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...
Spring is a Great Time to be Green!
Hey Pacific Northwesterners (and visitors)! Please join us next weekend at the first ever Seattle Green Festival. The event will be held at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center on April 12 & 13. Noel and I will be in booth 326 in the Natural Home and...
We’ve Been Busy!
Well, I'm a little bit embarrassed that I haven't written any blog entries lately, but I think I can get away with using the "I've been busy" excuse. It's true! I have! We all have! Since early February, CobraHead has had an event nearly every weekend. Garden show...
Be My Sweet Potato
Sweet potatoes are considered one of the best foods available. They probably contain a better all-around mix of useful nutrition than any other food that one can grow in the garden. Sweet potatoes are associated with Latin America and the southern US, but they are...
New Garden
As I mentioned in my last post I have a new place in Austin. I am just now starting the vegetable garden. (Yes, late for Austin, but I have been on the road promoting the CobraHead for the last couple of months.) The only photo in this post is the before shot. We have...
Madison Garden Expo
Well folks, garden show season is officially upon us. Noel, Judy and I spent last weekend at the Alliant Energy Center exhibiting for the Wisconsin Public Television Garden Expo. As always, we had a great time. Unless you've been living in a cave (or maybe just a...
A new house, a new compost pile
This morning the lid on the compost bucket in the kitchen would no longer close, so it was time to make the first compost pile at my new home. Unlike my dad, Noel, I prefer to build my compost in layers first with materials high in carbon, then a nitrogen layer,...
Shallot: a type of onion with long, pointed, pear-shaped, aggregated bulbs.
I say shal-uht, he says shuh-lot. When Geoff started talking about shuh-lots one day I crinkled my eyebrows. Isn't that what mothers do when they're perplexed? I wasn't really perplexed but I had always said shal-uhts. So when I decided to write about our garden...
Noel’s Sense of Snow and Compost
Compost is integral to sustainable gardening practices. It is also a great way to get rid of kitchen waste without putting stuff into the trash stream. We've been composting for as long as we've been gardening and our system now is a pretty automatic routine. All...
Snowed In!
Well, we promised we would get those packages out today, and by golly we did! The snow may have kept our vehicles from leaving the driveway, but we only saw that as an opportunity for a little exercise. The walk is about two miles roundtrip, so it was certainly enough...