I got the garlic in the ground yesterday, planting it two beds west of the asparagus, where the peas were this year. I think that will be as far as I can rotate, which will put everything on a 4 year rotation around the garden.
Closest to the house is Kazakhstan, a tall and early season variety, planted there to keep its height from overshadowing the other varieties.
Next is Music, a really large-clove variety that is supposed to produce the highest yield of any garlic. Since I often use lots of garlic when cooking, the large cloves are especially appealing.
Then we've got Belarus, a smaller-clove variety but one that stores well. I'll have to try to remember to put these in the deepest recesses of the garage after harvesting next year.
Finally, the last variety I purchased from Territorial is Fireball, supposedly named for its appearance rather than its heat.
But that leaves me with room for maybe 30 more plants. I have several cloves from each of the varieties (besides Music) that I set aside because they were so small. I could plant a mix in this last portion of the bed closest to the lawn. Or I could plant some cloves that I harvested from the garden this year. After it seemed I was having disease issues, though, I'm hesitant to do this. Or I could see what I can find at the co-op or Farmer's Market.
What varieties of garlic do you plant? And do you do anything special with the cloves before planting? I've heard of soaking them in a seaweed/fish emulsion solution first, but I've never tried it.
Monday, October 20, 2008
First Frost
It's been a busy fall, as I've obviously not posted much lately. I have to add a little today to wrap up the season.
Our first frost was in the first week or so of October, not terribly out-of-the-ordinary, though maybe a bit early. There were two mornings of frost in those days, but they were both quite light. I had the remaining basil, peppers, and tomatoes covered and they all survived just fine. I'm lucky to have the garden in a microclimate in the heat sink of the city and sheltered on the north by the house, on the west by the garage, and on the south by trees and the neighbor's house (which are about 20 feet away). The frost was certainly harder in other parts of the region.
The first real hard frost, though, was the morning of the 18th. Everything was more or less picked clean, so nothing was covered and the last bits of remaining basil was finished off by the frost. The only thing left was some jalapenos and bell peppers that never ripened. I picked them first thing in the morning and tossed the jalapenos into the freezer to store over the winter. The bell peppers are still fine for eating.
Last year we didn't have a frost like that until the middle of November, but I wasn't really hurt by it this year. Time to await the last frost in May 2009!
Our first frost was in the first week or so of October, not terribly out-of-the-ordinary, though maybe a bit early. There were two mornings of frost in those days, but they were both quite light. I had the remaining basil, peppers, and tomatoes covered and they all survived just fine. I'm lucky to have the garden in a microclimate in the heat sink of the city and sheltered on the north by the house, on the west by the garage, and on the south by trees and the neighbor's house (which are about 20 feet away). The frost was certainly harder in other parts of the region.
The first real hard frost, though, was the morning of the 18th. Everything was more or less picked clean, so nothing was covered and the last bits of remaining basil was finished off by the frost. The only thing left was some jalapenos and bell peppers that never ripened. I picked them first thing in the morning and tossed the jalapenos into the freezer to store over the winter. The bell peppers are still fine for eating.
Last year we didn't have a frost like that until the middle of November, but I wasn't really hurt by it this year. Time to await the last frost in May 2009!
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