Squatting in my garden, feet bare, I scooped dirt with my hands as if making a moat around the garlic bulb. After the first few I learned to point my fingers out, away from the bulb. This way there is less chance of me bruising the bulb.
I felt like an archeologist on a dig as I gently brushed the soil the garlic, exposing the top and sides. Then, wrapping my hand low on the greens I gently pulled.
I could feel the roots pulling back, and thought of what it felt like being a kid and wiggling a loose tooth with my tongue. And when I ripped the bulb from the earth, it felt just like when the tooth came out, those “strings” that held my tooth to my gums finally giving way.
I filled my basket with fifteen garlic bulbs and a handful of small potatoes that came up with them. The garlic varied in size. Only one very small the rest medium and a couple of bigger ones. I’ll save those for next years seeds.
Now they’re on the front porch drying for a few weeks. I’ll give some to my friends Kitty and Charlie who gave me the original garlic that they cultivated for years. I keep the rest for me and Jon.
Its my second year growing garlic and I do enjoy it. It seems to have done well.
But the rest of my garden is struggling. It’s been very hot with little rain and I’ve neglected watering it. Jon usually does the watering but he can’t be out in this heat and early in the morning and in the evening the insects are plentiful. They love Jon too much, and he has a bad reaction to their bites.
So this afternoon, I staked my tomato plants and pulled most of the morning glories that reseeded themselves. They’ve been taking over, wrapping themselves around and choking the potatoes, tomatoes and squash. The dill and sweet pea seeds didn’t take because of them.
This evening, when the sun lowers behind the hill, I’ll give my garden a good soaking (the soil is dry deep down) and mulch around the plants with my junk wool. That will help keep the moisture in. I’ll also keep an eye on the morning glories to make sure they keep to the metal trellis in the center of the garden.
Homestead and Chill (@deannacat3 on IG) makes a Bug Off Balm that works very well for me. I’m allergic to mosquitos (get huge red welts and even a bit feverish), and this stuff keeps them away w/o any chemicals.
Thank Kim!
The critters ate all of my garlic heads this past spring . Last fall I planted 30 heads and they all survived until spring. Then they slowly started disappearing and I didn’t know why. Now I do, and I’ll plant them again in the fall in a raised bed with hardware cloth on the bottom and top of the raised bed. I’m not losing another crop of garlic.
Handy tip, once cured, and peeled put the cloves in a food processor to grind until it’s almost smooth, then use a small cookie scoop to scoop it out on a sheet and freeze until the pucks are solid. Store double bagged in the freezer. The same process can be done with ginger. Each puck is equivalent to one clove of garlic.
That’s a good idea Holly, I don’t have so much garlic that I’d need to do that thought. Thirty bulbs is a lot! A lot to plant and to lose. Sounds like you have a good plan for next year.
Hi Maria,
I live in Tucson, AZ. It is very dry here also. I’ve lived here 7 years and watched my next door neighbor (a serious garderner) struggle to capture water for her plants. She has several, at least 4, water barrels that catch rain from our monsoons to water her garden. I don’t know if you have space or if it might work but have you considered rain barrels for your garden?
We have a point Well and lots of ground water here JoAnn. So that hasn’t been a problem yet. But I do put our watering cans out when it rains and have a bucket under the one gutter we have. It’s good thinking though.
I capture rain off my roof with buckets. If your morning glories are white/pink flowered they are a noxious perennial weed called field bindweed, have pulled endless twining numbers out of my beds. This year seems especially bad.
I have some of those by my studio Sharon, but the ones in my garden I planted. Now I regret it. But I’m planning on a veggie garden overhaul this fall. I just keep pulling them out. Bindweed is the perfect name for them!
Your garlic looks wonderful; must be the donkey manure:) Mine is very small this year and will need to fertilize my garden and rhubarb.
I’ve heard from others that theirs is small this year too Marsha. And I also think the donkey manure helps. My friend Kitty who grew the garlic first said it really got bigger when she added some of our donkey manure.