Garlic Harvest Time

 Pulled the garlic July 6th. 4.36 lbs (1977g). Then cleaned them. 3.78 lbs (1714g). 35 bulbs. 

Garlic bulbs

Flagship bulb

The biggest bulbs was 3.3 oz (94g).

Getting warm out

Finally getting warm out. A bit before the first frost date, but weather.com suggests we're not gonna have any temps below about 50 in the next few weeks, so I think we're in the clear. I've been hardening off the seedlings for two days now. Yesterday was just for a couple hours, today was most of the day - they seemed happy enough. Last week I planted zucchini.

They're coming up already, woot woot! Winner for first sprouts is Fordhook.

I also planted a few tomatoes outside. Cherokee Purple in front, Black Cherry in the back.

Lots of tomato seedling left to go. Gave away 5 to Jill. May see if the neighbor wants any, I think I promised him a Cherokee Purple.

All of em!

Batch 1

Batch 2

Batch 3

Couple kale plants still left over from last year. I pulled a few that were moldy in the middle. The stems are like 2" across, huuuuge.

Kale

Garlic is looking amazing.

 

I bought some landscape fabric. The weeds in the rock garden can be insane. Going to put out some tomatoes up there, hopefully the deer don't feast on them.

Like 10% done

Got the fabric at the local mom and pop hardware store. They also had strawberries (Honeoye) and long hot peppers (maybe a local Philly thing?? I never find seeds for these.)

Junebearing Strawberries

We're off!

 As usual I have procrastinated, but since I targeted starting so early, I'm actually right on track. I guess that counts as a life hack! Anyway, I have started quite a number of different tomatoes and peppers. I've got seven fiberglass tough planters (like a long window planter) under the fluorescents right now and they're doing very well so far. One planter has a ton of weeds in it, but the rest seem good so far. I used clear packing tape to stick labels written in sharpie on the side of the planters. Will they stay stuck on? Will they fade? Who can say!

Seeds starting under lights

Have I mentioned garlic? I have 55 garlic bulbs and they look great so far! I'm optimistic for a nice haul of garlic this year.

One of the hardneck garlic beds

Some tomato seedlings already putting on extra sets of leaves.

The soil I have the seedlings in is somewhat sandy and seems to dry out pretty quickly. I need to keep on top of watering.

Garlic Tips

 Watching a lot of gardening videos lately. This one ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWqgRhVDK4g ) had 10 tips for bigger garlic bulbs. My garlic did kinda meh this year, so maybe this might help.

1) Spacing - 6" apart - mine might be a little closer, maybe 4.

2) Depth - 2" - Maybe a little deeper?

3) Rich soil, maybe compost - I feel like my soil is not too rich. I will try some compost, particularly around the cloves when I plant.

4) Fertilize - Low N fertilizer - I don't really fertilize!

5) Hardneck vs Softneck - Hardneck better for my climate

6) Don't plant small cloves - I do a good job on this one\

7) Weed - The diligence of my weeding, it, uh, varies.

8) Cut the scapes - CHECK!

9) Plant cloves right side up - CHECK!

10) Plant around Halloween - CHECK!

Garlic Harvest!

The garlic is done. I haven't pulled them yet, and honestly they don't look too fantastic, so this might be a bit of a disappointment. Lets go see. 

Well, pretty paltry harvest. Most years I get mostly small bulbs, but two or three that look like they might have come from a supermarket. This year not so much. On the plus side, there's plenty for eatin'. I think I will make something with what the garden has produced so far tonight - garlic and kale.

Garlic Harvest 6-18-2022

One of the tomatoes decided the growing straight was boring and tried to introduce a fancy curve. Well, I don't like that one bit so I tied it up.

Left: Before, Right: After

So I've determined that I have about a bed and a half available to plant _something_ in the beds beside the driveway. Now that the garlic is pulled, there is a full free one. The kale plot closest to the street only is half planted. I only have tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries still in pots. The peppers seem to do very well in pots, so I'm going to put tomatoes and strawberries in the leftover space.

Things to keep in mind when I replant:

• Put some bonemeal in the hole.
• Plant DEEP. As deep as I can go.
• Put in stakes or cages now, when it's easy.
• Hit them with some water right away, so they don't wilt.
• Transplant quickly! It's not too hot of a day, so I don't think they will wilt too badly, but lets not risk it.

I have a number of plants that are pretty healthy still in pots. Like a foot or a foot and a half tall already. I picked the largest/healthiest to move.

Still to do:

• Weed the bean/kale bed in the back. The kale is shading out the beans! Gotta thin it. Time for some more kale in my diet.
• The Barry's Crazy Cherry is very limp, it never really recovered from the transplant. I may pull it and put something different there.
• Plant some zucchino rampicante. Insurance against vine borers.
• Fill up every bucket and big pot I have and start some basil and herbs. Transplant what large tomatoes I can. See what I have for peppers.

