HARVEST TIME

The fun thing about gardening in the South is that you can have something to harvest almost year-round. I have been cutting my lettuce bed every other day to give to the chickens. Today’s harvest, though, has highly anticipated: I harvested the garlic bed that I planted back in October.

In truth, I’m a little disappointed with the results. There were only a couple plants that had good-sized bulbs, a few more had very small bulbs, and the majority just had the “clove” that was originally planted. While I did not get the outcome I wanted, I think it’s worth trying again in the Fall if further research can tell me why this crop was so underwhelming.

You may recognize the “drying tray” I put them on to dry. I re-purposed the lid to the bathtub brooder (after scrubbing it, of course)! I will let the dirt on the plants dry until later in the day so it will be easier to brush off (you don’t wash garlic after harvesting}. Then, I will need to let the bulbs dry for three to four weeks.

I cleaned the bed the garlic was in and removed old nasturtium branches, weeds, etc. in preparation for the nasturtiums that I hope re-seeded themselves. We shall see what comes of that expectation.

While I was watering today, I discovered a surprise:

My peas have pods!

In other gardening news, I worked a little every day throughout the week and did manage to plant all 19 plant starts I purchased at the Farmer’s Market last weekend. Here are a few pictures of some of them:

Nothing in the garden is organized or pretty yet, but having the plants in the pots feels like a worthwhile accomplishment. With the rain we’ve had recently, and the subsequent humidity, the bug population has been exploding so I really hope these plants will help keep them at bay even a little bit!

We have chicken projects to work on next. Not today though – it’s getting toasty outside. Much of the rest of the day I plan to sit in my chair, feet up, dog on lap, reading a book.