Garlic Scapes. 5.30.2021

 Most of the garlic is producing scapes now.  These are the "flower" heads.  I put "flower" in quotes because they don't actually bloom.  Instead, they make clusters of tiny bulbs instead of an actual flower.  I think these rob the bulb of some nutrition, and the cloves will be smaller as a result.  So I cut the scapes almost as soon as they appear.

These are actually quite tasty, stir fried.  I think they would also be good in a soup.  They need thorough cooking for best tenderness, then they are a bit like a bean in texture but with mild garlic flavor.

Vegetable Garden. 5.4.21

 The vegetable garden is coming together nicely.  I did a lot of work over the past few months, building the new raised beds, removing the old ones, filling the soil, changing the in-ground beds around.  Now, most of that is done.  There is always something, but now I can relax a little more.

The second raised bed.  Everything is taking off now.

This winter I was excited to find Lemon Boy tomato seeds after years of looking.  The I planted the plant out early with the water cone for protection, and the leaves burned.  It's making a come back, yay.  That's also good news because I wondered if they were planted out too early.  It looks like they are just fine.

Mostly the third raised bed.  It's quite a mix.  The radishes are ready to eat.  That will happen with the lettuce and spinach, too, before the peppers need the space.

These are the hybrid Roma tomatoes.  They will need a sort of trellis before they flop over.

So far Extreme Bush tomato is looking nice in its container.

These thornless red raspberries are descended from some that grew under the fence into my yard from a neighbor, which I moved from the Vancouver place last year.  There were some good raspberries then.  This looks like a much better year.

 

Most of the vegetable garden.  There are more tomatoes than I will grow next year.  This is my tomato test garden year.

Raised Beds are Finished. Garlic is Growing. 1.4.2021

 The raised beds are done.  They are all filled with soil mix.  The last one got about 2/3 soil from where the neighbor built a road on his easement on my property.  It's good soil, unimproved and fallow.  That got mixed with some raised bed soil from an old bed that has been improved with lots of compost over the years.  I added some wood ashes and crushed eggshell to the mix.

The middle bed also settled, so got a wheelbarrow of that same soil on top of the prior mix.  I added it on top of the maple leaf mulch, which I want to compost itself.  Both beds will get a leaf mulch for the rest of the winter.  I hope the earthworms will like that and do their thing.

The first bed was planted with garlic after I filled it in Sept or Oct.  These are the big, "Music" garlic, and also some others.  One row had germinated shortly after, but the most did not.  Now they are poking through the soil.  Winter wont hurt them.  Currently they are getting all of the coffee grounds, which in my case is quite a bit.  I used to collect coffee grounds from Starbucks, which sometimes they were nice about and sometimes they were put off by that.  With the pandemic, I haven't been to a Starbucks in a year.  So these are all from my own coffee pot.  They also got quite a bit of compost mixed into the upper soil layers, which I figure they will like.

I also salvaged some garlic plants from an old raised bed, planting them in the new one.  I don't know how they will do.  But if they grow, that's good.  If they don't, nothing lost.

I think these taller raised beds will benefit my gardening a lot.  They don't take nearly the amount of leaning and crouching and back-straining.  They were still a lot of work to fill.  That is an investment into a gardening future.  Having three beds, one gets garlic, one gets peppers and pickle cukes, and one gets scallions and leaf crops, or bush beans.  That makes a good rotation, one year on / two years off for each crop.

So far, I like this style of raised bed better than any other that I've tried.  They are less heavy work to put together.  Boards take less garden real estate than cement blocks, although there are advantages to those.

Planting Garlic. 9.27.2020

Garlic is something I like to do on nature's schedule.  It's fall, late Sept.  Sept (preferably) or October is Garlic planting time for me.  That's why I was in a hurry to construct this raised bed, which meant clearing out the mess of snow peas, weeds, and their trellis that occupied that location (needed doing anyway), buying the parts, leveling the ground, putting it together, and filling the bed, including getting some soil.  Getting things is not easy in the time of Coronavirus, especially for someone who is at higher risk for complications.

 Anyway, all of that is done.  I planted Musik (or is it Music?) that I grew last year, the largest and among the best tasting garlic cloves and heads that I've ever grown.  Three reasons:  (1) Musik is a great variety, and very delicious. (2) Growing them in shelter.  All of those people who insist that deer and rabbits don't eat garlic plants are either just quoting someone else, or their deer and rabbits have not read that book.  Repeated munching and torturing of the photosynthetic biomass of growing garlic plants does not make for good production or big bulbs.  And (3) the raised bed situation makes for much easier weeding, hoeing, and other care.

