The Harvesting: Garlic

Most of the Garlic Harvest for 2021 (pulled on 5/21/21).  The freeze did take out some of the garlic - and I don't think it was so much the freeze as much as the amount of water that came after.  I don't remember what varieties I still plant - likely Burgundy and Inchellium Red since those were always the ones I thought did the best for me.  I also have some "Walking Garlic" that I've never done anything with, but I'm told it's edible - but it just stays in the ground forevermore.  I also have like 4 more garlics to pull, but they aren't ready yet (since you pull the garlic when each stalk is ready and not necessarily all at once, though most of the time the plants tend to all get pulled around the same time).

The garlic now needs to dry out for a few weeks and then the tops will be removed and they'll be put in the cupboard (and yes, I did bring them inside to dry instead of leaving them out in this "first tropical depression of the year which is causing 4 days of consistent rain).  Around September/October, I'll break apart and plant a few heads to harvest for next year...though maybe it's time for me to try a new variety...

Fall Planting & Homemade Ollas

I finally got around to planting my fall garden last weekend.  Part of the reason it took so long was because of all the rain (over 10" at my house over the last 2 weeks).  The other reason was that I had decided to make some homemade Ollas.  I'm not sure if they'll work, or how well, but I figured that it was like $10 for two of them so it's not a big deal if it doesn't work.

I made mine thusly:

Step 1: purchase an unglazed terracotta pot with a saucer that fits the top.  Also get yourself some permanent craft glue.  The directions I followed actually recommended using permanent craft glue and then sealing around the seams with caulk.  I opted to skip the caulking part and only used the E6000; so again, I don't know if it will work or for how long, but yay! EXPERIMENT!

Step 2: Follow craft glue directions to glue the saucer to the pot.  In the case of E6000, you're to put a thin layer on each piece, let them sit for 2-5 minutes and then press together.

Step 3: After pressing the pieces together, I added a bead around the outside  and then let them sit for a few days.

Then came this last weekend - I pulled out the spring veggies (it was tough - especially since both the tomato and habanero were alive; but neither had any flowers and it's really too late in the season to have expected them to produce anything before the freezes), and buried the ollas in the garden - one in each bed, and then planted the fall veggies around.

I left the herbs in place and I had already planted the Inchellium garlic so I really only needed to transplant the starts I had purchased at Red Barn a few weeks ago.  This year I'm growing the aforementioned Inchelium Garlic, Garlic Chives, Oregano, "Bouquet" Dill, "Bronze" Fennel, "Snow Crown" Cauliflower, "Pacman" Broccoli, "Black Magic" Kale, "Dragon Tongue" Mustard, "Graffiti" Cauliflower, "Romanesco" Broccoli, and "Southern Comet" Broccoli.

Infusions

I got the idea for infusions from my friend and fellow blogger, Vicki at Playin' Outside when she presented about her vinegar infusions at a garden tour a few years ago.  Vicki said that she uses 'seasoned rice vinegar' which has some sugar in it to cut the acidity of vinegar, but if you're going to use straight vinegar, you should use rice or white wine vinegar (avoid the regular white distilled or cider vinegars because they're just too astringent).  She also said that she doesn't have recipes (which is always the first thing people ask for); her recommendation was to walk around your garden and pluck some herbs, hold them together and sniff - if they smell good together, you're good to go, if they don't, figure out which one is the offending one and toss it out.  Of course, you generally can go off of known good combos - Italian herbs (oregano, basil, parsley, thyme, sage), Mexican herbs (oregano, peppers, garlic), French herbs (rosemary, thyme, bay leaf) - generally if you use the herbs together in a recipe, they're probably going to go well together for an infusion, so go find your favorite recipe and add the same ratio of herbs to vinegar and have a go at an infusion.

But why stop at vinegar?  Why stop at herbs?

But first, let's talk about the set up for infusions.  What you'll need:

• large glass jar with lid (preferably plastic, but you can use a mason jar, you'll just have to protect the metal with a sheet of plastic wrap if you're using vinegar)
• a plastic lid from a yogurt container cut to slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the jar, with some slits cut in it.
• vinegar, oil, vodka, bourbon, or tequila - enough to cover your herbs and then some.
• your herbs, fruit, vegetables, garlic, peppers, etc.  (when using fruit/vegetables, use the ripe ones - it should smell like what you want - if using citrus fruit, you only need the peel, pith removed.)

