Garlic

This is going to be a post all about garlic.  I have been reading up on garlic since the spring and was able to plant some bulbils I was able to get at a local seed exchange (McEwen’s Red which I was told is a marbled purple stripe, Polish White a soft neck variety) and a couple cloves of Music I had leftover in the spring.  They have all done very well, but for the fall I would like to greatly increase the garlic varieties I grow. 

Right now I am planning on buying cloves of Georgian Fire, Central Siberian, Siberian and one more variety that I haven’t decided on yet.  They will be planted in my middle garden bed around the end of September.  I am looking to plant them 4 inches deep and will probably not mulch them.  I had trouble last year with voles eating my mulched asparagus roots and do not want to have a repeat of that.

I do live farther north and snow is usually pretty extensive and rarely disappears completely before March.  But we have also had snow as early as mid-October and it almost always snows on Halloween so waiting until late October to plant seems like it might be too long.  So will be targeting anywhere from the Sept 24^th weekend to October 10^th Thanksgiving.

One of the most challenging things when looking for garlic information is that I have had trouble finding information pertinent to my growing area.  Most of the garlic produced in Ontario seems to either take place in southwestern Ontario or eastern Ontario.  Both of which are located around lake Ontario and have a much more temperate region than ours is further north.

These are all resources I have found while searching the web, most of them reference Ontario Garlic Production:

OMAFRA - Garlic Production
Garlic Growers Association of Ontario
Garlic Farm - Growing Garlic
Seeds of Diversity - Growing Garlic
Tiny Farm Blog - Garlic Planting - From the description of the farm, the are located around Peterbourough
The Cutting Veg Garlic Growing in Brampton
Garlic Growing Paul Pospisil - Beaver Pond Estates Zone 5A Ontario
Colorado State Tests
Hood River Garlic
Snake Root Farm Mulch

Peppers and Garlic

Due to my lack of time, I am able to get out into the garden but not update the blog, and the pictures I do take, take me weeks to get up.   Last week on Aug 2^nd I cut off 3 garlic scapes from the bulbils I planted this spring.  I was surprised to find scapes on them due to their tiny size at planting.  They do however get full sun and lots of water.  I have harvested the garlic I planted in the bottom bed  and anticipate harvesting this garlic in the next week or so once it starts to die down.  I have found a few different opinions on when to harvest it( the bottom 3 leaves are dead, 40% of the plant is dead, 60% is dead)  so I think I will just pull a few plants at a couple different stages to figure out the best time to harvest them.

The plant in the middle back has the scape, and as you can see it curls off to the left of the picture.

My banana peppers are dong very well, and I am quite pleased with them. I have 6 plants in the garden that all have 4-7 peppers currently on them, and then 6 more in containers.  A couple of the plants in containers might be cal wonder golden  but not really sure as that variety didn’t germinate well at all,  less than 10% success rate.  And then I had some plants die in the pots.  I only have one red pepper so far but the fact that they are banana peppers eating them when they are yellow is probably not a problem.  But I will let some change color to have a variety.

Those are 2 plants side by side, I added at the end of a row of peas.

Thats my red pepper  and then the bottom picture is the plant at the end of the row.  It needed a tomato cage because during the heavy rain about 3 weeks ago it got take out.

Rain!

After about 2 weeks of no rain and intense heat we finally had a storm, a nice long one.  Everything has been watered thoroughly.

Last night I was also able to harvest more vegetables.  Beans bush and pole, zucchini, a few peas and the first cucumbers of the year.  Both bean varieties are doing very well, but the pole beans have an almost faded color that doesn’t make them look very appealing.  I haven't had a chance to eat any of them yet though.

The zucchini plants have been doing terrific but were planted too close together.  That is something I always seem to do is plant things too close together.  I also have beans peas and carrots that are all touching and will have to definitely plan out my spacing much better next year.

Kale

Big harvest today!!!

I finally managed to harvest most of the kale.  I harvested everything that I was not going to be able to eat and froze it.  I just blanched it for 2 min, ice water 2 min and then into the freezer in zip lock bags.

I didn’t realize kale would get quite that big, and seeing as I don’t eat it on a daily basis I have also been giving some of it away to a co-worker who eats it.

That is all of the shallots in the middle and potoatoes on the right and bottom

I also harvested all of my shallots, some garlic and a couple potatoes plants.  The shallots looked pretty good although they were a little small.  The garlic was also pretty small, it was spring planted garlic and in a shadier spot.  All future garlic will be planted in full fun in the fall around mid-September.  The potatoes had one hill with nothing but disease and the other had only 3-4 potatoes.  These were the blue ones (maybe Macintosh) I planted.  Also from the bottom bed that does get significantly more shade.

You can see the potatoe scab on the potatoes aspecially the one on the left.

Beans

The first beans were picked last night!  I probably should have gotten them a couple days previously but there weren’t any that were overly large.   I have been very busy lately and have been neglecting the blog a little.  There are a bunch of pictures that need to go up that I just haven't gotten around to yet….

The garden is doing very well though, the peas need to be picked every other day and I have been freezing them because og the mass quantities, there are a bunch of zucchini that will be ready at the end of this week as well as more beans.

The spinach has not enjoyed the heat wave and it needs to be pulled, I will try to salvage what I can but its time is past.  The strawberry spinich that was planted never germinated.  It is something I will try again next year though with the remaining seeds.  I also really need to get the kale out of the garden  and freeze it.  I might try this coming Saturday morning to make sure it is not dried out when I do pick it.

Field Sprouted!

Yesterday I went to the field to see how everything was progressing.  Everything has started to sprout!  The watermelon is looking much better, all of the gourds are up now and the cucumbers have started to expand.  The carrots and potatoes are just poking through about 15% of the total but in the next week I expect them to all come up.

We have had some rain but because it has been spotty, the field hasn’t had any since I planted it almost 2 weeks ago…  We have been watering it (me and my aunt/cousins) and it has been doing wonders for it. 

My own garden is doing very well, I picked a ton of snow peas on Monday and will have to go pick more today, they are not a forgiving vegetable if you let them go that extra day.

I also plan on trying to take all of the kale off tomorrow but that will depend on a few factors.  We are supposed to get more extreme hot weather and don’t want it to degrade anymore in quality.

 

The bok choy is done, the last few plant went to seed and the earwigs infested them and pretty much ate them.  At least they ate all the good parts that hadn’t gone to seed.

Peas!

On Thursday I picked the first peas of the season!  I also picked the first zucchini. The snow peas look great and taste even better.  Plenty more still on the vine as well as more flowering.  The Mammoth Melting plants have reached 6’ and are still going strong.  I will defiantly be planting these again but next time I am defiantly going to give the peas more room between rows.  There are only 3’ between them and that was defiantly not enough.  The peas and beans are both trying to grow toward each other.

 

The field is looking good.  It was planted 8 days ago and it hasn’t rained on it yet.  It has been watered every couple days though and the soil is a heavier clay so it moisture retentive.  So far the pumpkins have sprouted, some of the lettuce is up and a couple watermelon seeds have sprouted.  I expect the gourds to be up when I check on it Monday night and hopefully by the end of next week the carrots and the potatoes.