I put up this tunnel to protect my cole crops from insects. It was very quick and easy. My son Geoff gave me the idea. I'm not sure who showed it to him.

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This weekend Judy and I were CobraHead Exhibitors at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association's 20th annual energy fair in Custer, Wisconsin. It is the largest show of this type in the U.S. This was our third year at the show. We sell lots of garden tools. In fact it is a way better show for sales than almost any garden or flower show we do.

The reason is the audience. MREA attracts people with interest in sustainable energy. They have a very high awareness of what is really "green". Thus there are lots of gardeners and small farmers. Overall, the people are way hipper than the average show crowd when it comes to environmental issues and a knowledge of food and gardening.

All aspects of renewable energy and sustainability are represented in vendor exhibits, workshops, and talks and keynote addresses. The three day show also has some excellent food vendors including the Wisconsin staple - beer - by a great and "green" local brewery, Central Waters Brewing Company, and good entertainment. Saturday night we saw Michelle Shocked and I immediately became a fan.

Here's Judy trying to make a sale.

Solar is cool! Pictured are a vendor of panels, a huge solar cooker designed for villages where there is no firewood, and a solar powered water heater.

Wind power for home, farm, commercial, and community was represented.

This experimental house features locally produced inputs and is super energy efficient.

The big boys like Toyota attend the show and don't pass up an opportunity to show off their energy efficient vehicles.

But the home enthusiast modified Mercedes that runs on vegetable oil is in many ways more interesting.

My favorite vehicle – an Allis-Chalmers "G" tractor modified to be solar powered. No gas fumes in this farmer's organic veggies.

Two day ago I caught momma groundhog. I posted about it and got a comment from Beckie who noted, "I am sure she will do fine in the wild, but be on the look out for the pups - they may be big enough to make it on their own."

We'll, sure enough. I caught this guy this morning and put him out where his mother was let go. They seem to love broccoli, so I'll keep trapping with the tasty stuff until I think I've got them all relocated.

I first noticed the damage last week. I thought it was deer, but there were no deer tracks. The sweet peas were nipped off and some eaten to the ground. Then I saw some asparagus eaten, and some strawberry plants. Yesterday I found my two tomatillos almost gone and one of my tomatoes eaten to nothing. Curiously, the most severe damage was to the sunchokes, which I really don't care that much about. They are just there. We occasionally harvest a few, but they are hardly a crop I worry about. Damage to my tomatoes, however, is a declaration of war.

I saw the creature at noon today when I went to the barn to get some tools. It was standing on its hind legs in the lawn next to the south beds. It was a woodchuck. I walked toward it to see where it would head. It casually sauntered away as I approached and it ambled into the weeds by my north beds between my house and my neighbors. I followed it and found a burrow only about ten feet from the asparagus bed. It had great access to both my neighbors garden and mine.

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I was very excited to see this video today. It was made by Shawna Coronado, a Chicago area gardener and writer. Here is the link to her blog, The Casual Gardener, where she first posted the video. Shawna also has a website and book called Gardening Nude, which is not at all about stripping off your clothes in the garden. In actuality, it features tips on making healthier and greener gardening and lifestyle choices.

I first met Shawna back in March when Geoff and I exhibited at the Chicagoland Flower and Garden Show, where she picked up a CobraHead from us. I got to know Shawna a little bit better when we both attended the Chicago Garden Bloggers Spring Fling last month. She's a really cool, laid-back person, and it's obvious from talking to her, reading her blogs, and watching her videos that she's trying to make a positive difference in the world and encourage others to do so as well.

I picked our first pint plus of strawberries this morning. Even though most are ripe, I usually have to pick them before they are totally deep red or else the birds get there first. The berries with a little white on them will ripen just fine in the house. I could cover the berry beds with agricultural fabric, but that is too much work. I've already got my sweet potatoes, peas, and peppers covered to keep the deer from eating them and I'll have to cover my cole crops when I get them in the ground to keep off the cabbage moths and flea beetles. If I had nothing but time, I'd cover the strawberries, too.

Anyway, these berries are sweet and delicious and totally unlike the huge, tasteless, Styrofoam®-like Frankenberries that come from California and Mexico though the corporate food pipeline.

Other than the perennial asparagus bed and a bed that was fallow last year but cleaned out for Anneliese's gardening effort two years ago, I haven't gardened any of the north beds since 2003. Besides the asparagus, I have a stand of perennial sunchokes and my compost pile, but the north garden is mostly in disrepair and has become infested with burdock, tansy, sumac and grass.

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Do you know what this flower is? I'll give you a hint: it's part of an edible plant.

Feel free to post your guesses in the comments section. The first person who answers correctly wins major gardening cred and a CobraHead Weeder and Cultivator.

No cheating!

I like rhubarb crisps best at the beginning of the season. The stalks are succulent and juicy after all the spring rains. I realize there are a multitude of very good rhubarb recipes from pies to cobblers. (And we've tried a lot of them.) Following is a recipe I've developed over the years and our favorite way to enjoy the tangy stalks.

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Last Saturday Raemelle and I had the opportunity to attend a workshop about Medicine Wheel Gardens at the Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change. I want to convert a section of my front yard to an herb garden and the able crew at Alma de Mujer gave us some inspiration.

Ana Lara, Alma's Program Director, led the workshop.

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I'm really beginning to see positive results of covering the beds with leaves in the fall. I've been pretty diligent about doing this for the last five years. This picture shows a bed I just cleaned off. It is almost totally weed free, and the few weeds that have sprouted are easily removed.

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