Garlic Lovers Thread - Growing and Eating in the MAF

The front page of the Frederick Post had sort-of violent headlines about traffic, especially during Black Friday sales. "It's all the (road) rage" I don't think I'm braving the crowds, at least not for doorbuster deals. I thought of you, too, Coleup... it was a BIG paper! We no longer get a daily printed paper, but I'm sure today's issue was 3 times the size of the local Sunday paper.

lol, nice to be thought of! So, we can do big jobs one piece at a time!

Bargains are my thing, but even if there were rare garlic bulbs "on special", I don't think I'd be shopping tonight or tomorrow. I need more of a reason to buy than the need of this economy to keep me shopping....like being able to share my finds with others who will appreciate them...like my initial investment in garlic bulbs now growing among friends!

I hit my local Walmart (1 mile away) at about 11pm - wasnt as bad as a Sat. During the height of spring. Finally planted my garlic today. My poor yard WILL get some attention this weekend!! Hope you all are having a relaxing day.

Lots of sprouts...who else? Although my big ones that I grew last year came first, the smaller ones we bought from Garlic Man are showing some.

Errrrr I hope to get mine in this week. :/

Mine are in--almost a couple weeks now....
Added a few Shallots from the store. Will these grow????

Will it be normal if they sprout at this time, sally? If they do--will the sprouts die off?

Need a dry day--and a dry lawn--so I can mow it for the last time.......Gita

The sprouts will be fine, Gita, might get a bit windburned on the tips, as I remember from my first crop. but they are supposed to sprout now.
Well Terp, better late than lat-ER. What's three weeks- I bet they'll be just fine.
Turn that :/ to a : ^)

Lol

We got ours in during the recent warm spell (70 degrees in December; surreal). I'll have to look in that bed tomorrow and see if there are sprouts. Silly tulips out front have leaves 3-4 inches above ground... maybe they also know what they're doing? LOL

Finally got mine in this morning. It'll be interesting to see how they turn out.

Good job!
I think I have at least some kind of green from almost every cloves, so far. The biggest cloves have the most green, so I can see where the size of clove benefits. Those are already making energy.

Terp- must see
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1291433/

I still haven't planted mine -- oh hear -- but I've planted most of my awful big front hill, so I don't feel too guilty!

Well that is quite an accomplishment in itself. You must have taken advantage of this warm weather! That's great.

Tomorrow--near 60*--I think.....Cold tonight, though.....

Terp -- You saw that awful hill -- yes, it was quite an accomplishment -- except I don't know what percentage of the plants will re-appear in the spring! Some were awfully tiny, darn-near microscopic. And some looked pretty dead when I planted them (a lot of these were Santa Rosa plants that I ordered in the summer and looked fairly burned-up by the time I planted them). If it is a rough winter.... And I don't even want to think about the weeds that will overshadow the perennials!

We've been working on it since early October. The area we are planting is almost 100 feet long, and varies from about 30 feet to 15 feet deep. Very very steep and rocky. My neighbors think we are lunatics. One neighbor (someone I didn't know) said, and I quote: "The neighbors are watching you." She said it in a friendly voice, but ....

Hah! I bet they're watching... and the neighborhood husbands are anticipating demands on their own time next spring, when your hill starts coming out all purdy and their curbsides look shabby by comparison.

We transformed the front yard of the townhouse soon after Jim & I got married... and by the following year, pretty much every townhouse in the court had spiffy new landscaping! I figure that's the mark of a job well done, sincerest form of flattery and all that.

I keep meaning to check that side bed for sprouts... it's dark again of course. I will be so happy when the days start lengthening again!

Critter-- I know what you mean about those short days. It drives me crazy when it is dark at 5!

I don't think we'll spur any neighbors on -- ours was definitely the worst front yard, but excusable because the hill was so steep. Right now the front hill looks weird because it is criss-crossed with green tape so I could do some semblance of organization. I do have a ton of bulbs on the other side of the front yard which made up for it a bit.

What I'm really worried about s that we've set ourselves up for failure. Try though I did to get plants that will be tough and long-lived, I'm worried that I'm going to have to take on fighting weeds, which I REALLY don't want to do in the front. I'd rather get our back yard, where we spend much more time, into better shape. Working on that front hill is really hard on the feet. Plus when it gets hot, it is really unpleasant to be perched there.

I also think I planted too many tall grasses, so I may have to yank some plants ... but that will help the next swap! I have tall grasses all along the brow of the hill -- different ones, but the overall effect may be too uniform.

We are really curious to see what it looks like in the spring.... I know some plants won't make it, but I don't know which yet! Plus, since the plants are so small, how it looks in years 2 and 3 ...

I still have probably 20 platycodon yet to plant that looked green on arrival from Santa Rosa but yellowed fairly soon thereafter. I am clueless as to whether they will re-appear next year. I keep shoving them aside because I know they are slow to break dormancy in the spring, and since they might be dead I don't want to sacrifice a lot of garden space to them.

Happy, can you up-pot up the Platycodon over the winter in gallon pots? They like to grow long tap roots... I have a few still in pots that should have gone into the ground this fall also. They do go dormant earlier than most, I think.

Happy, you have Garlic Man's and my full permission to EAT your garlic instead of planting it!

Or, throw those cloves into any container with potting soil and stick tthe pots in a pile of leaves for a little winter protection....

