October Is Garlic Planting Time

Fall is definitely here.  We haven’t had a frost yet, but we will shortly.  Sometimes it’s a good idea to wait for that first light frost and then get the garlic in, but I should be fine getting it in the ground now.  The point is to let the roots get established before things get too cold.  Of course, if you put it in to early, you’ll get some growth and that is to be avoided.

I’ve got three types.

1. German Hardy.  Stiffneck.  Planted this near the back of the row.
2. Music.  Stiffneck.  Should grow great.
3. Susanville.  Softneck.

I did a few quick videos to show the bed prep and planting.  I could edit them together I suppose, but I’m a little lazy.

Video 1: Oh My The Bed Is Mess!

Video 2: Oh My The Bed Is Clean!

Video 3: Garlic Types

Video 4: Root Side Down, Pointy Side Up

More garlic posts:

Fall Garlic Planting

Garlic Update

Scape

When To Pick Garlic

Garlic Harvest

Filed under: Uncategorized , fall garlic, planting garlic

In Which Our Heroes Are Tempted By Grapes

Two years ago I smelled it.  It was early in the morning as I walked through my neighborhood and I smelled grape bubblegum.  Sugary, sweet, winey.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that it wasn’t bubblegum.  It was the real deal.  Grapes.  I could see the vines snarling almost over every tree on the side of the road and I plucked a fruit and ate it.  Fantastic.

That year my friend Chris made some nice grape jam and it made us desperate for the return of the grapes.  But they didn’t return.  Somebody decided that they needed to be cut down.  Terrible!  Now, I get how these vines can smother trees, but if I could be smothered by anything I’d pick wild grapes in my top 3.  (The other 2 are probably NSFW.)

This year?  They are back and better than ever.  You can’t keep a good grape vine down.

Now part of the problem is that TECHNICALLY the grapes are on somebody else’s property on two sides of the road.  But since it was really only me and the yellowjackets who seemed to notice that they were there… I say they are mine by divine providence.  Snakes, fruit, and my own knowledge.

Chris and I made the pilgrimage to the trees yesterday and through a sophisticated fruit extraction method (tree bending, plucking and shaking) we got a bunch.  Today, Chris turned them into delicious jars of sweet perfection.  I will ration them all winter.

Filed under: Uncategorized , grape jam, grapes, wild grapes

Perpetual Greens

I believe that I am going to make it through this whole summer with a constant supply of lettuce from the garden.  Most of the greens in the main garden have bolted, but I’m replanting in some shade and thanks to the power of the rolling earthbox, I’ve got shade whenever I need it for arugula and some buttercrunch.

While I’m on the subject, earthboxes rule.  I’ve had mine for three years now and have bought one for my dad and my father in law.  I tend to grow peas in mine and then move to greens.  Next year I’m getting at least one more.

To see it in action, check out the shibaguyz in a post devoted entirely to the earthbox.

Filed under: Uncategorized , arugula, earthbox, greens, lettuce

Vole And Mole Are Friends

Mr. Vole looked himself over in the mirror. “What a fine figure I cut, don’t you think so Mr. Mole?”

“Hmmph,” said Mr. Mole from beneath his blankets.

Mr. Vole turned slowly about, admiring the cut of his cuffs.

“There’s much to do today Mr. Mole.  You’ll not get anywhere by staying in bed.”

“Hmmph,” said Mr. Mole settling deeper into his pillows.

“Well I’ve made us a list you see. A list that tells us all the things we must do,” said Mr. Vole adjusting his reading glasses.

“A List By Mr. Vole,” he said and cleared his throat.  “Number 1.  Wake up,” he said.  “And I have done that.”  Mr. Vole placed a checkmark next to number 1, glanced toward Mr. Mole and began erasing.

“Hmmm. No matter.  Number 2.  Dress,” he said.  “And I have done that.”  Mr. Vole placed a checkmark next to number 2.  “Are you listening Mr. Mole?  This is where the list gets very, very good.”

