Cleaning up for Fall...

Two things happened this week to bring back my general optimism about gardening.  The first is that I talked with an old friend who is a much, much more experienced gardener than I am.  She lives in the same area that I do, suffered through the same weather this summer, and reports that she got less than 12 tomatoes.  We commiserated over how it was such a bad season, and it made me feel better.

The second thing is that I remembered it is time to plant garlic!  Even the garlic this year was kind of a disappointment - I didn't even document it on the blog, since the yield was so lackluster (and what I did get was kind of small, both in quantity and actual bulb size).  I didn't want to risk planting cloves from such a lame season, so I went to the garden store the morning and bought a few new cloves to plant.  

Even though it was rough work in hard, dry soil, I enjoyed digging the 48 holes for this year's crop.  Here's hoping that we get enough to eat and give away to family and friends (which I did 2 summers ago, and this summer, when people asked for more, was each time reminded of what a yucky season it was).

In addition to digging all these holes, I completed last week's cleanup and pulled up all the remaining plants (and weeds).  Here's our very last summer harvest (sorry it's such a crappy photo):

I don't know that anything positive will happen with the green tomato, but the chiles are at least close enough to ripe that they might make it on the windowsill.  You're also looking at the only eggplant of the entire summer, out of 4 plants total.  It had better be tasty!

 

I also feel optimistic about the beets I planted - I forgot to take a picture, but some of them have nice green tops about 4" tall.  Not feeling quite as hopeful for the cauliflower and cabbage that I planted (something is chewing on them), but we'll see. 

Garlic, round two

Fall = garlic time!  If you are thinking of planting any, do it now!  For those of you who also plant ornamental flowers, remember that garlic is a bulb too... so in the fall when you are planting your tulips, pick up some garlic from your local garden center (not the grocery store!). 

I saved some of this year's crop for planting.

 

I dug holes 4-5 inches deep ("the lazy girl's 6 inches"), and about 6 inches apart.  In the bottom of each hole you dig, place one garlic clove, root end down.  Then cover it with soil, wait 6-7 months, and you're set!

For the record, I planted significantly less than last year.  I did not keep count, but I'm guessing maybe 30-40.  Nowhere near 90.  Also, last year I planted the garlic around the whole border of the garden, but two areas in particular did not grow well at all, so I skipped those and just planted along two sides of the square this time around. 

More about garlic

I realize I had kind of done things in the wrong order when I dug up about half of our garlic 2 weeks ago.  So, I decided to take a different approach when harvesting the remainder of the crop this past weekend.

Instead of braiding them right away (which I think is the wrong thing to do), I laid them out to dry.  The next step will be to brush off the dirt, THEN braid and hang them to cure in the garage.  This seems a much easier way to get them clean.

All in all - a good season for the garlic.  I will definitely be planting again this fall!

Garlic!

Last week Ohio (and much of the US) suffered a major heatwave on the heels of very little rain.  Yards are yellow and brown.  Plants are yellow and brown.  And I was having some growing concerns about some of the garlic in our garden, which had gone from green and upright to yellow and nearly horizontal in a very short time.  The scapes have not come, and I was worried that the garlic was basically dead.  Everything I've read said that you should harvest the garlic when it has "a few" green leaves remaining.  Some of these had none.  So at two o'clock on an already ninety-degree day, I did what any sensible person would do - started digging.

No vampires here!

Inexplicably, Fall 2011 was the very first time that I planted garlic.  I'd just never thought of it before, but learning that it is totally low-maintenance and easy to grow inspired me to give it a try.  My enthusiasm went a tiny bit unchecked.  Because, as it turns out, we currently have 90 bulbs of garlic growing in the backyard.  The green stuff around the whole border of the garden in the picture you see?

Yep, it's all garlic.