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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 spell, the job did not get done. We had heavy snow cover until just a few weeks ago, and because of a hectic weekend show schedule, yesterday was my first real day in the garden.
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 season started off with a bang for us at the Wisconsin Public Television Garden Expo in Madison. The next weekend, Geoff and I were off to Virginia Beach for the Mid-Atlantic Home & Flower Show. The show was definitely more "home" than "flower", but we still had a good time. One of the fun events at that show was a dog stunt show. Every performing dog had been rescued from a shelter, and they all performed amazing tricks.
Bad Pic, Neat Trick!
Anneliese and Geoff at the Booth
While in the area, we had the opportunity to visit the Norfolk Botanical Garden. The Camellias were in bloom, and they were lovely.
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 different state), you should know that this year, Wisconsin has had one of the coldest, snowiest winters on record. Last weekend was particularly brutal. Temperatures were below zero (that's minus 18 or more, to you metric types), and wind chills were up to 40 below. Snow was blowing, and the roads were dangerously icy. But did that stop the die-hard Wisconsin crowd from coming to the garden show? Not a chance. The number of people there on Sunday was certainly on the slim side, but not nearly as slim as I'd expected. Like I said, they're die hards. I think most people wanted to attend the show just to see and buy things that reminded them of any other season but winter.
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 to get the blood flowing. It's just too bad I don't have a harness for the dog -- I would have had her help me pull!
Our blog was launched to help us sell our CobraHead garden tool products. The Internet may prove to be the ideal tool for small businesses to let the world know they are out there without having to spend millions of dollars in advertising like the big corporations do. We are a really tiny entity, but with a website, a blog, an e-newsletter, and e-mail, we hope to reach lots of people.
We recently sent out our first e-newsletter, which only went to our list of previous online customers. We told our readers that if they had a good use for our CobraHead Weeder and Cultivator, one that we could use on our blog, we'd send them a free tool.
This past weekend Judy, Geoff and I were in California to promote our CobraHead garden tool at the San Francisco Green Festival.
Judy and Geoff at the Booth
If you're not familiar with Green Fest, it's a very fun and inspiring event that features eco-friendly and fairly traded products, organic and vegetarian food, renowned speakers and various other environmentally and socially responsible exhibitors. The Green Festival is sponsored by the non-profit groups Co-op America and Global Exchange.
I grew corn and cucumbers in this bed. It is the worst bed in the south garden in terms soil workability. It is dense yellow clay. It becomes brick hard as it dries. While years of adding compost and rotating crops though the bed have made it softer than it once was, it's still far from friable. The nasty soil doesn't seem to have any negative effect on the vegetables I grow. This year the corn and cukes were superb and when I do break up the clay, it's loaded with earthworms, which has to be a good sign of fertility.
The second picture shows the tools I use to get the beds in shape. These are, from right to left, a Japanese grass sickle called a Kama, a CobraHead Weeder, a poly rake, a steel tined rake, a Glaser Biofork, a scoop shovel, and a CobraHead Long Handle, being held by me.
Just a reminder to any Northern Californians out there that the San Francisco Green Festival is next weekend (November 9, 10, 11) at the San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center. Judy, Geoff and Anneliese will all be attending, so please stop by booth 115 and say hello to us!
T-posts are everywhere in my garden. They are indispensable fixtures in the system I've developed. They hold up my tomato cages. I make a little corral with T-posts and jute to keep the corn from blowing over. In the north beds where I have a permanent planting of asparagus, a T-post corral keeps the fronds from falling into the paths. I trellis melons and peas with T-posts and fencing.
I got my garlic in yesterday. I'm happy when I get my garlic planted in October. Some years that doesn't happen. I've planted garlic in April and still had a nice harvest, but the bulbs were smaller. One year I planted in December. I had to break through frosted ground to get the cloves in. They produced very well. But when I get them planted in October, the garlic starts sprouting over the winter and I almost always get a good harvest. I also feel that getting the garlic set in October is a measure of a good start on getting the beds ready for winter.
"Hi Noel, Hope all is well. I saw you up in Eau Claire a couple weeks ago but didn't get a chance to say 'hi'. See enclosed photo (use it if you like) of our volunteer with a CobraHead. We used them to clear out old sand between our bluestone patios so we could replace with fresh stuff. Worked great! Take care! Sincerely, Mark Dwyer"
We got the above photo and message this morning from Mark Dwyer, the Director of Horticulture at Rotary Gardens in nearby Janesville, Wisconsin. www.rotarygardens.org. Mark is a CobraHead fan, for which we are very grateful.
If you are not familiar with Rotary Gardens, it is an excellent example of turning a wasteland into something beautiful. The gardens operate on a very small budget and use lots of volunteers. They offer visitors a beautiful and tranquil experience.
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