“Hmmph,” said Mr. Mole turning on his side.

“Number 3.  Use Mr. Mole’s tunnels to feast at the upside-down vegetable buffet,” Mr. Vole said.  “Oh very good!  Very good. I shall have to be random in my eating so as to confuse the gardener, don’t you agree?”

“Hmmph,” said Mr. Mole.

“Number 4!” said Mr. Vole.  “Return with grubs for Mr. Mole and drink tea. Excellent!  What a day Mr. Mole, what a fine, fine day.”

“Hmmph,” said Mr. Mole.

Filed under: Uncategorized , garden pests, moles, voles

Garlic Harvest

I am back from an excellent vacation in NY.  I had some friends watching the garden for me (gotta keep picking beans… don’t stop… keep picking) and they enjoyed beans, peppers, and onions.  In fact, they got some nice local peaches and made a peach salsa that I can’t wait to try.  Best of all, they go away this week and I get to watch their chickens!!

I let the garlic sit the extra week.  This is late for garlic, but the weather has been so weird that I’ve stopped paying attention to normal harvesting times.  I harvested yesterday and some may have gone a little long as there was some clove separation, but no big deal.

All in all, the harvest was pretty good.  I got 80 bulbs and of those about 40 are in excellent shape, large, skins forming, lovely.  Another 25 or so are in good shape.  The rest are very small or cracked, but I’ll just use them right away.

For me harvesting is easier and safer by hand.  I don’t have that many to pluck and I can be easier on the garlic.  Most people use a garden fork, but I didn’t want to stab anything so I just reached in, cleared around the bulb a bit and worked underneath to get the roots out.  Garlic can be pretty delicate so I used my gentle hands as opposed to my very strong hands of crushing.  Stop laughing.  I have very strong hands of crushing on account of my incredible strength.

After gettting them out of the ground, I cut the necks off down to about half an inch.  I washed most of the dirt off, but did it very carefully.  I want the skins to cure and they are in a delicate state right now.  Too much scrubbing and I’d take the skin off and that will hurt my chances of storage.

I will hang the bulbs now in my garage, out of the sun, out of the heat, but not too cool.  After a couple of weeks of hanging and even airflow, they should have pretty good skins going and I can store them in a cupboard.

Filed under: Uncategorized , garlic, garlic harvest, harvesting garlic

When To Pick Garlic

The summer that wasn’t.  Connecticut 2009.

It used to get hot here.  It used to be sunny.  I’ll tell my children about it probably.  Because all that they’ve known this summer is rain. Constant rain. Cloudy.  Rain.  No hotter than 75.

It’s screwed up my outlook on life and it’s screwed up my garden.  The peppers are pepitas… little peppers.  The garlic?  It’s just.. confused.  Late.  But finally perhaps we are returning to normal.

Since I’m using a hardneck variety, I had scape.  Scape is the false flower of garlic and it should be clipped off to allow the garlic cloves to develop.  Since I planted my garlic in the fall, I would normally have been pulling it up around July 4th.  But since it’s the end times, I’m late.  You want to look for the bottom leaves turning yellow/brown.  Once about 3/4 of the leaves are done, the garlic is usually ready.  I like to poke around and see how the cloves are doing as this video mostly doesn’t show!

Filed under: Uncategorized , garlic, harvesting garlic, scape

Bush Beans: How big? How Small?

The lovely thing about green beans is that you can pretty much pick them whenever the heck you want.  Beyond the extremes (too small is too small, too big is nasty) you can pretty much pick them when you want.

Filed under: Uncategorized , bush beans, picking beans

Compostings: Straight To Video

Okay ladies!  Here it is!  The first (as far as you know) on-camera appearance from Sjones71 aka Compostings.  You may throw your panties on the stage now.

Seriously.

Go ahead!

……..

Where are the panties?

Filed under: Uncategorized

Blighted Headlines

My two favorite things!  (Pizza and beer?)

Hmmmm….

Two of my well-liked things found amongst a much larger list of liked things that includes pizza and beer!

