Chile Pequin
One of the benefits of not mowing my lawn as often or thoroughly as might be indicated by societal norms is that I get all sorts of interesting and sometimes useful plants that just show up. One of these is Chile Pequin, a semi-wild hot pepper of Texas and Mexico....
Potato, Summer Squash & Quinoa Soup
This recipe was a collaborative effort between Geoff and me. Quinoa potato soup was a staple in Ecuador where Geoff spent a year studying in college. We made up a recipe based upon his memory of an Ecuadorean soup. Due to an abundance of summer squash in the garden...
Ball Horticultural Company
CobraHead is actively involved in the Mailorder Gardening Association. Anneliese and I attended the MGA summer conference in downtown Chicago this past week. In addition to the seminars, workshops, roundtables, networking and evening fun, we also had an afternoon...
Bigger is Not Always Better
Judy just posted a few days ago about how she is trying to pick the zucchini before they get oversized and unusable. I'm not going to go too far about her best intentions going awry, but as you can see, I found a couple of lunkers in the summer squash bed,...
Easy Fruit Fly Traps — Or, DIE, BUGS, DIE!
Well, it's harvest time again, and the fruit flies are starting to find their way into the kitchen. They have also managed to find their way back into my worm bin, and I'm not totally cool with that. I don't think Phil minds too much, but I'm not terribly fond of the...
Zucchini Heaven or Hell?
It definitely depends upon your perspective. For us we’re at the beginning of the summer squash season, and so far so good. I’ve been very diligent in checking and picking the young fruits every day. Yesterday morning I looked to see what we’d have for dinner &...
Counting Cucurbits Before They Hatch
I commented earlier that this year I cleaned off my compost area and stuck in some squash and melon starts. I didn't start the seeds until the second week of June, but as you can see from the first picture, the plants are doing quite well. For a while I was worried...
Bloom Day July Sunflowers
Close Up Sunflower One might not be able to tell from this photo, but I was standing on a ladder to get the shot. The tallest of the Mammoth Sunflowers that I got from Renee's Garden Seeds finally opened up at a height of ten feet six inches. Looking Down on Sunflower...
Chinese Red Noodle Beans
Austin can be a tough place to grow vegetables. But little by little I have been picking up on techniques that led to this past year being my most productive vegetable garden in Texas yet. Of course, the first thing that I had to learn about is Austin's split garden...
Bountiful Bouquets
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I've chosen a roommate who will occasionally create things like this: A few days later this one showed up. It's nice to know that the blooms in my terribly overgrown garden aren't going to waste.
Faux Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Our June-bearing strawberry patch is done for the year. The berries needed to be picked every day for about 3 weeks or so. We put some away in the freezer - bagged a few for future smoothies, sliced and lightly sugared some for future short cakes or pies and made a...
Two for the Price of One? Transplanting Corn
As usual, I'm putting too much time on the road and not enough time in the garden. Flower and garden shows and other trade shows on weekends throughout the spring and early summer have kept me from where I'd rather be. I planted a bed of sweet corn on June 7th. That's...
The Karpophoreo Project
A couple of weeks ago I met Steven Hebbard at workday for a new community garden in Austin. Steven heads up The Karpophoreo Project. This Austin based venture works with formerly homeless members of the Austin community and others to grow good food. Karpophoreo means...
GBBD June 2010
I didn't have much time to run around the garden and take pictures this morning (plus it was just about to rain), but I managed to snap a shot of this lovely bloom on the way to my car. And yes, it smells great. Lovely rose. Do you know what it is? Looks a bit like...
Asparagus Biscuit Loaf
Asparagus Biscuit Loaf Following is my vegetarian version of a Tuna Biscuit Ring recipe that I cut out of a Gold Medal Flour bag almost 40 years ago. I've served it a lot over the years sometimes using salmon. I stopped making it into a ring shape because it was...
Gardening in Wongonyi
We firmly believe that small-scale agriculture plays a major role in efforts to create a world that supports all of us. Through our gardening business, we have been fortunate to get to know and support hundreds of community gardening and grow-your-own projects. A...
Weeds Feed Me – Indirectly
As a believer in a purer meaning of organic and sustainable, and opposed to the mistaken path of the corporate food system, I know the insane war on weeds cannot be won with chemical warfare. In fact, if weeds have to be killed, hand-to-hand combat is the only...
Noel’s Raised Bed System
Noel recently gave a presentation on his raised bed gardening system at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. The UW videotaped the presentation and have made it available to the public here. The video is in a cool dual format that shows Noel talking side by...
First Asparagus
I picked the first harvest of asparagus, yesterday. Only nine small spears, but there will be lots and lots to follow in the coming weeks. Judy served it up with egg noodles sautéed with some shiitake mushrooms picked from our logs a couple days ago and fresh spring...
GBBD April 2010
Remember back in September, when I requested help identifying all the plants in my new yard? Well, now that the snow is all melted (I hope), and temperatures are warming up, I'm going to need your help again. I'm not entirely clueless when it comes to ornamental bloom...