Are you planting garlic this year?

[maddie]

Well here I'm preparing the soil for this years garlic planting. I'm about to lime up the garden and wait a week or two before planting.
Here's a picture of some of this years crop. It was generally a good crop with only 7% wiped out by onion white root rot which is far better than years gone by with 80% or more.

Jed, I wish I could row some lovely garlic like that.. All I did was a few pods of garlic last year. I use a lot of garlic in my cooking and keep buying the stuff so much. This space constraint gets on my nerves at times like these.
Yesterday we drove out of the city and I saw so many nurseries on the way.. I could have got so many plants dirt cheap.. but the darned space constraint.. :/ I am just grateful that I can have these many plants I n this little space. That is the best I can do for now

 

[ChanellG]

You'll get there one day, Maddie! You're already way ahead of many of the rest of us I can barely manage the plants I do have, but I'd like to be able to grow carrots and beets. I'm going to keep trying with the garlic though, because I also use a lot of it in cooking.

 

[maddie]

You'll get there one day, Maddie! You're already way ahead of many of the rest of us I can barely manage the plants I do have, but I'd like to be able to grow carrots and beets. I'm going to keep trying with the garlic though, because I also use a lot of it in cooking.

LOL with little or no space that is kind of impossible. But my hunt for a house with a garden goes on. I just need some space to get my garden going.. My son keeps complaining about my plants and how they get into his room.. he has the sunniest room in the house.. I can't help but take my plants there for the day

 

[ChanellG]

That is too funny! Maybe you can give him something of his own to grow? Or add one of his favorite foods in your growing efforts? Perhaps then he wouldn't mind so much. I am beginning to get envious of my mom's garden, but I am also seeing what I can do with the limited space I have based on her example. There are certain things I can usually count on her growing, which means I can focus on stuff she isn't My dad is starting to grow more stuff again as well so pretty soon we'll all be able to swap.

 

[maddie]

That is too funny! Maybe you can give him something of his own to grow? Or add one of his favorite foods in your growing efforts? Perhaps then he wouldn't mind so much. I am beginning to get envious of my mom's garden, but I am also seeing what I can do with the limited space I have based on her example. There are certain things I can usually count on her growing, which means I can focus on stuff she isn't My dad is starting to grow more stuff again as well so pretty soon we'll all be able to swap.

Grow! you must be joking.. he is waging a war against my garden.. lol.
Wow, you have a lot of resources Channel. I wish my friends and neighbours grow something which I can exchange. I have been only giving until now.. anyways I love to give gifts so it is okay with me.

 

[ChanellG]

I wish, Maddie! I would like to be able to grow a lot more than I already do, but since my mom likes to share I can at least look forward to having some fresh, organically grown favorites coming my way very soon. She was laughing at me a few days ago when I said I can't wait until the trees are producing more stuff than we can consume. I plan to make everything citrus cleaners to candied peels, lol.

 

[Jed]

Showoff! LOL Maybe we should just let you do all of our growing, Jed. It was so windy last night I was afraid for my younger plants. Basil doesn't like that kind of chill in the air, and after all the rain we had all week I am afraid of what I might find out there.

Basil is very temperamental. Though down in the warmer climes where you are Chanell it must grow to a sizable height. You would laugh at the tiny plants we grow here in our hothouse. We can't have the best of everything.

 

[Jed]

Wow, this is a lot of beautiful garlic...it looks like a decoration I never eat garlic because I can't stand the taste of it but it looks really pretty.

My father was a cook on merchant ships and would never use garlic and so never had it at my parents home either though I do come from a Mediterranean background. I never really got into the flavour until I left home.

 

[ChanellG]

Basil is very temperamental. Though down in the warmer climes where you are Chanell it must grow to a sizable height. You would laugh at the tiny plants we grow here in our hothouse. We can't have the best of everything.

LOL, it's holding it's own. I suppose if I put my basil in the ground instead of in pots and regularly plucked the flowers and fertilized and all that I could get one of those three foot shrubs I've seen on occasion. It's so prolific though, it's easy to just let it self seed or collect the seeds and plant them myself.

 

[Jed]

Love basil. You are so lucky. Self seeding basil weeds sounds wonderful.
We once propagated seeds to about 2 inches and sold them at markets. If we kept them they would only grow another 4 to 6 inches. That's how difficult it is to get them to grow tall here. Tomatoes. In our dreams.

 

[ChanellG]

Love basil. You are so lucky. Self seeding basil weeds sounds wonderful.
We once propagated seeds to about 2 inches and sold them at markets. If we kept them they would only grow another 4 to 6 inches. That's how difficult it is to get them to grow tall here. Tomatoes. In our dreams.

That's odd, Jed. Is it something in the soil or does it have to do with your climate? Have you had success with other herbs? I've heard that people have had trouble with starting tomatoes from seed and the one thing I learned by doing is that even if you have a tomato plant that says it tolerates heat (I bought a Hawaiian variety once), it isn't necessarily true.

I've seen tomato plants spring up in places where they weren't planted but not produce tomatoes, so as easy as they are to grow, they can be tricky at times. I've started planting more garlic. I figure that even if I don't get bulbs I can at least use the "chives" for cooking. My mom had some in the fridge that was sprouting so I figured I might as well try again.

 

[Jed]

I think our problem is altitude. The climate is a temperate type but being up high temperatures seem to very by a view degrees. We are half way up to mountain height at being alpine where native plants don't grow that tall.We can grow many other herbs but the frost sensitive types are difficult.
Garlic loves frost so we are a winner with that one.

 

[ChanellG]

Garlic loves frost so we are a winner with that one.

That's interesting; I wonder if a greenhouse might help?

I wonder if keeping my garlic indoors over the winter is where I went wrong. It's doesn't really get that cold here so temperature wise mine would have been safe. Not sure it would have received enough sun, but that's another matter. I've had basil survive through the winter before so I guess it is just a matter of figuring out what does best when.

 

[Jed]

Garlic likes to be stored above 10C or below 4C. If you do intend sprouting garlic leave it in your refrigerator for a time.
We do have a poly tunnel where we do have our sad attempts at growing tomatoes and basil. Outside would be very much a hopeless challenge. Boy I love home grown tomatoes and hate the ones we can only seem to get hold of most of the time and they're from supermarkets. Hard and tasteless. Something like a red cucumber.

 

[ChanellG]

If you do intend sprouting garlic leave it in your refrigerator for a time.

The garlic was in the fridge at my mom's and when I took it out to use it I found it had already started sprouting. I've put a few cloves in dirt already and I might stick some more in flower pots here and there. I don't expect to get any fully developed bulbs, but at least I can use the tops as chives until the extreme summer heat or the excessive rain knocks the plants out.