Yeah! Garden pics!

70 garlic heads curing

 

North-side garden

North and East side garden

Potatoes growing in the compost pile

Chives and Strawberries

Potatoes in the north-side garden

4-in-1 apple

Nectazee Dwarf Tree

Italian Plum Tree

My start at converting the backyard to more garden space

4-in-1 cherry tree in east-side garden

Winter squash in the east-side garden

Beans and garlic

Garlic

Red table grape vine

All-in-one Almond tree in the southeast corner

Mustard seed plant flanked with oregano in south-side garden

Potatoes and cover crops in south-side garden

Short - Garlic Success!

I just wanted to report that I have pulled up 70 heads of garlic! Yeah!

Just a few notes:

Chet - my largest bulbs! Great sucess with these. Raw taste: medium, has a quick sharp garlic bite, but dies back quickly. Nice garlic to use raw. Cooked taste: coming soon...

Siberian / Music - my smallest bulbs. *sigh*

Siberian - Raw taste: coming soon...; Cooked taste: coming soon...

Music - Raw taste: strong garlic taste!; Cooked taste: milds out slightly but still rather potent!

Georgian Fire - These were my prettiest bulbs...all white, smooth bulbs (no bulging in different places due to large cloves). Raw taste: burns anywhere on the mouth it touches before sending its garlickly flavor; Cooked taste: milds out a lot.

Lorz - also pretty large bulbs! Raw taste: coming soon...; Cooked taste: coming soon...

I'll have to comment on the taste of each one later, but I think if I grow garlic again, it will have to be the softnecks for me.

Some Garlic Info

Chet's Italian Red Garlic
Softneck Artichoke type; 10 - 20 cloves per bulb; mild enough to eat raw.

Georgian Fire Garlic
Hardneck Porcelain type; 4 - 7 fat cloves per bulb; great strong garlic flavor.

Lorz Italian Garlic
Softneck Artichoke type; 12 - 19 cloves per bulb; more heat and better flavor than other artichoke types.

Music Garlic
Hardneck Porcelain type; 4 - 7 cloves per bulb; best varieties for consistent production; sweet taste when cooked; hot taste when eaten raw.

Siberian Garlic
Hardneck Purple Stripe type; 5 - 7 cloves; hot taste, good roasting garlic

Garlic RUST!!! EEEEKKKKK!!!

I have been seeing the leaves on my garlic plants turn yellow and I wasn't alarmed. I mean, they should be turning yellow at this time.

But on closer inspection of my garlic plants, I saw some small yellow-orange spots all over the leaves. THEY WERE EVERYWHERE!! I knew it wasn't good so I looked online. Basically it can kill your garlic plant, even the bulb if it gets really bad. I thought for sure my garlic plants are doomed and I wouldn't see a single garlic bulb.

When I got home today, I dug around 4 bulbs and pulled them up. I was very surprised to see some wonderfully LARGE garlic bulbs - disaster averted. Since I have about 80 - 100 more bulbs to dig up, I decided to stop and start first thing tomorrow morning to dig up the rest.

For those who see those little yellow-orange spots all over the garlic leaves, check your garlic bulbs!! throw away the garlic leaves in the garbage, and don't think about throwing it into your compost pile, or you'll see this problem next year, and the following, and.... And it is highly advisable that you do NOT grow garlic (or anything of the Allium family for that matter) in that same growing area for 2 - 3 years, preferably even 7 years, but as a small backyard farmer, I don't have that much space to begin with.

I am hoping for many more large cloves...keep your fingers crossed!

Still Here...

Hi, It's been a while since I posted. I've been around, tending to my garden. Just life comes between me and the blog. :-/ I planted garlic last fall, so I will be harvesting those soon. I have been harvesting some scapes (for the first time) and have been sauteing them and loving every bite! I hope things are growing well in your garden! I should be putting up images soon. katie

Harvest count for 2011

Garlic: 32 heads
Potato - Purple Viking: 10lbs 1oz
Potato - German Butterball: 19lbs 8oz
Rapini: 7 lb(s)
Squash - Butternut: 7lbs 0oz
Zucchini - 8 Ball: 5lbs 14oz
Beans (blue lake, dragon's tongue, royal burgundy): 5 lb(s) 9oz
Nectarine: 4lbs 2oz
Zucchini - Black: 4lbs 0oz
Zucchini - Gold Rush: 4lbs 0oz
Strawberries: 4lbs 0oz
Carrots: 3lbs 0oz
Swiss Chard - Red/Fordhook: 3lb(s) 0oz
Zucchini - Vegetable Marrow: 2lbs 12oz
Broccoli: 2 lbs
Apples - Early Summer Red: 1lb 15oz
Tomato - Banana Legs: 4lbs 8oz
Tomato - Riesentrauben: 2lbs 13oz
Tomato - Early Girl: 3lbs 10oz
Asian Lettuce: 1 lb(s)
Cucumber: 1lbs 1oz
Snow Peas: 0 lbs 12oz
Corn: 16 ears
Tomato - Tigerella: 2lbs 7oz
Tomato - Cherry (Volunteer): 0lbs 13oz
Pepper: Sweet Banana - 0lbs 3oz
Apple - Granny Smith: 5oz
Tomato - Roma: 1lbs 3oz.
Apple - Fuji: 0lbs
Apple - Gala: 0lbs
Squash - Delicata: 0lbs 12oz
Sugar Baby Watermelon: 1lb
Tomato - German Strawberry: 2lbs 12oz
Pepper - Jalapeno: 0lbs
Pepper - Sweet Bell: 0lbs
Ruby Seedless Grapes: [NONE THIS SEASON]
Soybeans: [FAILED]
European Plum: [EATEN BY BIRDS]
Almond: [EATEN BY SQUIRRELS]
Burgundy Okra: [FAILED]

As August Ends...

As August comes to a close, I realize that I need to get on uploading pictures. I don't know what my problem is when it comes to doing such a simple task...

Also, my tomatoes are finally starting to produce enough to make salads, pizzas, sauces, and have enough left over to freeze. My one recommendation when freezing tomatoes is to boil them for about a minute and slip the skins off FIRST before freezing. If you try to make sauce out of frozen tomatoes that you never took the skins off, you will have curly skins floating around your sauce as it cooks...you could do that and just pick the skins out as you see them, but I'm trying to be more proactive this year! It really was a pain to find them all...

zukes and most of the green beans are slowing down production so I will be pulling them up this week. I've started a few seeds - lettuce, broccoli, swiss chard, peas - and the rest I will direct seed - carrots, turnips and kohlrabi(first season for me), and maybe some collards. I have to remember to save some room for the garlic that I ordered from seedsavers!