I used a trowel with marked measurements, and planted with the bottom of the trench at about 4 to 5 inches.  I planted the cloves 6 inches apart, and the rows are a foot apart.  I think the raised bed allows for a little closer together planting compared to in-ground, but this is roughly what is done in-ground too.

I also dug up the few remaining bulbs that I had let mature their scapes.  I had planted those in Spring and didn't expect much from them.  Some of the books say they won't develop cloves if planted in the spring, but these made about four, average sized cloves.  I planted those here too, so now one row is from those salvaged garlic cloves, which is good.

 Almost everything else here can be done in the course of time over fall and winter.  It's a nice feeling to have this job, which I like, done.

Planting Garlic Bulbils. 9.25.2020

 This year I let a couple of the garlic scapes make bulbils.  I think these are the variety "Musik" but I'm not certain.  The bulbils were really tiny, like rice  I don't know if they will grow, but it's not a big deal if they don't.  

Here is one of the scape heads with bulbils.  It was raining, so they are wet.

I planted them about 1/2 inch deep, an inch apart.  It's roughly 50 per 4 foot row, so about 100 altogether. 

Now it's just a matter of keeping weeds out and seeing what they do.  I don't expect to see any growth this fall, but you never know.

Garlic. 8.11.2020

 The bigger garlic heads are Music, the smaller ones are Spanish Roja, I think.  I'll save about 5 of the largest to plant next year.  Raised bed, inside fence, made a big difference.  Animals didn't eat them and they did really well.  The fall planted ones were bigger than the spring planted ones/

Garlic. 4.2.19

Garlic Bed.  4.2.19

Today I cleaned up the garlic bed.  The main problem with perennial or overwinter vegetables is that weeds grow among them and it's not always easy to get out in the weather to clean them up

Still, this bed is the best looking garlic I've had in years.  Must be the varieties (Music looks the best, but Spanish Roja is looking good too), and the fact that I have them fenced in.  Made a big difference, so far.

Garlic Update. 2.18.19

Overwintered Garlic Starts.  L is Spanish Roja. R is Music.  2.18.19

Here is the garlic that I planted last fall. Some varieties look good. The Spanish Roja is the tallest, while Musik is much smaller and Inchelium Red is even smaller.  I gave them all a boost of urea, and watered it in.  Since they are growing, albeit slowly, I thought that would be beneficial.  I dont know if the greater height, this early, will help or hinder productivity later.  I'm guessing it willhelp,

Planting in a fully fenced bed really helped.  Last year they were all chewed off at this point,

Next I need to pull the rest of last years's tomatoes from the same bed, for onion plants.  That will be in about a month, I think.

Odds and Ends. The Last Pawpaws. Planting Egyptian Walking Onions, Garlic Daffodils. More.Saijo 10.28.18

Saijo Persimmon Tree.  10.28.15

This post has odds and ends from a few garden tasks, and walking around.

The Asian type persimmons are closer to ripe.  One of the Nikita's Gift persimmons was ripe.  The Saijo has about a dozen, not as large as last year, but then I didn't water it at all.

Columnar Apple Tree, Golden Sentinel, about 3 weeks after transplanting.  1-.28.18

The columnar apple trees that I dug up, pruned, and transplanted a few weeks ago (10.6.18), are showing the stress.  The larger one (Golden Sentinel) has mosly brown leaves. However, a few remain green.  Since it's fall and the other apple trees are starting to drop leaves, this is not necessarily a death sentence.   There was more browning on The Golden Sentinel, than on the North Pole, which was smaller and younger, so lost less root mass relative to the top.  Next Spring will tell.

Today I planted one last row of garlic, from saved garlic heads.  I don't know which variety, suspect German Red.  I had to quit planting due to a back strain, and today was the soonest that I could.  It's been raining.  I hated to impact the wet soil, but it was either that or don't plant it.  Meanwhile, the previous plantings are growing, some quite vigorously.  The fastest seem to be Spanish Roja.  I planted those Oct 5th, so this frowth is 23 days post planting.  There are some others, not shown, almost as large at 14 days, from saved cloves.

Garlic about 3 weeks after planting.

