garlic envy

 
 
I visited my Mom ‘s garden yesterday. I weeded her paths dense with purslane and grasses. I fertilized her tomatoes and squashes, pulled her spent pea vines, and gave Charley a bunch of old broccoli stems and a few last peas to eat. I also pulled my Mom’s ripe garlic. I had serious garlic envy last year. My heads were so small, hers were nice, and I vowed to work on my soil to get heads as big as hers. A week ago I finished pulling my garlic and it…
 
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garlic sources for planting

 
 
I’ve been asked me where I buy garlic and for other sources so I thought I’d post this list again. I posted it last October too. Here’s the list of garlic seed sources that people have recommended in response to my post a few days ago. They look awesome! I can’t wait to try out some. If you have a source you like, let me know and I’ll add it. Pacific Northwest: Filaree Garlic Farm – So many! This source was seconded and thirded! Washington State Adaptive Seeds: Good selection,…
 
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mid-winter garlic

 
 
I checked the garlic growing in my garden today. “Music” (pictured) is up an inch or so above the salt march hay mulch. The tops of the plants look weather burnt, but underneath they’re green. “Late Italian” is up about 2 inches above the mulch. “Duganski” isn’t up yet. Our forecast is now saying maybe we’ll get some snow next Tuesday. The garlic would prefer that. Gardeners at my community garden have been concerned and have been adding more salt hay to cover their garlic. I’m now eating supermarket garlic.…
 
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looks like a good day for planting garlic

 
 
We had a torrential rain storm last night. My fall greens must have loved it. Now it’s drying up and the sun is out. I brought a dozen bags of compost, manure and topsoil down to my garden yesterday. Also, a bale of salt marsh hay. I’m just waiting now for a new version of Photoshop to download (my old one didn’t seem to work with my new Windows 10 OS). Separating the cloves as I wait. Once it’s done, me and the dogs are going to go do some…
 
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garlic sources for planting

 
 
Here’s the list of garlic seed sources that people have recommended so far from my post a few days ago. They look awesome! I can’t wait to try out some new sources. If you have one to add, let me know and I’ll include it here. Pacific Northwest: Filaree Garlic Farm – So many! This source was seconded and thirded! Washington State Adaptive Seeds: Good selection, also grey shallots, free shipping over $50. Oregon Territorial Seeds: Oregon Colorado:  The Garlic Store Potato Garden New England: Fedco bulbs division: Maine. Ordering…
 
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ordering garlic – where do you buy garlic?

 
 
I FINALLY remembered to order my garlic. I hope it gets here soon. I’d like to plant it at the end of this month – in 2 or 3 weeks. My garlic crop had problems this year. More than half of it rotted in the ground. I only harvested 40 heads so I decided to eat them all and buy new (clean) stock. I usually like to save 75-100 cloves (about 15-20 of the biggest heads) for planting. I checked a couple local sources first (Johnny’s and Fedco) but seems…
 
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what caused my garlic to rot? rotation, rotation, rotation

 
 
I’ve been thinking about why half of my garlic crop rotted this year. In early spring, my garlic plants yellowed and curled and then died. This started mostly in one area of the bed and then gradually other plants curled and died more slowly. Some just stopped growing looking like a small plant, but when pulled, the bulb was rotten. Once I saw the plants rotting, I worried that I planted where onions had been last year and maybe garlic the prior. This is my list for crops the bed…
 
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today’s harvest

 
 
I pulled 25 heads of garlic and cut most of my broccoli today. The upper photo is what I collected at my community plot. The lower one from, my home garden (and the chicken coop). I haven’t been to my community plot in a while I guess as those zucchini are enormous! Fortunately another gardener was glad to take three of them.
 
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my last clove of garlic

 
 
I planted 75 cloves of garlic last fall. It gave me a pretty good harvest. There were a few more rotted coves than usual, but my main wish is that I had more heads. I’ve had years when my harvest lasts til April. I was jealous to read a blog where the gardener planted 500 cloves of garlic!! Wow. This fall again I planted 75 cloves. I’ll have to think about a way to plant more next fall. I would need to use a second bed. Just over 100 cloves…
 
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Kathy Martin
This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy thinks the garden is his, even though I do all the work. We're located near Boston, in USDA zone 6. I have bees, chickens, fruit trees and berry bushes, too. I use all sustainable organic methods and strive to grow all of my family's vegetables myself. -Kathy


weeks and counting until my last spring frost

What I planted recently

Jan 21
thyme, lettuce, escarole

Feb 21
celery, celeriac, parsley, leeks

March 11
cabbage, kale, arugula



What I'm planting soon

April 1
peppers, eggplants, marigolds, beets

April 12
tomatoes, basil, sunflowers

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My garden this week

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17 years of archives!

Check out the food pantry farm I helped to start up:

Aurelia's Garden

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Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Egyptian walking onions!

“I envision a day when every city and town has front and back yards, community gardens and growing spaces, nurtured into life by neighbors who are no longer strangers, but friends who delight in the edible rewards offered from a garden they discovered together.” – Greg Peterson

"What can happen to a seed is a miracle."

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