Garlic 101. Loving your garden is of utmost importance.
Greetings fellow gardeners,
It would seem that the weather is starting to be a bit easier on our gardens. As long as we can get some regular rain all should be well. Today I shall pick the basil, again. This is the third time I will have chopped it down. If you are growing basil be sure that it does not go to seed. Snip off anything that looks like it would form a flower. If the basil starts to flower it will have a bitter taste. To make my pesto I put all the leaves along with at least two cloves of garlic some parmesan cheese and olive oil in a food processor. I mix it to the consistency that I want. If there is more pesto than I need I freeze it in ice cube trays and once frozen pop them into bag. A cube or two in a stew or soup is delicious.
Let’s talk about garlic. This is the time of year that we usually see garlic festivals and celebrations of garlic, the amazing stinking rose. Most gardeners like to have a least one tiny plot of garlic. To grow garlic, pick a sunny area with good soil and add lots of compost. I suggest that you grow local garlic; garlic grown in your area. Usually I pick up my planting garlic at a Garlic Festival, but I haven’t been able to get to one. However, there are many local farm stands with vegetables for sale along with garlic. As you are choosing garlic to eat, choose one head of garlic to plant. Be sure to choose garlic that you like to eat. For example, I like a garlic called Music and my friend likes a stronger garlic called Russian.
To add to the confusion there is softneck garlic and hardneck garlic. The garlic in supermarkets is usually softneck and the garlic often sold locally is hardneck. Your seller can inform you. Softneck does not have scapes and is much easier to braid and store. Hardneck has scapes which should be harvested as soon as they are ready, and they do well in our winters. They are more difficult to store but a little extra string will help with that.
In my opinion it is best to plant garlic in the fall, I plant it when I plant my daffodil bulbs, about three to six weeks before a hard frost. You can plant it in the spring, but you will get larger heads with a fall planting. Take the garlic head and separate all the cloves. Each clove will become a new garlic head. Do not peel the garlic, it needs that extra bit of protection. Place the clove with the fat end down in a hole about three to four inches deep. Make sure that the fat end makes contact with the soil. Cover it up and water well.
I have been having some interesting discussions with fellow gardeners about visitors to the garden. I love having visitors but the person I was talking to felt uncomfortable. Remember that visitors are there to see you not to judge your garden. We are like a big club, all striving for our dream gardens and most gardeners are very helpful and understanding. Does your garden make you happy? Are you so proud of how much you have done? Then it is wonderful!!
Let me give you an example. Because of the pandemic my little business of selling greeting cards and sundries from my watercolour/pen and ink drawings has suffered. No Mother’s Day shows, and the Christmas Craft sales look dubious. So, I am going to have an open house the weekend of the 22nd. That means people will be looking at my garden. What will they see? Some people will see a tangled mess. I am organic so there is some damage to my plants, and I leave some weeds too, but my garden is alive, buzzing with pollinators and bugs and birds. I like to experiment so there are strange things here and there. I made a Hügelkultur. According to Wikipedia “Hügelkultur (German pronunciation: [ˈhyːɡl̩kʊlˌtuːɐ̯]) is a horticultural technique where a mound constructed from decaying wood debris and other compostable biomass plant materials is later (or immediately) planted as a raised bed.” Mine kind of looks like a beaver lodge built by a beaver on crack. It is working its way through some huge punky cedar logs and weeds and dirt. It is going to take a while. While my garden is not neat and tidy it really makes me happy. And of course, the gardener’s refrain continues to echo there is always next year!!
Have a super week and keep an eye on your pots.
Judith. (Email:lapisdragonarts@gmail.com)
All Veggie Bites are on the website https://sites.google.com/site/sghortsoc/ For more information about the open house on Saturday, August 22, 1pm to 4pm and Sunday, August 23, 12pm to 4pm, go to http://www.lapisdragonarts.com/
Custard Candy Daylily
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