Welcoming Home the New Family Pet
I've wanted a worm bin for a while, but it was never an urgent issue. It's not as though we don't have a compost pile. For as long as I can remember, we've composted all of our food scraps. In fact, when I was a kid, I didn't know what a garbage disposal was. I...
Ant Gardeners
On Monday afternoon I went out to my garden to harvest spinach and chard for the evening meal. However, I discovered some friends who were also helping themselves to the spinach and devastating the beets: Texas Leaf Cutting Ants (Atta texana.) I hadn't noticed any...
Edible Estates
Last January the Arthouse at the Jones Center here in Austin hosted an exhibit by architect Fritz Haeg called Attack on the Front Lawn. The hands-on installation presented examples of projects from Los Angeles to London to South Austin that transformed front yards...
The Miracle of Dried Vegetables
As I used a handful of our fantastic dried tomatoes in last night's veggie sauté it brought to mind the very thought provoking book that I read a couple years ago by Barbara Kingsolver, 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life'. This is a story of how the...
CobraHead is Now on Twitter!
In an effort to keep up with the times, CobraHead has set up a Twitter account. The rest of the CobraHead team has appointed me the designated Twitterer, and I've already started posting updates. Feel free to follow us at http://twitter.com/CobraHead. I will post...
GBBD Update — I Found One!
I have some blooms after all! The flowers on our potted Tradescantia are so small that you can't even see them unless you're quite close. Seriously, that little flower is barely over 1/4" across. I had quite a bit of trouble getting my camera to focus on it. I'll be...
Does This Count as a Bloom?
I have never participated in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for a few reasons. First of all, I'm an infrequent blogger, and remembering to post on the same day each month never felt like an important priority. Also, I travel a lot, especially in the spring during garden...
In January, an Old Man’s Fancy Turns to Seed Catalogues
It was about 20º F when I took this picture of the garden yesterday afternoon. The snow has covered up the precise delineation of the beds. I'm looking north. The raspberries are to the left. I won't cut those back until late February. In the back center are the dried...
To Beet or Not to Beet
When I chanced to read about our new 'foodie-in-chief', President-elect Obama's dislike of beets in the New York Times Diner's Journal, I couldn't help thinking what my Dad always said: "beets taste like mud." I like the earthy tasting beets – especially dug fresh...
Going Green from Coast to Coast
The past two weeks have been quite hectic for me and Geoff. We exhibited at Green Festivals two weekends in a row, and they were on opposite coasts. It's a tiring schedule, to be sure, but we like being busy like that. The Green Festivals are always interesting and a...
There Are Leaks and There Are Leeks!
Well we harvested our leeks. I couldn't face the thought of mulching them heavily, covering them up and hoping they wouldn't be so frozen into the ground that I couldn't dig them out when I felt the need for a batch of leek and potato soup! The leek section was about...
Conifer Containers
Last month the entire CobraHead family had the opportunity to visit several of the stunning gardens and nurseries of the Portland, Oregon region while attending the annual Garden Writers of America symposium. When I say family I don't mean it in the figurative sense....
Compost Is Free
Except for the value of the labor you put into making it, compost can cost nothing. I detailed my composting method last December here. Today I cleaned up the compost I had made last fall. I have a nice large pile shown in the picture. I'll definitely have enough to...
Weeds of Gold
A view of the north beds shows an area untouched by human hands from last year until yesterday. The asparagus on the far left was tended and harvested in the spring, but the three beds to the right were probably not walked through until Anneliese started cleaning out...
Bruschetta Vinaigrette Veggie Salad du Jour
How's that for a mouthful of salad and my latest craze for fast food lunches? Being the cook book lover and foodie that I am reading recipes is at the top of my list. So I tried an intriguing black bean and sweet potato salad last week from one of the magazines I...
A Penalty for Neglect, but a Reward at the End
This year's garden has been far from great. I've been on the road so many weekends that weeding maintenance has suffered. I didn't even get a lot of beds planted. The fallow beds were not mulched, so weeds are rampant. I'm playing catch up, but things are starting to...
Attack of the Hyacinth Beans
Dolichos lablab in front of the makeshift cinderblock wall that I built off my front porch. Now when I sit on the front porch I see this: The view from the front Once the plants were established I gave them no additional water other than the little bit of runoff that...
Minnesota Garlic Festival
That's Irene Bender, the event coordinator for the Minnesota Garlic Festival , held last Saturday at the Wright County Fairgrounds in Howard Lake, Minnesota. Nice Hat! The garlic festival is a little show featuring about a dozen small farmers offering over 100...
No Sale to the Big Boys
In our ongoing quest to make the CobraHead Weeder famous, we occasionally try new trade show venues. Since I thought there had to be a connection between farming and gardening, we exhibited at a show in Minnesota this week called Farmfest. The show organizers had...
Kickapoo Country Fair
This weekend, Judy and I were vendors at the Kickapoo Country Fair in La Farge, Wisconsin: Kickapoo Country Fair. The fair is in its fifth year and is hosted on the grounds of Organic Valley's headquarters. Organic Valley is the farmer's cooperative that has been at...