Veggie chronicles: Garlic galore
Amid all the rain and the dead seedlings and the late plantings, I’ve had an encouraging success: 87 heads of garlic!
Here’s how it all happened:
A few years ago I planted some garlic in the garden and it never quite took off. Very clay-ey soil. So I dug it all up and planted it in a garden formed by a rock wall on a hill, back filled with looser soil. Winter sun on the rocks keeps it warmish, too.
Last year, the garlic sprouted. I let the green plant-tops die back like I thought I was supposed to. But then, I couldn’t find all the garlic. Partly, I’m sure, because it was so small.
This year – WOW! – the greenery came up gonzo. I was weeding around it, and a lot of the leaves looked dead. I consulted the ridiculously comprehensive “Growing Great Garlic” – 213 pages of musings and advice, thank you – and got more confused than ever. Harvest now or later? Rinse or dry dirty?
But as I was pulling weeds, the soil seemed so loose that I grabbed ahold of a garlic top and pulled gently. Out came a big one. My husband joined in and we pulled it all. In 10 mins, we had the most amazing bounty.
The heads have been drying (slightly rinsed) on the back porch for a few days. This morning, with rain forecast, 85 of them went into a large, flat basket inside. (Two had already gone into spaghetti sauce.)
Visit Sandy Bauers’ blog at http://go.philly.com/greenspace.