Oregano and Anise Hyssop in the Snow

We haven't had a winter this cold in many years. I was hoping this was a thing of the past, but that's not the case. January has given us day after day of below zero temperatures. Come on, spring! The vernal equinox is less than 60 days away, but we'll have to wait and see if it actually brings warm weather.

I had a brief taste of what southern gardeners experience this time of year when I spent a weekend with Geoff down in Austin.   I helped him clean up his weedy garden paths and we planted peas and onions.  

It was fun gardening outside in January, but I'm kind of glad we don't have that weather. Other than some February pruning, I have a four month break from almost all outdoor garden work. Any weeds growing here are buried beneath the snow. I won't have to deal with them until the end of March.

I'm still gardening in spite of the weather. I've started flats of onions and leeks. I've cataloged and inventoried all my seeds, and I'm making my plans for this year's garden adventure.  

We've cut back on a few of the garden shows that we've historically attended for CobraHead, so I'm hoping that will give me more gardening time. In years past I've often been at a show booth on the very best weekends to be getting things done.  

Three things are high on my garden wish list: Start my own color flats - I was buying flats of marigolds, zinnias and other color to scatter in the garden. I know I can do this myself.  I want to do a lot more trellising of my vegetables. I bought 100 bamboo poles last season. They are pretty cheap when you buy that many. I used them on my tomatoes, but this year I hope to get quite creative and build some upward structure for all kinds of things like beans, melons, cukes, and more.  

Finally, I want to continue working with season extending structures. I'm hoping to develop some ridged, yet portable framing for low hoop tunnels that will be more permanent and stronger than the PVC tubing I'm now using. The PVC collapses under heavy snow.  I saw some ridged hoop frames made from concrete reinforcing rod when I went with Geoff to get some onions at the Natural Gardener store in Austin. Those were intriguing.  I thought I might be able to make them. 

We'd like to remind all our readers that we love to grow our own food and to help others do the same.  We post articles about food growing and cooking with home grown food on our website blog, and we almost always have a discussion or several going on about food and growing on our Facebook page.  You can help us spread the word by forwarding this newsletter to a friend and if you have any gardening questions, drop us a note.  If we can't help you we'll find someone who can.

Thanks for reading our newsletter.

Noel and the CobraHead Team