. In fact, up until a few years ago, I never had much use for flowers. There. I said it. However, I've been coming around, and it would be nice to at least know what's growing in my own yard. Posting pictures...
Pumpkin Pies Coming Up!
I'm going to be quite happy with my squash plantings this year. I didn't get my seeds started until the first week of June. Since I had no beds set up for the squash, I just cleared out the overgrown weeds in my compost area and stuck the seedlings in the extremely...
Mess o’ Beans – Mix and Match
Four plus pounds of various beans are pictured. I was nearly bowled over at the amount of beans I picked. If you had asked me a couple months ago I would have said we’d be lucky to get a handful. Since Noel didn't get around to fencing the garden this year,...
Rod’s Refrigerator Pickles
My cucumber plants have finished producing for the season, but I have no complaints. I had a bonanza this year. The Japanese Climbing Cucumbers not only grew up the trellis where I planted them, but also vined around the amaranth plants next to them and spread out...
Help Us Get to 1000 Fans on Facebook!
Hey, are you on Facebook? So are we! But we know we have a lot more fans than our page currently indicates, and we're counting on you to help us find them. So here's the deal: help us get to 1000 fans by September 21, and we'll give all fans a coupon worth 20% off...
CobraHead vs. Thistle
Well, we Wisconsin CobraHeaders finally got our act together and started making videos in the garden. This is one of our first attempts from yesterday. Here, Noel deftly extracts a tap-rooted thistle from his pepper bed. We will be posting many more how-to videos as...