Tag: garlic

Planting roots and sprouts and arugula

Today I did some fall planting- Brussels sprouts, leeks, green onions in South C (soil well fluffed with amendment), cover crop on South D…

Peas, beets, and carrots in West E.

Arugula and leeks in upper A.

I made up a bowl of future-salad. I also planted some basil seeds with my plant (and spilled dirt on the floor!) and replanted some cat grass for the kitties.

I cooked up a big stir fry up work on this week (Garden: yellow squash, zucchini, garlic, hot peppers from the freezer, beets, beet greens, chard, kale. + beans) This is my favorite way to eat up a bunch of greens, and makes a lot of food (:

oh! And I’m out of cilantro seeds, so I’m trying out some of the ones I harvested last year for coriander while my plants bolt.

Strawberries are still nuts, blueberries are starting but the robins won’t share.

Holy Garlic, Batman!

So the garlic wasn’t as happy as last year, in general. The bulbs are smaller- and I truly think they just got rained out. Poor guys.

Here’s the haul,

Yes- that is 12 linear feet of garlic curing.

The hard neck definitely fared better- duganeski and metechi being the best. I’ll try just one different soft neck next year, and do what I can to ensure the beds don’t get as flooded

First braid.

Food!

We’ve been gone a couple of days, and came home to our first real harvest.

Which I fried and braised

Into this

Yum!

Includes beet greens, Swiss chard, kale, romaine, squash, peas, onion, and garlic from the garden; peppers from the freezer, and beans salt oil from the store.

Also

Strawberries a plenty!

Dead garlic

Ugh. A bunch of my garlic has bit the dust. I’m not quite sure what happened- it’s all soft neck garlic in two of the beds.

It looks like one of the poppies I planted last year came up in the lower bed.

I pulled weeds galore today- after a 3 day migraine

I could have summer squash soon!

The sugar magnolia peas taste good.

one of the onion beds is doing much better. Is that the one I acidified before planting?

Planted another butterbaby in the upper bed.

Garlic Escape

The second best thing about planting “too much” garlic is an abundance of scapes.

I split them into 4 parts- trimmed and put some in the fridge in water, made basil pesto (basil, salt, pepper, hot peppers, garlic, vinegar, touch of sugar), oregano pesto (“), and salsa (cilantro, hot peppers, salt, pepper, lime juice, a few tomatoes). The salsa is definitely the winner.

P weeded and mowed while I did that- and discovered a treat- salmon berries hiding in the bramble!

Yum.

Fertilize!

It’s been raining for a few days, almost thunderstorming, and I’ve been busy/flaring to much to be outside. (dislocated neck?)

I planted a few more okra starts in south d and west e

After pulling a bunch of bolting radishes. I found some beets hiding under there, too.

And a lovely robins egg blue robins egg.

the green beans are growing!

I fertilized (acidizer) the tomatoes, except for one container tomato as a test.

Then I side dressed basically everything- lower and pots

Planted nasturtium along the new rock wall in the lower bed

And a couple of delicata on the slope- protected by copper and sluggo.

Asparagus progress

Volunteer Mullein

Okra progress.

Planting

Feeling better today- so I decided to embrace the sun and get some stuff in the ground!

Also notable- although I feel like we’ve had some rain, the soil was DRY dry, and I had to hand water everything. It’s about time to set up the drip line I guess.

2 Nova sauce and one red Robin cherry tomato start (my starts) went into west C and west d. They went into cages… Which always feel a little optimistic in size this time of year. (;

Two peppers went into upper B… Which was supposed to be full of kale, chard, and romaine…. HA! Next year I won’t even bother direct seeding those.

I put out one little okra to test soil conditions in West D. If it’s still alive in a couple of days I’ll move the rest out. Okra would probably be a good use for water walls in the future.

I moved a couple of the squash starts out to the greenhouse, and planted a bit more romaine and kale in there.

I also added red fertilizer to the tomatoes in the ground, and blue to the blueberries and camelia.