And now for the photos:

Put your infusers in the jar (in this case, a peeled head of garlic and 4 Thai peppers)

prepare your "hold everything below the surface" yogurt lid

Select your poison (in this case vinegar)

A top view of the infusers (garlic and dried thai peppers)

place the yogurt lid on top of the infusers

Add the liquid.  Let sit for a few weeks before using.  I tend to just let the items sit in the jar until I finally decide that I want to start a new infusion.

I tend to use vinegar infusions as a finisher for sautéed summer squash, roasted Brussels sprouts, and making homemade salad dressing (which consists of herbed vinegar and olive oil).  The one above also gets used on breakfast potatoes when they need a little extra kick.

When using other liquids, choose good quality ones - in the case of liquors, choose ones that you would actually drink - so don't cheap out on the vodka and get the one that burns like paint thinner just to save a few bucks.

I've just recently expanded into trying basil in olive oil:

Lemon peel in Deep Eddy vodka (taken a few days after I started):

And peaches in Deep Eddy vodka (taken a few days after I started):

In the case of vodka infusions, I've had coworkers who have done fennel, corn (surprisingly good), cucumber, raspberry, strawberry, and blackberry.  In all cases, it works best if, after a few days, you taste test the infusion to see if it's got the flavor you were aiming for.  In any case, you probably don't want to leave the items in the vodka indefinitely.  Besides, how are you supposed to eat those delicious vodka-soaked fruit on ice cream if you leave them IN the vodka?

Floppin' Garlic

Yep, you read that right - Floppin' Garlic.

In my previous years of growing garlic, I've never had the tops flop over - that has been something only the onions do.  This year, however, almost all of the garlic has flopped. Apparently it has to do with growing softneck garlic as opposed to hardneck garlic.  And per this article by the Oregon State Extension Office, it looks like it means that the garlic is ready to harvest.

March 14: Clean Out and Transplant

A picture of the garden before cleaning it out and getting ready for the Spring garden...of course I didn't think about taking a photo until AFTER I'd already pulled out 2 cauliflower plants.

After Spring planting.  Doesn't look much different because the new plants are little.  (and some of the plants were already eaten by March 15 - fie!  I knew I should have waited on planting the peppers and eggplants - but I decided to plant them because I didn't want to have to worry about keeping plants in pots alive even though I have 3 peppers from last year saved and ready to be planted)  You'll also notice that I still have brassicas in the garden.  The broccoli is still producing side shoots, the purple cauliflower has a head that I'm waiting on.  The Brussels Sprouts haven't even really formed yet, and the garlic will stay in the garden until May or so....so really all I took out where the cauliflower plants I'd already harvested, the bolted lettuces and the stump of mustard greens.

The State of the Garden

You know, generally I feel like I'm a competent veggie gardener. Not great, but not horrible. And then I went and took care of my friend's garden for the week while she was out of town. Flowers artfully arranged and blooming, garden clean and in perfect square foot gardening order.  Plants all green and flourishing.  Tomatoes everywhere.  Squash plants actually growing.

And then, there's my garden.  Overgrown.  Sometimes struggling.  Nothing flourishing (except the parsley).  My tomatoes are barely growing, they definitely don't have any tomatoes on them (except for the ones in the grow box - OOO, which, by the way - I just got my first JD's Special CenTex tomato the other day.  It was wonderful!  Like right up there with the Krims...or from what I remember - I would like to be able to do a direct comparison taste test, but see aforementioned issue with tomatoes).  The garlic is generally puny, and it probably doesn't help much that I planted it really late (which, by the way, you should totally check out Roberta's crazy awesome garlic haul). 

It's just generally like that one scene in the Simpsons - the "Why doesn't my Grill look like that?!" one - right before he runs into the messed up grill with a beach umbrella.  Of course, it ends up becoming the kickoff to his artist career.

