Planting Onion Seedling. Garlic. 3.17.2020

Today I planted out the rest of the onion seedlings.  I started these seedlings in January.  Onions will survive a little frost or chilly weather.  Planting them out now will get them established before the warm weather starts.   My seed starting book gives a date of March 20th so we are almost there.  It has been very nice outside, in the 60s today.  Lows in 40s.

I needed some extra space, so some went into an area that I was not planning to plant this year.  But that's OK.  That brick circle also contains some rescued garlic, a rescued sprouted onion (for potential seeds), and other alliums.  A kind of hodge podge.

I planted a row of the onion seedlings in what has turned out to the the onion / shallot / rescued garlic raised bed.  This year I can compare Spanish onions with NY Hybrid and with onion sets that I planted in January?.  The main reason to hope the Spanish onions are good, is that they are non hybrid and I can use them to save seeds.

  This is the garlic raised bed.  Most of those on the left were ones that I saved last year.  They look mush larger and sturdier than the ones on the right, which had sprouted on the old rows or raised bed.  I think those are German or Spanish Garlic.  Not bad, but the Music Garlic has larger cloves and I think they have more flavor.  Hard to see here, but there is a row of garlic bulbils for next year, growing nicely.  A second row is less vigorous.  I don't know why.

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.

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.