Some Repotting

 So I've got two locations that I refer to as "compost heaps". The first is a black plastic container in the near back yard that mostly gets grass clippings and weeds pulled elsewhere in the yard. That does a pretty good job of turning that stuff into compost. I have not been truly scientific about it, it doesn't have the right ratios of "green" to "brown" materials, but it make a nice rich puffy soil. Out back further is a pile near the tree line of mostly grass clippings and overflow waste when the black container is full. Also makes nice fluffy compost. Today I pretty much emptied the black plastic compost heap filling up various containers, some two gallon buckets I got from work (originally used to carry pre-shelled hard boiled eggs), some plant pots, and the bottom half of a recycling container that got sliced up the side and didn't work anymore for its intended purpose.

White Powder is bone meal.

I pulled one garlic plant that was clearly done.It is pretty small, but usable.

At this point, the remaining plants are running low on places to go.I think I will try to fill a few more containers to try to salvage as many peppers as possible. I do have some room in the kale bed - I could put a few tomatoes there. Also the garlic is almost done, I could put a few there. If history is any guide, the ones I transplant last generally produce hardly any tomatoes.

I decided to see if I could make a comparison picture of the tomatoes since I transplanted them and ran into a picture from last year.

There's a bit to unpack here. Firstly, They seem to have put on a lot of growth in just 11 days! The weather has been alternately sunny and hot then rain, so plenty of light and plenty of water. But compared to two weeks earlier last year they seem positively anemic. Last year I don't have an exact date for when I started the seeds, but it was about the first week of March. This year it was the second week of April. Also I did not prune last year, or put up cages even. By the end of the season they were draped over the side of the planter and not very happy looking. This year I am savagely pruning. And I was good about getting cages up.

Progress

 So things have kind of taken off the last few days. I failed to properly harden off the Brandywine tomato I planted the other day and it has since passed away. Sorry lil plant! It may be cold to speak of replacing it so soon, but I have a couple others that fared better. So the #8 spot from my garden layout map will remain Brandywine.

I had another mishap with a Black cherry tomato - the stem snapped in high wind. I don't have too many of them, so it was a disappointment, but I decided to take a chance on it anyway and bury it well above the break point and see if maybe it would survive. It was touch and go the first day, but by the second day it looked pretty good. I think it will make it. But for added confusion I placed it in spot #5 (was labelled Cherokee Purple, I thought I'd put on of those there.

TL - Dead Brandywine, BR - snapped stem Black cherry!

The TL Hungarian is flourishing. A lot of Hungarian starts did really well! 

The zucchini has come up very fast, seems like I was waiting a long time last year for the sprouts to appear. Not so this year. I think it's much warmer than it was last year. I have 6 hills of zucchini. 5 of them were sourced from leftover topsoil, the last was compost that had been sitting for... 5 years? The compost looks much darker. I think once the sprouts get a little bigger I will put down some straw.

Cucumbers are sprouting. Again, pretty fast. Looking good so far.

Cukes

The overwintered peppers are doing a lot better, really bursting out in green leaves. Even have a few flowers already. The old leaves have not dropped off yet, so they do look a little odd.

Peppers planted in a reused 2 liter plastic bottle. I imagine they need a bit more space! These were grown from seed.

The garlic is getting ready to be harvested. I'm not too confident that I'll get very much.

The raspberry bed seems very happy. Although calling it a raspberry bed suggests it was planned and I did any work at all on it. I did not.

The long beans and kale are doing well. All the transplanted kale survived. And the beans are really popping. Covered it all with chicken wire.

These are Spoon Tomatoes. The tomatoes they grow are tiny. More fun than productive.

I need to pick 4-6 tomato plants to put in the driveway bed. Not sure which. Lots to choose from! Will also probably put a few in buckets as well.

Strawberries are flowering as well. Last year I think they were starved for water and they definitely need to be repotted or planted somewhere. The berries they produced were tiny and not tasty. Been generously watering for now as I consider where they might go.

Plans: 2022

 So I've got a rough idea of what I'll be planting this season. Here's a quick sketch.

2022 garden plan

To flesh this out a bit, the garlic was planted last fall and is still growing. Honestly not doing too great, about a dozen bulbs, though I planted quite a bit more. When that is done and harvested I may put in some sugar snap peas later in the season. 

The raspberries are volunteers. Looks like quite a vigorous patch. We'll see if the chipmunks let me have any. Might not be them stealing them. Not certain.

Zucchini - I added some compost there. They did ok last season and I think they'll do very well this year. They are already springing up and I just planted the seeds. 

Squash will either be hubbard, butternut, or zucchino rampicante (like a zucchini variant that does not have hollow stems and does not succomb to vine borers). If I can clear out some of the old rock garden behind the house I may plant some more of these back there.

Sunflowers are really nice, spruce up the house nicely and make the birds happy. Also a tribute to Ukraine! I need to dig this bit up before I can plant.

Kale will be from my own seeds that I saved from previous years. Kale does really well. In fact I got some that sprung up in last years bed that I transplanted to the Kale/Long Beans patch in the back. In that patch long beans are against the fence of chicken wire with kale in the front.