I know that I need to add more compost.  I need to pull out all the plants, remove the mulch and add more soil and compost.  I know I need to do this, I just can't ever seem to get around to it.  It would also require digging up and transplanting a bunch of herbs - of course most of them could stand to be divided anyway.  And I really should move the chile pequins to the part of the yard I actually want them in...

Yeah, I should really just buck up and do it - do the work to get the soil back into working order.  Then my garden can go back to being productive and not a hot mess.

Still, I probably ought to ask my coworker what her secret is.

Season Roundup - Fall 2012

Strawberry Plants:
Meh...very meh - I've seen flowers on one of the two plants, but no fruit.  I may have to give up on strawberries...or maybe they're like peas - I have to plant an entire bed of them in order to get any appreciable amount.
Experience:  Meh.  I don't know why I try to grow strawberries every year...I'd actually have to DO something in the garden in the fall if I really wanted to get some strawberries (the garlic and onions are so easy to care for, I just really should forget the plants that are fussy).

Swiss Chard:
Didn't do anything until February.  It may be the fertilizer, it may be the [very warm for this time of year] weather.
Experience:  Hit a growth spurt - not sure if it was fertilizer or the fact that we started having some cold snaps, but the plant did grow gangbusters for a while.  I've only cut off leaves once - and that was to make the feta chicken pasta with the chard instead of spinach.

Mustard Greens:
A variety of purple greens.  Came to me all flea beetle infested and I've had to fight them since.  They haven't done anything, but at least started looking healthier in February.
Experience:  Didn't really grow much, but did do a little better in March/April.  Did good enough that we were able to pull off the leaves and use them on our sandwiches.  I wasn't a fan of the "generic bitter green" flavor it imparted, but Shawn LOVED it.  As in he deemed the sandwiches good and requested that I grow mustard greens again in the future.


Snap Peas:
Didn't plant until January 26.  Doing well.
Experience:  Finally were able to harvest some peas in April. Again, not enough to actually prepare anything with them, but enough to stand out in the garden picking and eating peas.


Carrots:
Didn't plant until January 26.  Never came up.
Experience:  Didn't come up - or there may be ONE carrot.


Quinoa:
Didn't plant until January 26.  Never came up.
Experience:  Noticed in late April that there was ONE plant that came up - it's hiding behind the parsley and peas.


Garlic - all varieties I have already planted:
Didn't plant until December.  I really just planted ones that had already started sprouting.  So of course they're all growing...though not very big and beefy yet.
Experience:  Garlic is garlic, yo.  It doesn't really seem to be growing much, but then the garlic rarely does grow much.


Onions:
Onions starts I grew from seed were transplanted to the garden on January 26.  As per usual, some of the starts are doing great while others are not.
Experience:  Most have managed to pull through, but those closest to the chives are most definitely stunted.  I noticed some of the tops have started to fall over already so I'll be harvesting them soon.

Dill:
Purchased a dill plant as a replacement for the fennel plant that didn't make it through the winter - it was just always covered in aphids.  The dill is doing well, and even has a caterpillar on it (and some ladybug eggs).  Unfortunately, it looks like it is also covered in aphids now because it's starting to get warm.  I should clip some leaves and make the dill dinner rolls then resign myself to the fact that it is for the caterpillars.


Holdovers from last year:
Lemon Balm:  Still in a mat-like state, but they were never damaged by the weather (not that we really had any cold weather).
Experience:  Starting to grow back into a mound form.  The one on the west side of the bed has migrated over the years.

Garlic Chives:  Died back to the roots which is surprising considering we didn't have all that cold of weather this winter.  The large plant has come back with a vengeance.

Summer Thyme:  Never died back.  Will need to be cut back to prevent legginess.
Experience:  Didn't cut back like I said I would because it started blooming.  And then the bees came and it was glorious.

Oregano:  Did wonderfully - lush and green.  I'll have to start clipping it soon.

Parsley:  As per usual - just seeded all over.
Experience:  The garden and the front yard are CRAZY with the parsley.  This year almost all of the plants are in the planting beds which is good, but the bad part is that they're all taking over the beds.  They just started blooming and the bees and ladybugs are going beserk.  Obviously we won't be removing them for a while...