Sets from Egyptian Walking Onions.  10.28.15

The Last of the Sunflower Pawpaws.  10.28.18

A gardener should listen to his body, and I did not.  While moving minor stuff around 2 weeks ago, my back tweaked.  Before fully better, I mowed and planted some daffodils and more garlic, in heavy soil, and hauled some leaves.  It worsened again.  Now I"m being careful.  No more heavy work until fully better, and I really do need to pay due diligence to back and other orthopedic health.  Today, I planted the last of those garlic - intended and additional row, but wont.  Planted the rest of those daffodils.  And cleared part of raised bed, which was pepper plants, and planted 6 rows of 10 sets each of Egyptian Walking Onions.  These were topsets that fell over during the summer, and are rooting in the rainy weather.  The basal bulbs have about 6 inches of growth already, soon usable as scallions.  Egyptian Walking Onions never fail to perform, even in bad weather and neglected.

The last of the "Sunflower" Pawpaws fell off the tree.  Nice sized fruits.  So that's almost a month of Pawpaws.  Very nice!  The final fruits of the year, will be persimmons.

My conclusion about pawpaws:   They really can be grown, and fruit, in the Pacific Northwest.

Music Garlic. 10.15.18

Music Garlic Cloves to Plant.  Planted 10.5.18

This is the photo that I meant to post previously.  This is the garlic variety "Music".  These were the biggest garlic cloves that I have ever seen.  According to what I've read, "Music" is among the most productive and best tasting.  That info, of course, is not specific to the Maritime Pacific Northwest or to my area, soil, microclimate.  So we will see.

I still have some saved garlic cloves to plant from this year's crop.  Four days ago I planted some (I think it was "German Red" - big, red skinned, pungent cloves) but did not have it labeled.  I developed a back strain digging the heavy soil this time, so need to wait until that is better before planting the saved "Inchelium Red".  I think I'm growing the "Inchelium Red" more for sentimental, than practical reasons now.  That "German Red" actually seems more productive, with larger cloves. 

Planting Garlic.10.5.18

Spanish Roja Garlic to Plant.  10.5.18

Planting Garlic.  10.5.18

Today I planted the first batch of garlic.  These starts were from Territorial seeds.  I planted two strains:  Music and Spanish Roja.  The Music garlic cloves were among the largest I've seen.

I didn't intend to plant so much, but this is the size package sold.  I also want to plant some that I saved from this year.  I will need to clear additional garden space.

Learning - I hope - from mistakes made, these are all in the fenced in area where I had sauce tomatoes.  I hope the fencing is deterrent to deer and rabbits, which caused delay and probably smaller cloves this year and last year.

The rotation for this area overlaps garlic planted last year.  Also sweet corn and attempted okra.  There was no evidence of disease last year, so I'm thinking it's OK.  Last winter, this area was ducks, and this year it was tomatoes.

A Little Optimism. 9.17.18

Planting things in late summer or fall, takes a little optimism.  It means, maybe I'll be around next year to appreciate the results, and the world will still be here, and there will not be any disasters to blow it all to smithereens.  It means I'm willing to take some little effort, to make next Spring, and beyond, a little nicer.

So today I bought a hybrid Echinacea - this one is "Aloha", and is interesting because of the yellow color.  I'm becoming more enthusiastic about Echinacea because, so far, deer and rabbits don't seem to eat them, slugs seem to leave them alone, and they don't mind the hot dry summer.  I read they would not like wet winters, but so far mine have survived that.

The irises were sold as rebloomers for the Pacific Northwest.  We'll see.  The varieties are "I'm Back", "Come Again", and "Corn husker".  Reblooming irises generally bloom during the rainy season, in my yard, so the flowers look like wet sopping tissue paper, not worth it.  We'll see what happens with these.  Again, there is some optimism, because in previous years, I had problems with bacterial and fungal rot for bearded irises.  This year, the survivors looked good, so I'm trying again.  They are my favorite May flower.

In that box are 2 garlic heads, sold in the store as "Heritage California Softneck" garlic.  I will plant it next month, along with cloved from heads that I grew this year, and an order from Territorial Seeds for other types.  These will be fenced in, because deer and/or rabbits eat them all off in my yard.   I tried fencing covers for individual rows, but as soon as the leaves grew through the fencing, they were eaten off.  Again, it takes some optimism - planting garlic in the fall, means a harvest the following July.

There are some daffodils in there too.  I planted them in a row, like a kitchen garden crop. 

Kitchen Garden Progress Report. 6.4.18

Garlic.  6.4.18

Sweet Corn.  6.4.18

 Most of the kitchen garden is doing well.  The main problems have been herbivores.  I've worked on several solutions, and some of those have helped.

