Harvesting More Garlic. Lorz and Music. 7.23.22

 Today I harvested the rest of the garlic.  I also cut off the tops of the garlic I dug up a week ago and have been letting dry out.  These are the hardneck Music Garlic that I have been growing for a decade.  This time, I grew ten rows of eight plants per row.  There were also some volunteers, which were much smaller because they were in clumps instead of individual plants.

Music has jumbo size cloves, much easier to peel than grocery garlic.  It has a strong garlic flavor.  The bulbs keep nearly a year in a cool dry place.

I also harvested the Lorz garlic.  Like Music, Lorz is Italian.  I had these in half wine barrels.  They were on the drip system, but I made a mistake.  I should have stopped the irrigation for these a couple of weeks ago.  The ground was too moist, and the papery husks tear too easily when wet.  We'll see how they dry.  

The Lorz garlic also has jumbo bulbs and jumbo cloves.  I'm interested to see how they dry lut, and how they taste.  They are described as strongly flavored too.

Softneck garlics can be braided.  I read they keep longer than hardneck.  That's why I decided to try them. I'm very impressed with the size of the bulb and the beautiful purple blush.  From the two bulbs that I bought mail order last fall, there are eighteen now.  I will set aside three or four to plant this fall, in addition to continuing the Music garlic.

Squash Flower and Honeybee. 7.22.22

 I think the squash flowers are among the nicest.  It's nice to see some honeybees now.

The Buttercups and Dakota Dessert squashes have a lot of developing fruits now.  Especially the Buttercups.  The Costata Romanesco  is making countless, rapidly growing fruits, and the Saffron yellow summer squash provides a new one each day.  Galeux and Fordhook are all male flowers so far.

Sweetpeas Blooming. 7.22.22

 The sweetpeas are actually pretty nice.  I think about 1/3 survived starting from seeds and transplanting, if that many.  Then they were slow to take off.  But now they look very nice.  Across the yard, the red ones also look nice.

Rudbeckia and Ratibida the First Year From Seeds.

 The information available on Rudbeckias is confusing.  Are the perennials or annuals, and will the bloom the first year from seeds.

I started all of these from seeds, mid-winter.

The Ratibida is also blooming.  I grew it the same way as the Rudbeckias.  Only one, of six, survived.  Moles and feral cats got the others.

If I remember, I'll add the Gallardias which were the first of the seed - started perennials to start blooming. 

Four O'Clocks. 7.22.22

 The Four O'clocks are coming into bloom.  I wanted something along the fence that would be vigorous, colorful, cheerful, and low maintenance.  These bloom from seeds the first year, then come op from the roots the following years and bloom again.

I noticed the several-years-old four o'clock plant by the house just came up a couple of weeks ago  It seems to be growing rapidly and I think it will also be blooming soon.

I think this red one is the nicest.

Potatoes. Early variety, Envol. 7.22.22

 These are the ones that Fedco in Maine describes as the earliest of the early.  They are the first good crop of in-ground grown potatoes for me.

The ones I grew using the container method were a week or two earlier.  They roast fine, but in potato salad are a little too chewy for my taste, despite cooking longer.  Now to see how these work out.

I think this yield was from about three plants.  Not a lot different from container method.  These do seem bigger.

Star Quilt Progress Note. 7.22.22

 Here are the main twelve stars.  Each is different.  There is one more to complete.  

I'm happy with this pattern.  When completed, the stars will be surrounded by larger stars that connect, or by diamond shapes.  I think I'll use a light blue checker pattern for the surrounding star blocks and a light grey or different light blue for the diamonds.  Also, there will be a slightly different center star.  In some, the white background shows a bit of the floor color.  When completed, it will have white batting and I hope that doesn't show.

What looks like black is actually dark blue.  There are three shades of grey.  

This pattern is based on a homespun type quilt published in Today's Quilter by UK quilt designer Lynn Goldsworthy.   My biggest changes from that are the colors and fabric choices, and it looks quite different.

More Flowers. 7.17.22.

 More flowers.  I couldn't help myself LOL.

Crocosmia

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Sweetpeas

 More Rudbeckias

A double, volunteer Shirley Poppy.

Planting Bush Green Beans. 7.17.22.

 With the garlic harvested, I cleaned up the raised bed.  I added coffee grounds (for nitrogen and organic natter) and biochar (for magical goodness).  I watered it, let it soak for a few hours, dug it over, then hand-cultivated.  Depending on who you read, Contender beans start bearing in about 50 to 55 days (Seeds'n'Such says 40 days but I don't believe it) one of the fastest.  They are also considered excellent, stringless green beans.

I also replaced the useless soaker hoses, which I kept tripping over, with 1/4" tubes that have emitters every 6".  The emitters are 1/2 gallon per hour, and the work much better than the soaker hoses which quickly clog up until they don't work at all.  This time I didn't make loops with the tubing, which was part of the problem with the soaker hoses.  Of course, I covered it all with anti-bird netting to give the beans a chance to grow.

Those seeds are pricey, but a packet that size can produce at least fifteen pounds of fresh green beans.  Maybe more.  I might see if I can leave a few plants to mature and make seeds for next year.

Garlic Harvest. 7.17.22

 Today I harvested the main garlic raised bed.  I had let it dry out to cure the bulbs a bit, which made the soil hard and difficult to dig.  The variety is "Music", thought to originate in Italy.

Before.

After.  These garlic bulbs are huge.

Now they will need to cure for a week or two in dry conditions but not in sun.  I'll cut off the tops tomorrow.

Rufus Doing Break Dancing. 7.17.22

 

What's Blooming? 7.17.22

 Salpiglossis.  I've never grown this before.

Statice.  I've never grown these before.

Rudbeckias.  I grew these from seeds, starting mid-winter.  They are just beginning to bloom.

Lilies.  

Tigridia.  This has survived multiple transformations of the kitchen garden over the years, and continues to bloom each year.

Crocosmia. These are perfectly adapted to the climate here.  The survive, thrive, and are brilliant with absolutely no care.

Part of meditation garden so far.  It's Sunday so no construction activity, which is nice.  Blooming has just begun, but there are lots of butterflies, pollinating insects, even dragonflies visiting.  These little videos are kind of low quality.  It's much nicer in person.

Kitchen Garden Views. 7.16.22

 It's a mess, but it's MY mess LOL.  I grow a lot in this confined space.  The raised beds help a lot.

Making an Outdoor Stove Cover. 7.16.22.

 The outdoor cooking station is almost done.  Ning did most of the work, although I did the framing.   The old concrete patio needed some leveling compound, and we had the stone tiles in the garage.  It still needs a backsplash so the house siding isn't splatter stained.

I ordered some oil cloth and made a cover for the range.  No pattern, just measurements.

I've been calling this a summer kitchen, but that might be an exaggeration.  Cooking station seems more accurate.  Still, now baking and range too cooking can be outdoors, and not heat up the house.   With the roof, we can cook if there is light rain.  

Next, I'll make a cover for the propane tank, and side shades so the wind doesn't blow the stove top flames too much.  The stove cover was a test - I've never sewn oil cloth before.  It's a learning curve but went OK overall.  I used denim-strength polyester thread on the old Morris sewing machine.