Lavender:  Never died back.  Started putting out new growth in late February.

In case it isn't patently obvious, I really need to start a "just the herbs" bed.  It would clear out large amounts of my regular garden bed and then maybe I can go back to having a normal garden (that is - tomatoes in the garden).

[NOTE:  Originally published on March 5, 2013.  Updated on May 4, 2013]

Plant Tags

For my 30th birthday, my friend and coworker, Andrea, got me some plant tags.  Said plant tags are re-useable and one is supposed to write on them with gel ink pen.  As I haven't ever had super great luck with reuseable plant tags in the past, I took pictures of them figuring that at the very least I could keep track of the types of garlic associated with each plant tag picture.

 Here are are the before pictures (and yes, the tags were actually white):

And here are the after pictures (yellow and faded, but still legible):

Sadly they do not wipe off as indicated (soap and water).  Rubbing alcohol made no difference.  This is why I used them for the garlic - I figure I will likely have these garlic varieties growing every fall so it's not a problem if I have to reuse the same stakes.  I wonder if the tags would do better in the shade...

Onion Harvest

My harvest of the Onions for this year (there are a few still out in the garden, but not many).  I also have harvested all of the Lorz Italian garlic and the ginger.  About half of the ginger has been replanted in order to get more ginger for next year.

The end of the Fall Garden

I realized I haven't been taking photos of the fall garden.  Mostly because it's garlic and onions, and how exciting is it to see a bunch of pictures of garlic and onions.

Anyhow, at this point, I've pulled out most of the onions and the parsley (the stuff that grows wild in my yard) has gotten so big it's top heavy.

From left to right:  Dill (which I purchase for the butterflies), onions, garlic, garlic chives, lone onion.  The marigolds reseeded themselves from last year, unfortunately, most of them seeded in the grass area and have subsequently been mowed over.

From left-ish to right-ish:  Fennel (which heretofore has always been purchased for the caterpillars; henceforth, it will always be purchased for the caterpillars), parsley, garlic, lemon balm.  Also, I need to figure out what our easements look like for that electrical box and try to figure out a way to hide it from view...maybe a trellis with evergreen vine...or succulent cinder-block wall.

Garlic Planted

I finally planted the garlic last night. And by "night" I really do mean night.

For my birthday, my friend Andrea got me some reusable plant stakes which I opted to use. But I also fear that like the last reusable plant stakes the name may fade out by the end of the growing season. But these stakes have little plant pictures on them so I can tell which one is which just by the little painted on picture. Thus, pictures for the blog so I have a record of which is which.

[edited 01/06/12:  I planted a crapload of yellow onions on the first or so.  So now my garden plots (and the potato box) are full of onions and garlic.  And one fennel plant and 2 lemon balms and 1 garlic chives plant.  Point is, I've guaranteed myself that I won't have a spring garden - which is probably for the best since we're still in a pretty bad drought.]

The blah-ness

As all local gardeners know, central Texas has two short growing seasons instead of one long one. But of course, I always try to get my plants to limp through the hot summer to start producing again in the fall. And, after a summer like this one, boy are the plants limping.

Of course another problem with the plants making it through the summer is that I have no space to plant anything for the winter, nor do I have the energy to actually do any planting.

So I should be planting garlic and fennel in the veggie garden, and I should be planting trees in the yard and working on any of the plethora of projects I have in the yard (Hell Strip, Front Berm, Rain Garden in the side yard, removing part of my rock garden and moving it elsewhere, re-seeding the dead grass with NAS drought grass seeds, etc.). But I just can't get in the mood to do any of it.

Blah.

Hopefully this changes soon (very, very soon) because seriously, I need to get a move on.

Vacation

So I didn't REALLY go on vacation - I was at a training in Maryland for the last week while my husband was (and still is) at a conference in Vancouver. But the bad part about going to cooler climes in August? It means that your plants are left here in the frying pan to fend for themselves.