Cucumbers got a few varieties, mostly pickling types. Maybe lactoferment them if I get a nice haul. Tried that over the winter and they turned out pretty great.

Tomatoes I have planted most of the numbered ones. Brandywine is all but dead, I have some replacements, we'll see how they do. Overflow and extras in the bed along the driveway, will plant 4-6 in that. Also will plant some cherry tomatoes in pots on the front porch. Varieties I've got - Hungarian, Roma (only one of these came up - disappointing!), Beefsteak, A Grappoli D'Invierno (didn't even order these, just a free gift with my seed purchase. They are BOOMING!), Cherokee Purple (best tasting), Mortgage Lifter, Brandywine, Spoon (tiny tomatoes, like berry sized apparently), Black Cherry, Barry's Crazy Cherry, and a couple others. Should make for an interesting variety. This year I am getting my act together and getting the cages up early, so they should do better. Right? Maybe?

Green beans did very well last year.

Small brick planters near the house - two of them have flowers, peonies and lilies that I want to leave. They don't require any effort and come back every year. The other 5 are in varying states of occupied, 2 just have weeds that can easily be pulled, two have move of a lush overgrowth, and one has the stump of a huge old bush. Realistically that one is a lost cause without a ton of effort. Anyway, these will be home to some herbs. Tomatoes didn't do all that well there, lets see how herbs do.

In the back I will have hot peppers in buckets. I kept 7 or 8 over the winter and they all seem to have survived, though some barely clung to life. We'll see how they do compared to the seedlings. Jalapenoes were the ones I overwintered, and I should get a nice haul of those. Couple other varieties, we'll see.

On the side of the house I am going to build a planter with some old beams that were originally part of a fenced in backyard garden. That fell into disuse since there really was not enough sunlight. It's about 12 or 13 years old, and one of the posts fell over, so I need to take it down and clear it all out. Anyway, this will provide 10-11 posts about 8' long that I can use to build a raised bed on the side. Again this is a bit of a high effort project, so we'll see how far it gets.

Nice progress!

The weather has been hot and sunny and the plants are loving it. I'm babying them and making sure they have plenty of water. I'm very happy I got those four tomato plants out early, they are really flourishing.

The basil is starting to overgrow it's planter. Now I get to see how well it transplants.

Something ate a few bean plants, so I hopped into action and built them their own fortress.

Rutgers. Getting very bushy. I should probably prune a bit to keep them happy.

Brandywine in back, Cherokee Purple in front. Lots of flowers!

  

Like this!

Strawberries still hanging out in the basement.

Garlic starting to get close to being ready for harvest.

Kale bolted. They did survive the winter.

Most of my peppers look like this. After transplanting they slumped over, then recovered in a day or two, but kept their bad posture.

Back in Action

 Last year with the COVID and mom's declining health were not good for garden exploits, I didn't even grow any tomatoes for the first time in... 10 years maybe? But I did get set up for future garden exploits. I bought a load of cement bricks that could, from a distance, in the right light, look like stones. They make much more attractive planters than I could have managed with wood. And they will be there for years to come with little to no maintenance, which is a huge plus. And it was a nice outdoor project for me and the boys.

So now I have 5 stone planters, each about 5' x 3', suitable for raised bed gardening. I'm slowly enriching the soil with compost and leaves stolen from neighbors leaf piles left at the curb for collection. Last years crops were fairly unexciting. Zucchini, another zucchini, Kale, potatoes, and cucumbers. Zucchini did fairly well before it succumbed, as always, to bugs. Potatoes, as usual, was a fairly paltry crop. I need to do more to figure out how to make them happy. Cucumbers were nice, did not get a ton of them, but a nice supply for salads. Kale? OMG. I ate so much kale. A direct seeding of basil utterly failed. Maybe the seeds were old? Not sure where it went wrong.

I did end the season strong though with one planter loaded with garlic planted a week or two into November. They not only survived the winter, they flourished. I put down a little straw to keep the weeds at bay, and I did weed a bit once, but otherwise they are pretty contented.

Garlic looking happy.

The kale not only survived the winter, it seems happier this year. Did my first mini harvest today.

Kale going nuts.

Tomatoes are back this year for another run. They have done VERY well under lights this time around. I didn't even use the fan for airflow, but they aren't leggy. Also growing are some peppers and eggplant. Not growing are some strawberries.

Tomatoes about 45 days old +/- a week

I had enough starts that I risked putting a few out early. Four on the left are Rutgers, back right two are Brandywine, front right two are Cherokee Purple. Of course, I put them out and the weather turned briefly cold, allegedly down into the 30s. But I guess their cozy nook kept them a little protected, they seem fine.

Tomatoes in the flower nooks.

Also have some Black Cherry tomatoes growing and a planter full of basil. My next task is to get some zucchini going, and perhaps get some space cleared out in the front planter for more tomatoes and zucchini.