Or, (and this would work for those platycondons. too) Get a big bag of potting soil, slit it lengthwise on top, after punching numeous holes with a screwdriver (tension release!) on the bottom, and plant them in it. Easy enough to move plants or cloves that make it to another location come Spring, or just let them grow on.
Used to be called "heeling in" or providing a temporary home until a permanent one is found or prepared.

In reading thru some of the links I saved at the start of this thread, I have found a site or two that offer garlic "starts" in the Spring of a number of varieties. These will not produce as large a bulb as those planted in the Fall, I'm thinking if there is interest, that we could group share some of these "starts" at seed swap time.

I am particularly interested in a wild garlic (mini Cherokee?) that is excellent interplanted where deer and rodents are a problem as a deterant. There is also another wild garlic that thrives in wet or streamside locations....Both are edible and medicinal and, yes, they flower!

Any interest in "starts" or wild garlic for naturalizing?
http://www.brokenearth.org/wildgarlic/index.htm#Wild_Garlic_Starters

I think I'll just plant those Platycodons and see if they will make it. I'm worried that their tap roots were damaged, and I don't want to cause more trouble by multiple transplants....

Hmmmm----
Could i dig up my old Plastycodons that seem to not do much any more and pot them up in a pot for the winter?

I have two--blue and white. If I get 4 or 5 blooms from the blue--that's it! I should dig them up and get rid of them.
They "live" among old iris roots--which may explain the problem. They are OLD...OLD....So are the iris.
Digging everything up and amending the bed and then re-planting everything would be great----but a lot of work.
Who has the time to do all that?
I haven't seen the white one in ages. I think it is dead. G.

Gita, you probably don't need to go to that much trouble for the irises, and the balloon flowers / platycodons would probably do fine also in the soil that's there, if they just had a little more room. If you're feeling like having a go at them some day when the ground is just that right amount of moist, just pry up whatever iris rhizomes you can from around the balloon flowers, toss out all those old roots, and shove a few good looking iris rhizomes back in. Irises should reward you with more blooms also!

oooohh, that's right, I was supposed to mulch the garlic with leaves, wasn't I? Well, it hasn't been all that cold yet, especially in that bed (which is against the south-facing foundation).

Joyanna did have a good time planting them with me. Thanks for letting us join the fun even when we couldn't make it to the swap!

Jill--

I was more thinking about digging up the Platycodons. But--I know the iris may have to be dug up first.
Yes! Irises are easy to dig and re-pant. Maybe it should have been done earlier in the fall.
Not sure spring is a good time....

The irises are crowded. I already dug up several and potted them in pots and gave them away
as Christmas presents.
I had some I dug up from my Aunt and Uncle's yard after they both had died (1993)
and the house was about to be sold. My uncle was quite the organic gardener.
He had these beautiful, deep purple iris. I wanted to preserve them in my garden.

This past weekend I went to our "Cousin's Christmas get-together" in VA.
I took 4 pots of these irises to now pass on to his Son and Grandchildren. Even to one Great-Granddaughter.
I promised her i would--as I could not go to her HS Graduation. It will be a nice "carry over'....

Same as I dug out some other Iris from my neighbor's yard--as the house sat empty for 2 years before my
Pakistani neighbors moved in and cut down every shrub and dug up everything growing in the ground
and got rid of it. Glad I took some while i could.

Gita

Do you think irises would survive on my awful front hill? I don't plant to do (much) supplemental watering, and we have a hefty deer and squirrel population. Mostly full sun.

happy- I think irises would do great!

Excellent - thanks!

happy!!- I can share irises next year. My "Lucy' iris is medium height and looks good a long time and i Have plenty.- see journal for pic I think.
Escuse us you Garlic Lovers, we have to have something to talk about while we wait...

happy--

I will also have some starts of this Purple iris i was talking about. may have some others as well.

I have about 3 kinds...nothing spectacular.

Will see what's what when the time for the swap comes around. Gita

Thank you both -- that'd be wonderful! I'll need to fill in for all the perennials I have planted that die (sigh).

I am so mad -- on my awful front hill I tried to plant only plants that deer don't like, because there is a huge deer population in my neighborhood. I know it is hard to pin down their tastes. But the deer have been pulling out my newly planted plants, and then spitting them out (very rude). And to make matters worse, they don't spit them out right next to where I had planted them, so it is a guessing game for me to get the rejected plants re-planted in the spot where I had intended them to flourish!

Arrrggghhh!!!

Oh, BAD deer!!!

Think it would help if I put up a sign?

Definitely!! Heehee

Plus now I have Santa and all those darn reindeer to worry about. I hope they get a lot of cookies from other houses so they don't destroy my awful front hill.

hahaha!
Reindeer mind their manners I am sure!

Of course they do!!!

sprouts about zero to six plus? inches, here are the biggest.

You know, I still haven't planted my garlic -- I was too busy with my awful front hill. I was going to plant my garlic in containers, and that is what stymied me -- I had planned to make a really good soil-less mix. But now I'm thinking I'll plant them in my awful front hill instead. There is plenty of sun, and the hill needs to be held up until the perennials and ornamental grasses fill in. I haven't checked the garlic in a while -- if it hasn't dried up, that is what I'm going to do. So I'll be able to let you know whether January is too late -- I'll learn the hard way!

SOunds like a plan!

THe garlic I grew last year is still fresh, keeping well.