I asked the neighbor who was watching our cat to water the veggie garden and other plants in pots on Tuesday and Thursday (keeping in mind that I normally watered those everyday). I also had a coworker stop by on Wednesday to water "all plants outside, front and back." so if we're keeping track that would indicate that all the perennials and annuals and flowering things would get watered on Sunday before I left, on Wednesday and then again on Saturday when I returned. The veggie garden and plants in pots would get watered on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The flowering things all did fine - the worst looking plant by far was the milkweed. And the back yard flowering plants looked downright wonderful.

The garden, however, looked pitiful. The squash plants have all died (probably a one-two punch between the heat and SVB), one of the Krims I had grown from seed died, the marigolds all looked extremely stressed, the lemon balm is crispy, as are some of the sweet potato plants. Hell, even the garlic chives aren't looking so hot. The best looking plants were the eggplants and watermelon. The most pitiful thing to me, though, was the fact that my lone habanero plant (from seed) looked done for. The leaves were completely limp and a dull green. I watered it anyway and it has miraculously recovered.

While I'm a little sad so much died, at the same time it's a good thing because I need to make room to plant garlic, broccoli, and cauliflower very soon like.

Garden 2011: 4/14/11

Experiments

New Experiments:
-Spring Potatoes in the Potato Box - currently under way. the plants look much better than the fall experiment potatoes. I also didn't bother ordering any potatoes, I just bought organic Red LaSoda and White Kennebec potatoes from Whole Foods on Valentine's day. I planted them the following weekend. The Red LaSodas are doing great, the Kennebec, not so much. I'll probably only stick with the Red LaSodas after this...

-Spring Quinoa - Currently under way. The seedlings didn't start as quickly as they had in the fall (I'm guessing it's a temperature issue).

- Casper Pumpkins - currently under way. I planted the seeds, but none of them have come up yet...I'm beginning to think that I waited too long to plant them (I had bought the seeds a few years ago and forgot about them).

-Spring Sweet Potatoes - I tried to get some sweet potatoes to sprout - I put them in some water on the counter. I didn't get anything other than moldy potatoes. The other night when I went to get out some other sweet potatoes from the cupboard for making sweet potato fries, I noticed that one of the potatoes had started sprouting. So, out with the old, in with the new. I have the potato sitting on my windowsill to see if it will sprout more slips.

-Peanut Bush - My parents had moved to New Jersey for about 3 months for my dad's job (he was supposed to be there for 3 years). On their way back (from the move), they opted to drive through the southern part of the US. They stopped in Georgia for a bit and my mom found this peanut growing kit (which was really just a little salsa cup from Chuy's with red yarn and 4 peanuts) that she bought as a stocking stuffer. I started the peanuts a few weeks ago, and the peanut plant is already ready to be planted in the garden.

-[edited on 4/16] I want to try growing ginger (Zingiber officinale). I bought some ginger a week ago from the HEB that has some growing tips, I broke off the pieces and planted them about 2" deep in potting soil in the pot the Avocado Tree used to be in. I used Tropical Permaculture as the guide I followed.

Experiments I want to try:

-I also want to try growing saffron (crocus sativus)

Previous Experiments:
- The Garlic Experiment (aka Growing Garlic) - Win!

- Make seed start pots out of toilet paper rolls - Fail. Last time I posted about this, I was told to abandon toilet paper rolls and make newspaper rolls instead because it's easier for the plant roots to get through when it's planted in the ground.

- Strawberry Popcorn - Neutral. The corn grew, it produced. Because of my own stupidity, they didn't produce as much as they could have. I planted I think 8 plants or so and got 6 good ears and about that many not good ears (I had stopped watering the plants well before I should have).

- Paper towel seed starting technique - Epic Win! I successfully managed to start seeds by using the trick of sprinkling said seeds on a wet paper towel, wrapping it up and putting it in a ziplock bag on the counter.

- Lemon Balm + Nasturtium to repel Squash Vine Borer - Neutral. I don't know if it really repels the SVB, but I'll probably plant this again as the Nasturtiums are pretty and the Lemon Balm is well, lemony. Plus, I felt that the Lemon Balm worked fairly well as a mosquito repellent until the mosquitos are so thick that they don't care what type of repellent you have on.