The garlic was browsed even in low wire fencing tunnels.  I thought that was deer, but maybe rabbits.  After spraying with deer deterrent spray, the browsing stopped.  That may have been the size of the plant, and not the spray.  I've given a couple of doses of fish emulsion, and am still watering the garlic plants.  In late winter, I had also spread some Milorganite.  Might have been too much.  The leaf tips have some browning, but otherwise the plants look robust.  I think the crop will be good.  The rotation for the garlic bed:  2 years ago, wild/weed/blackberry; last year, sweet corn, this year, garlic.

The first batches of sweetcorn look good.  I forget the name, the first was an early yellow cold tolerant variety.  The second bath was Trinity.  The third batch was also Trinity, but I don't know if it's growing.  I am using the low fencing tunnels on the sweet corn too, to inhibit browsing, and so far that seems to be working.  The rotation:  2 years ago, squash, last year, potato, this year, sweet corn.

Tomatoes.  6.4.18

The tomatoes are looking good.  these were grown from seeds too.  The location was the duck pen from this winter. Some are blooming and have small green tomatoes.  Many varieties.  I planted them deeply for better dry tolerance.  They had some Epsom Salts earlier to green up the leaves, and some fish emulsion, but now no more fertilizer.  They are fenced in to prevent deer browsing.  The rotation:  Three years ago, Squash.  Two years ago, sweet corn.  Last year, garlic.  This year, tomatoes.

Blue Potato Flower.  6.4.18

Potatoes.  6.4.18

The potatoes are looking better than almost anything else.   They are lush and green.  I used store bought starts, and also sprouted potatoes from the garage.  There are Burbank Russet, Yukon Gold, Blue, and some I don't know from the sprouted ones.   This year I planted in trenches, which I filled in as they grew, because I found that hilling them up seemed to require more watering.  The trenches don't shed water.  The first batch had some frost kill, but otherwise they all tolerated early planting and are growing very nicely.   I did use some Milorganite when planting them, otherwise no fertilizer.  The rotation:  Two years ago, Indian Corn, last year, onions, this year, potatoes.

There are lots of other things.  The rabbits and/or deer have browsed the onions so heavily, I don't think there will be much of a crop.  The low fencing tunnels were not enough to prevent browsing, and the rabbit/deer deterrent spray was minimally helpful.  I still have my doubts about the chili peppers, which so far look stunted.  I've given them some Epsom salts and fish emulsion, we'll see.  The gladiolas, zinnias, and marigolds are looking pretty good now too. 

Planted Garlic. 10.17.17

Today I planted garlic.  Three rows from my own harvested garlic, I think German Red.  Four rows of this Duganski from Territorial.  I also bought another type from Territorial, but the cloves were soft and shriveled.  I don't know if they are worth planting, or could have a disease.  I may try those in an unused raised bed, not anticipating planting onion family in that bed so maybe it would be worth a try.

Kitchen Garden. 5.8.17

It's been sunny and warm for three days. This was a good time to cultivate the kitchen garden. The potatoes and onions that I planted earlier this year are doing well. I hilled up the potatoes. With rain and winter, it was difficult to cultivate the garlic, which I planted in the fall. I weeded a couple of weeks ago, and today it just needed light cultivation. I planted out some collard greens seedlings, surrounding each with a dusting of blood meal that I found in the garage. The idea is to repel rabbits, which are prevalent in my garden. Then some organic slug bait. Slugs love cabbage family plants. Last year's collards are blooming. I intend to save seeds from those.

Collard Greens in Bloom.  5.7.18

I have mustard green seedlings to plant. 

The tomatoes are growing nicely in containers in sunroom.  Ditto for peppers.  Yesterday the soil temperature was 80 F, so I planted sweet corn, Trinity hybrid which is reported to tolerate chill, and which did well in 2015 and 2016.

Fall Chores, Persimmons, Zucchinis, Garlic. 10.29.16

Vegetable bed covered with leaves.  10.29.16

 Yesterday I raked up a neighbor's maple leaves.  Those now cover a bed that was Indian Corn (this year) and will be kitchen garden (not sure - potatoes, onions, tomatoes, squash) next year.  I chopped the corn stalks into about 1 foot sections, and also spread lime before spreading leaves.  It should pack down and mostly decompose to dig in, by late winter.

The Last Zucchini.  10.29.16

Nikita's Gift (Plate) and Saijo (Countertop) Persimmons.  10.29.16

 I also went around the neighborhood to ask neighbors for their leaves.  That way, they get some old guy to rake them up (me) quietly with rake, not a blower, and haul away.  I get a big pile of tree leaves for the vegetable beds.

Baja (Roja?) Garlic.  10.29.16

More Garlic Starts.  10.26.16

One last zucchini.  Such a good year for those.

