Garlics for Planting

Happy Summer Solstice!

Today's the day I was supposed to harvest the garlic, if I had planted them on the winter solstice. They would have been brown and dead by now, the stalks fallen over with no sign of life. I did not plant them on the winter solstice, however... in fact, it was spring! And so, I leave the garlic in the ground to continue growing and hopefully to get bigger.

There was a row of garlics that had been under-watered on vacation, and they looked either dead or ready to harvest. I dug them up, and there were super tiny garlic bulbs, the whole things are about the size of the individual cloves I had planted. They're terribly cute, and dastardly potent. The outside is white, but the inner paper sheaths are a vivid purple.

I braided them together, as it has always been a goal to make a garlic braid. I suppose that technically I have reached that goal... but hopefully my next garlic braid is a bit larger! :)

I hung the garlic braid on a hook with the rosemary... there is just something really satisfying about seeing herbs hanging in the kitchen.





I hope everyone out there is enjoying the longest day of summer.

And in other news, my husband has started a blog! You can visit it at http://improbablerogue.blogspot.com/

Garlic, Garlic Everywhere

After seeing how amazingly well the onions are doing, I was tempted to grow garlic too!  I used much the same procedure as with the onions, just pressing my trowel into the mulch, wiggling it to reach the soil underneath about 2 inches, plopping it in with the pointy side up (root side down), and pressing the hole closed.  All this wiggling had a VERY unexpected result... I will try to replicate this and take a video for you.

 Garlic in a wiggled trowel hole

I broke off the largest of the cloves on about 6 different bulbs (the larger the clove, the larger the bulb that is supposed to grow from it, and keep the skin on when planting), and ended up with 75 cloves planted 2-3 inches deep.  25 of those are smaller cloves planted very close together for use as garlic greens in stir-fries, and 50 are destined to be braided and hung for storage (neither of which I have ever attempted to do)... that is, if they work out!

All those little sap-sucking vampires (aphids!) are repelled by garlic, so I have placed the cloves in some potted lettuce, and in a row like sentinels around the more delicate seedlings for protection.

The most precocious of the cloves looks pretty delicate.

Garlic is actually very winter-hardy and likes a long cold spell before growing its greens, so I am theoretically starting my garlic much too late in the season.  Next year I'll plant them on the winter solstice (shortest day of the year), and harvest on the summer solstice (longest day)... lore says that's how you're supposed to do it, and I'd like to see if it improves the quality of the garlic.  Plus, it'll give me something gardeny to do in winter.

Here's my favorite way to eat garlic!  And yes, that means I have finally started up Leaves In My Cup.