- Fall Quinoa - The plants grew only about 4" - 6" high (they're supposed to be 4' - 6' high). Needless to say I didn't get anything from them, but figured I ought to try again in the spring.

- Starting tomatoes/eggplant/pepper from seed - Epic Win!

- Agave pups - Currently under way. The agave at work sent up a bloom stalk and produced pups. I collected a shit load and gave a bunch away to other garden bloggers. Unfortunately, even though the agave had survived at my work without problems with weather, it apparently is not necessarily frost tolerant as all of the ones I planted outside froze during the winter. the only ones alive are the ones I have in pots.

- Carnival Mix Carrots - I planted one area of my garden with the Carnival Seed Blend which I completely forgot about until I pulled up carrots and I had maroon and white ones. The maroon one was good, the white ones were blah.

- Chef's Choice Cauliflower Mix - The cauliflowers didn't make it this fall - I think it was the location (lack of sun). I will try again in the fall.

- Tulle Bags to protect the tomatoes - Has not started yet. I'll make the call when I have more tomatoes growing . The gist is that you use those little tulle wedding gift bags and put your tomatoes in them (while still on the plant, duh), to protect the tomato itself from bugs. Note: As Annie in Austin has pointed out, this will not protect your tomatoes from other, larger varmints. Varmints with teeth.

-Sweet Potatoes - it was an accidental experiment that worked pretty well, the only problem was that I started it much too late in the fall season to get any sweet potatoes.

Winter gardening

So I planted more spinach (the rest of the seeds that I had), more peas (only a handful) and more carrots (yellowstone and whatever the orange variety that is in the packet - nantes, maybe?).

The broccoli is the only thing that seems to be actively growing, though the cauliflower is starting to look robust and the quinoa is looking like an actual plant (maybe if I can keep it alive until February, it will take off and it will be like I started the seed at the right time). All the garlic is doing swimmingly and the onions are green and healthy looking.

I pulled out all the tomatoes and the remainder of the peppers (except for the habanero). I had forgotten that the reason I planted the lemon boy tomato in the spot I did was because I had a problem with root nematodes in that spot last year. And lemon boy, while sometimes marketed as an heirloom, actually isn't and therefore is not as susceptible to the same problems as heirlooms. So yeah, the little Ananas Noire plant that I planted in that spot for the fall didn't fare so well. Or rather the plant seemed to be doing fine until I pulled it out of the ground and realized that it really wasn't.

I transplanted the Red Hot and Hot Yellow peppers into pots so I can bring them in and hopefully overwinter them. Both looked great this morning which is a plus.

Now then, I just have to remember to get to the store to buy some marigolds to put in the nematode spot...

Fall Garden In and Mulched

I planted the fall garden a few weeks back. And I went out and mulched it yesterday in preparation for an upcoming trip out of town (I feel bad about asking the neighbor, who is already watching the cats, to also water the garden for me). So far nothing has really grown (which is kinda how fall gardening goes down here...a whole lotta waiting going on).

All garlic varieties did sprout (though variety 1 (Burgundy) only has 2 out of 5 actually growing). The quinoa seems to be growing, but the plants are just so piddly, it makes me think that I should really try this again in the spring to see if it grows any quicker (it really should since it's an amaranth). The spinach never germinated, and I think I killed off the chard and beets by not watering enough. Oddly, this lack of water didn't kill off the carrots (I tend to think of carrots as some wimpy little plants, but they are proving to be tougher than I expected/remembered).

On the spring garden front, the tomato plants all have little tomatoes on them, the green bean plant is going crazy again so I had to cut it back otherwise it would have taken over my Purple Cherokee. The bell peppers finally have some peppers on them. The only plants that aren't producing are the eggplant, the habanero (though it does have tons of flowers), and the yellow hot pepper plant. I think I'll be pulling the eggplant when i get back from vacation as I doubt anything starting now will be able to be very big by the time I have to pull it because of a hard freeze, and while last year, it worked out okay, that was probably because the plant had 8 eggplants on it when we had that freeze.

Garlic Update

I planted the garlic on the 2nd of October this year (earlier than last year). Since I had seaweed solution, I soaked all the cloves in a baking soda/water/seaweed solution over night, drained, and then soaked all the cloves in rubbing alcohol for about 5 minutes.