Picked about 1/4 of the Nikita's Gift Persimmons.  They are hard, so will need to ripen.  I placed them into a bag of apples to assist that process.

Apples produce ethylene gas, as part of their ripening process.  The ethylene gas will help the persimmons to ripen, too.

Not sure about that Saijo, there is still some green.  The rest, only about 6 fruits, are still on the tree.

The garlic starts from local nursery, they labeled "Baja" but I wonder if they are Spanish Roja, are all growing nicely.  When I get a chance and it's not raining, they need hoeing for the weeds.  I checked other local nurseries, no garlic starts.  Finally, I checked Portland Nursery, they had multiple types.  I bought 2 heads of "Duganski", just for variety.  Ordered from a catalog, I would have to order more than I need, for an even higher price plus shipping.  Territorial sells Duganski.  "beautiful, purple stripe garlic with large bulbs and an amazing flavor that matches its looks and size. Purple outer wrappers protect the violet-tinged cloves that burst with a fiery flavor and mellow out with a pleasant aftertaste." This is just for novelty, see if they are different from the Inchelium Red that I grow each year.

Speaking of Inchelium Red, it's far behind the Baja/Roja this year.  A few have germinated, maybe 10 of the 40 or so that I planted.

Edit 10.30.16  It turns our there actually is a Baja Garlic, called "Baja Morado".   From the link - "Baja Morado...  was at first thought to be a long storing Creole but upon detailed examination turned out to be an even longer storing Silverskin that has a nice pleasant garlickiness with some pungency... similar to Mexican Red Silver but with much white in the clove covers rather than solid deep red."  As with anything from nurseries, local and mail order, it's best to take things with a grain of salt.  But who know"  Maybe this IS Baja, and Baja Morado at that.

Planting Garlic. 9.30.16

Mostly Inchelium Red Garlic for planting.  9.30.16

Garlic, placed and ready to conver.  9.30.16

This is a good time to plant garlic.  I've planted earlier and later, and it all seems to work out OK.  Earlier seems to give bigger bulbs next year.

This is mostly Inchelium Red.  I try to find the biggest heads with the biggest heads. 

The location was sweet corn this summer.  Last year it was sweet corn and squash.  The year before it was squash.  Before that it was grass.

After this rotation, beans would be a good choice to build soil and as a different species.

In my experience, garlic does not need protection from herbivores.  Deer, rabbits, and voles avoid it.

Kitchen Garden Progress Report. 3.6.16

Germinating Fava.  3.6.16

New Strawberry bed.  3.6.16

 Late winter kitchen garden.

The first favas have emerged.  These are the variety "Windsor".   I think this is about 3 weeks.  They are not pre-soaked.   I did not worry about placing them with hilum down.  The white pellets are Sluggo slug bait.  I read favas are tasty plants, the slug bait is prophylactic.

The strawberries all grew, every plant.  Starks did a nice job with them.

Garlic is growing fast. 

Many of the potatoes that I planted from salvaged, very sprouted saved potatoes, are showing thick green leaves. 

There are also seedlings of spinach, kohlrabi, radishes, and turnips growing at the old place, in wine barrel containers, and the second crop of favas along with snow peas to germinate in the next 2 weeks.

Overwintered Garlic.  3.6.16

Salvaged Potato Sprouts Growing.   3.6.16

Allium Family Perennial Vegetables. 2.10.16

Chive Beds and New Raised Bed.  2.10.16

 All of the overwintering Allium family perennial vegetables are growing.

The 2 raised beds of garlic chives broke dormacy last week, now 2 to 2 inches of growth. 

I priced these concrete blocks today at Home Depot.  They were 99 cents each.  I think they are less expensive than the wooden beds, will last longer, and are easier to assemble.  I don't know about thermal properties.  The corners have openings that would be good for posts.

Garlic Chives.  2.10.16

Chives.  2.10.15

Garlic Raised Bed.  2.10.16

Egyptian Walking Onions.  2.10.16

Standard chives are growing fast.

Garlic is showing great growth.  My subjective estimate is the garlic in the raised bed is about  twice as big as the garlic in the ground, probably due to warmer temperature although the soil mix could also be better.

Egyptian Walking Onions are also growing nicely.  I protected them from deer and rabbits this year.  There was still evidence of something foraging - maybe slugs.

Not shown, the new starts of White Potato Onions are about 6 inches tall.  This time around they are also protected from herbivores.  There is no evidence of foraging on those plants.

I'm not concerned about potential frost or freeze.  These are hardy plants.