Science and gardening.

Actually, in this case, more a perversion of science.  Typical I suppose.

This article in The Hartford Courant gets a few things close to right, but seems to zero in on the drama where it’s not needed.

The headline tells us:

“Fungus That Caused Irish Potato Famine Now Affecting Gardens In New England.”

Holy crap!  We’re all going to die of starvation!  The Irish Potato Famine!!!!  Buy your milk and bread now and then kiss your ass goodbye!

Now. It’s true.  The fungus in question, phytophthora infestans (Blight) played a part in the Irish Potato Famine of 1845 – 46.  And it’s true that blight is about to take a heavy chunk out of potatoes/tomatoes in the northeast.  It’s going to be bad.  Probably.  Given what our weather has been (rain with periods of frequent rain punctuated by rain followed by rain with afternoon rain and 100% chance of rain) and given our temperatures (summer? what’s summer?) of 75 degrees and under, this fungus is most assuredly among us.

As some of you may recall, my crop of tomatoes was completely destroyed last year by late blight.  I was so heartbroken about it (I had an amazing variety of tomatoes going) that I finally decided to do the right thing and skip many years of nightshades.  Because the problem is that blight is here and always has been.

Bunch of irishmen caused the fungus spores in 1845?  Probably not.  Probably somebody in my field.  North America.  New York. Philly. We started the fire (probably from embers in Mexico).

Blight, the fungus and the conditions that support it are New Englandish.  It’s here now, it was here last year and it was here in 1845, 1945.  Expect it in 2045.  It’s never not been a problem, but this year it’s awfully pronounced.  Mosquitoes and blight are what happen after 40 days and 40 nights of rain.

The article indicates that this year’s problem is because of crap plants at crap stores that were brought in.  See? Can’t possibly be the fault of Connecticut!  That stuff was from out of town!

Well, sure. The blight probably is on tomatoes and potato seeds that we bring in from out of town.  But it’s here already.  The stuff overwinters.  That’s the problem with it.  Once it has moved in, it just party crashes.  Give it a host, a cup of dirt and some moisture and it’s ready to stay for the summer.

So what do we do?

It’s not easy, but if you’ve got blight on your tomato or potato plants, dig them up when they are dry, wrap them in plastic (or bury them very, very, very deep) and get them to a nunnery or landfill or whatever.  Don’t plant nightshades again next year.  Or the year after.  Augment your soil with real compost that’s gotten hot and everything.

I suppose fungicide could work to prevent, but not really and why would you?

There are blight-resistant strains of tomatoes and potatoes that can help.

So that’s what we do.

Oh.  And as the paper’s headline suggests, we panic.  Turn on your fellow man.  Loot.  Pillage.  Stock up on smoked meats.  Bring your family to the nuclear shelters, load the guns and fight off the zombie invasion that is surely coming.

Filed under: Uncategorized , blight, late blight

Scape: The Harbinger Of Garlic

Oh great and curly scape! Your pointy end and bulbous middle indicate and amuse!

Scape is the great indicator.  The allium cellular conflagration that says “if I had a flower, I’d be flowering because my cycle is nearly over”.  It shoots out of the leaves of your hardneck garlic plants and curls, curls, curls in a wormy display of bursting resource.  So why do we cut it (aside from the fact that it tastes like garlic and can be used in tons of recipes)?

Actually, you don’t need a better reason.

But okay, okay.  It helps to remove the scape so that the final burst of energy from the plant can go into the bulb formation happening beneath the soil.

So, when do you remove the scape?

Whenever you are hungry for garlic flavor!

Okay, okay. Remove the scape when it is curly and has wound around itself to form a couple of coils.  Or do it before.  Or, really.. later when it is a little straighter.  Whatever.  Just remove it!

Or don’t.

But seriously, remove it because it’s delicious.

Check out this awesome Scape Humus that my friend Chris made.  (On a crunchy homemade pita slice too.)

Filed under: Uncategorized