As I planted 7 varieties this year (5 I ordered, 2 are from last year's stock), I used plastic cups I've obtained over the years, mostly from Clear Springs, Rudy's and the Oasis to keep all the varieties separate.

I planted the garlic in rows instead of in squares (hopefully this will make it easier for me in the spring when I start planting stuff), and they are numbered from right to left, with blue zip tie markers at the beginning of each row (once they're growing, the zip tie markers won't be needed).

1. Burgundy
2. Shilla
3. Maiskij
4. Applegate
5. Inchelium Red
6. Lorz Italian
7. Polish White

Garlics 4, 5, and 7 are essentially only half rows as I already had other things planted in the second half (that means there are only 3 plants per row instead of 5).

As of today, all of the varieties have sprouted except for the Burgundy and the Inchelium Red.

Garlic growing season 2011

As I didn't think I could replant the garlic I had last year (something I had in my head about cloves could only be smaller than what the parent clove was, which I don't think is necessarily the case--that's the case with pineapple, though), I went ahead and ordered another 2 pounds of garlic for planting from Gourmet Garlic Gardens. I also have some seaweed solution stuff so I'm going to add that to the soaking wash tonight. I'll likely have left over garlic again this year so if you want to try growing it, let me know.

The varieties for this year are thusly:

Polish White: An Artichoke Garlic. Rich, mellow garlic flavor - very little pungency when raw. Harvests in late spring/early summer - Stores through fall into winter. Great for raw eating - Grows well in cold and warm winter areas.

Inchelium Red: An Artichoke Garlic. Medium rich garlic flavor - medium pungency when raw. Harvest in early summer - stores through winter. A rich, medium softneck that grows well all over the USA.

Lorz Italian: An Artichoke Garlic. Rich garlic flavor - Very hot pungency when raw. Harvests in early summer - stores through the winter. Great heirloom Italian garlic - Thrives almost anywhere.

Maiskij: A Turban Garlic. A rich garlic flavor - hot pungency when raw. Harvests around June - Stores well into fall.

Applegate: An Artichoke Garlic. Very mild flavor - Very little pungency when raw. Harvests early in season - Stores 5-6 months.

I will also be planting some that I grew last year:

Shilla: A Turban Garlic. A rich garlic flavor - warm pungency when raw - harvests very early in the season - stores through fall.

Burgundy: A creole garlic - Very rich garlic flavor - mild/mellow pungency when raw - harvests in mid season - stores 8-10 months.

Mail Orders (Potatoes and Garlic)

I ordered some potatoes for fall planting today. I, like Caroline from the Shovel Ready Garden, ordered them from Ronnigers.com. Since I don't have a specified garden area for potatoes yet, I will likely be building a potato box as per my Mom's instructions.

[aside] My mom found an article in their newspaper about building a potato box in order to grow like 100 lbs of potatoes. She immediately ripped it out of the paper (so I could read it in person), and promptly called me to tell me about it and said that I just HAD to build the potato box and try it. See? Apparently I get this experiment thing from my mom. But the reason why I had to try it instead of her? Because I am the one who gardens. My mom was also the one that insisted I try the Earth Boxes of years past. And that experiment worked out well, so how badly can this one go? However, since she is the one who's so adamant about the potato box, what I should do is grow them and then pay to have them all shipped to her. I think my dad would get a kick out of that. [/aside]

The varieties I selected were a pound of Red LaSoda, 1/2 pound All Blue, and 1/2 pound Purple Viking. The LaSodas are a recommended variety for Travis County while All Blue and Purple Viking are recommended varieties for Texas by Howard Garrett. The other recommended varieties for Texas and/or Travis County were already sold out (except for the Russian Banana and Yellow Finn). I put that the ship date should be the middle of July, so we'll see how this works out.

I also ordered more garlic from Gourmet Garlic Gardens. I wish I would have been able to get the Creole varieties sampler, but they're already out of them so instead I got the Warm Winter Varieties again. They are automatically shipped just prior to the best time to plant in your specified area so they should be arriving in late-August or so.