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...
Monarch Magnets
We've grown purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) for many years. Once established, it's a super-easy perennial, really only requiring weeding and occasional separation. It spreads quickly. By chance three years ago, we had some common milkweed (asclepias syriaca)...
Gathering the Garlic or ‘Ajo’ or ‘The Stinking Rose”
You could probably call me all of the above right now since I just ate a mouthful of garlic scape pesto pasta! It was a little stronger and hotter than I was expecting probably due to the fact that the scapes were more 'mature' than they should have been. I harvested...
Bring ’em on!
Wisconsin has seen some record rainfalls in the past month. We are in the drainage basin of the Rock River, which eventually empties into the Mississippi River by Rock Island, Illinois. The huge rains contributed to flooding of the Rock and its tributary rivers and...
All We Are Saying is Give Peas a Chance
It's been gardening on the run for me, this year. Too many garden shows on weekends. I'm late on getting almost everything into the ground. I'm not giving up, however. While you can't say it's never too late when it comes to gardening, you certainly can push things...
It won’t be long…
I took this photo of a couple of green strawberries today. I'm already drooling over what they will become in just a few more days. When it comes to fresh fruits and vegetables, I've been a bit spoiled. I simply cannot enjoy a strawberry from the supermarket. Sure,...
Ah…Asparagus…Let Me Count the Ways!
Let's see – stir fried asparagus, asparagus egg drop soup, roasted asparagus, steamed asparagus, asparagus quinoa pilaf, asparagus risotto, asparagus stew, cream of asparagus soup, gifts for friends, snacks for the dog, etc., etc. If you're lucky enough to have a...
Chicago Green Festival 2008
Hello all! Just wanted to write a quick post to remind everyone that the Chicago Green Festival is this weekend at Navy Pier. CobraHead will be exhibiting in booth 1621. The Green Festivals are organized by Co-op America and Global Exchange. They emphasize not just...
First of the Springtime Foraging…..
We have been eating our homegrown shiitake mushrooms for about a week now but April 29th was the first day I picked a few spears of asparagus. They weren't very tall but who can wait to have that first taste?! We'll soon tire of the asparagus after 3-4 straight weeks...
Strawberry Fields For . . . At Least Another Year
I've been able to maintain my strawberries continuously for the 21 years we've had a garden here. My first berries were starts we got from a local lady who no longer lives in the area, Jan Lewein. They are a June bearing variety, but we have no idea of the name. The...
Spring Cleaning
I usually clean out my asparagus bed in February. I don't trim back the mature fronds in the fall as a lot of gardeners do, because I read that leaving them to grow until spring gives more energy to the roots, This year, because we didn't get our typical February warm...
Garden Bloggers Spring Fling 2008
This past Saturday, Geoff and I were fortunate enough to attend the first ever Garden Bloggers Spring Fling, which took place in Austin. I had an incredibly fun time meeting other bloggers and touring gardens. Unfortunately, I neglected to make sure my camera battery...