Overwintered Garlic Update. Growing Like Crazy. 3.15.22

"Musik" Hardneck garlic has been my go-to variety for a number of years. It has adapted nicely to my growing conditions, producing strongly flavored, really jumbo size cloves, only a few per bulb, and no puny tiny cloves that are next to impossible to peel. As a hardneck garlic, it keeps about 8 months, and one full raised bed grows about an 8 month supply.

When the weather warms up, the plants will grow vertical, almost like corn stalks. Last fall I experimented and bought two bulbs of a softneck variety, to see if it will keep a bit longer. I chose an Italian variety, "Lorz" which was described as a good grower with strong flavor. Not all of the cloves grew, but most did. I've noticed that home saved starts sometimes give better growth. Lorz was also much slower to emerge. I thought they might all be dead, but during the winter, they grew and have about caught up with the other variety.

Garlic grows well in large containers or raised beds, with a compost-rich soil. Fall planted crops can be a challenge to keep weeded, because weeds can grow faster than the garlic plants, early on. When the garlic plants are larger, it becomes a lot easier.

Spring Flowers. 3.15.22

There are some Spring flowers in bloom.

Radical Pruning of a Fig Tree. 3.15.22

 Here is the Hardy Chicago fig tree I grew from a cutting about 15 years ago.   There was a lot of freeze kill this winter.  There was the previous winter too, but I never got around to pruning it off.  I was going to remove the tree, but last summer it was quite productive and these are quite delicious figs.

Such a large fruit tree becomes impossible to manage.  I decided to do a radical pruning this time.   I last did that about five years ago, but this time is radicaler.  😀

Before.

After.

Well, that's a major pruning job.  Now the branches are all easily within reach for doing maintenance chores and for picking figs.  Fig trees have an amazing capacity for regeneration.  I cut one down to a foot tall, just trunk, and it grew back like crazy.  The challenge is, will it produce fruit this year?  Maybe, maybe not.  Hardy Chicago bears on new growth, so it's possible.  There's also a trick, when new growth is 6 leaves of stem, cut off the new shoots' growing tips.  That often results in the tree producing figs at each leaf axil.  

Outdoor Vegetable Seedlings. 3.15.22

 Here are some of the outdoor vegetable seedlings.  The snap peas and snow peas are on the verge of shooting upward. I think germination was about 60%.  That's plenty.  I wonder if birds got the rest, or not viable, or slugs ate them. I don't know.  That's why I sow extra.

Spinach, radishes, and lettuce are sort of biding their time, waiting for warner days.  Carrots are not showing at all.  Neither is cilantro.

These raised beds make it SO much easier to thin the plants, cultivate, and putter.  The poles are willow.  I like having those or bamboo row markers.

Perennial / Wildflower Seedlings. 3.15.22

 Here are wildflower perennials that I started in Jan and set out a few weeks ago.  They are tiny, but doing as well or better than the ones I haven't set out yet.

Top is Echinacea.  Bottom is Coreopsis.

Rudbeckia

Tomorrow, if I'm up to it, I'd like to plant out the rest of the wildflower perennial seedlings.  I think they are less likely to dry out or become root bound if I plant them in their long term locations.