Hard vs Soft Garlic

Greetings to all Saturday workers….

I will meet you there at 8:00. It will probably be wet but no rain is predicted. Be sure to wear boots or old shoes. It will be a perfect time to plant and I have lots of things to go into the ground.

I forgot to show you our potato tower. I have never seen these types of potato configurations yield much…maybe this will be an exception. We dusted the cut side of all of our seed potatoes with bone meal when we planted (in ground and in towers). I think since the planting mix in the towers is rather sterile, it might be a good idea to water in some more bone meal and maybe a little fish emulsion at this point (can't hurt).

Leaning tower of potatoes

 Our garlic seems to be doing well. The link below is one of the best I've seen on garlic. We have 13 varieties of garlic planted…soft neck, hard neck, porcelain, purple stripe and artichoke varieties. I have the names of all the varieties and a description of each for anyone interested. I didn't know that the hard neck varieties are the ones that have all big cloves, and that the soft neck that we usually get in the stores have those irritating tiny cloves as you get to the center of the bulb. I did get some at Fresh Market the other day that had ALL big cloves, and now I know this was the hard neck type. I like those best, even though they do not keep as long. And, the hard neck type gets 'scapes,' which I think I saw one forming the other day. That means a month to harvest according to the article. Scapes are used by 'fancy chefs,' and we should harvest them to help the bulb develop. The second link shows how to use the scapes. So, please read the articles, and we will all be so knowledgeable when it comes to harvesting our garlic!

http://awaytogarden.com/the-tricky-matter-of-when-to-harvest-garlic

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/06/the-crisper-whisperer-what-to-do-with-garlic-scapes-recipe.html

See you later!

Dianne