PROGRESS

Green bean sprout

Chardonnay or Gewurztraminer grape. Not sure which. /:

Garlic

we also have a small army of mushrooms around the planters.

Dear Past Alison

Time and (limited) experience in the garden has taught me that the only way to learn anything out here is to do it wrong at least once. I’ve run this theory by several experienced gardeners, and they always nod then tell me stories.

So, here are some things I’d like to tell past Alison.

– Plant perennials that need time to mature the second that you decide you’re interested in gardening. Do not wait several years so that you can wait another couple of years to eat your raspberries and asparagus

-DO NOT PLANT OREGANO IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, you idiot. It is monstrous!

-Do not leave the greenhouse closed on a 86Degree spring day. Everything will die. It will roast and die, and you will cry.

-Don’t skip soil amendment just because it’s far away and heavy.

-Don’t plant strawberries or raspberries without some heavy defenses. They will conquer the garden.

-Don’t take free plants with holes chewed in them. You. Are. Dumb.

****

Okay! Enough berating. One thing I did so right was to use the leaves as mulch on some of the beds and between our neighbors very weedy yard and our moderately weedy lawn.

The patch of green in the middle is a transplanted perennial sunflower. g.

I spent the morning weeding (if there isn’t an old saying about the difficulty of pulling grass from the onion bed there should be.) and placing a second bed for peas (west e). The poor peas that I planted in the lower bed have not been able to win the war against whatever is eating them (I have all kinds of theories, but no luck… Something is digging there. /: ) so if they come up in the west bed, I’ll have to reorganize a bit more. (Squash, peppers, and okra need homes.)

Things that weren’t roasted in the greenhouse LOVED the warm sunny weather. I think some greens are starting (kale, chard, romaine), radishes are getting bigger, grapes… many things.

Back from the suncation

We had a nice trip- but it’s back to reality.

I guess there was a little sun here while we were gone. The garlic is looking happy, the onions are hanging in there, the radishes are getting bigger and the beets are starting to show sprouts.

The peas continue to be eaten by a mystery predator. I might just go out at night to see if I can catch them in the act. I’ve always hesitated to put out slug traps- but this might be my turning point.

The inside basil experiment is going well. I’ve had it under the hydroponic light. It’s happy. The others are basically dead outside. The greenhouse one might make it.

While I was gone the sprouts (tomato, okra, pepper) got a little drowned I think, and weren’t looking good. I transplanted then all to larger pots, and put the extra ones in a tray in the greenhouse.

When I was transplanting I noticed that they all seemed to want some deeper roots- especially the okra and peppers that maneuvered out of the bottom of their paper pots. Next year I need to remember that, and plant them in something taller.

Eh.

We have had the joy of living without half of our appliances for a week, because of a lack of 240 voltage and dependable electrician. It’s also been gross outside- including some snow, and lots of rain.

I am not happy.

So let’s start with what’s good in the garden…

The two blue hydrangeas are coming in quick. I fertilized them with the hydrangeas food today.

The two rhody transplants are settling in well.

The hops are coming up- p has been pulling extra shoots.

The rhubarbs all seem very happy.

Some root veggies are sprouting in west E.

NOW for the bad news.

Something has been eating my pea sprouts. I have a feeling it’s the pnw monster slug. I do not feel any warm feelings. I sprinkled Sluggo across the soil with ruthless abandon.

The garlic is not happy about the weather. There’s a lot of yellow showing. I don’t think there is anything I can do- but I put the tomato fertilizer on it while chanting. /:

Onions are also barely hanging in there, and got the same treatment.

The lawn looks like hell- although some of the clover and fleur de lawn seed seems to be catching. All the effort we made trying to smooth it may or may not have helped.

Here are the fertilizers I used.

The blue one went on the hydrangeas, camelia, and blueberries

The red one went on the onions, garlic, and the places I’m putting tomatoes.

In the process of writing this (and waiting for water to boil for my bath), the asparagus and raspberrys have arrived.

I begged P to plant them- since he has access to a shower at work.

Raspberries are going in west A, asparagus in west B.