By John, on March 14th, 2011 |
 Back in November I posted about my experiment planting garlic purchased at Costco. I followed that up in December with a post about how rapidly the garlic was growing despite the cooling weather and my fear that it wouldn’t survive the long New England winter.
Well I am happy to report that all of my garlic seems to have weathered the winter without apparent harm. The soft neck garlic has resumed it’s rapid growth rate, as you can see from the photo (right side is soft neck, left side is hard neck), apparently undaunted by the cold. Granted, this hasn’t been a particularly harsh winter even though we’ve had a lot of snow. …continue reading
By John, on December 12th, 2010 |
 Imagine my surprise when I went out to the garden this morning and discovered that all of the garlic we planted a month ago, both hard and soft neck varieties, have already grown up through the mulch layer. In particular, the soft neck garlic (purchased from the grocery department at Costco  ) is frighteningly tall. Obviously these shoots are not going to survive the coming winter but it’s going to be interesting to see how the plants are affected come springtime. I am not worried about the hard neck because we have been through this before and the plants fared the winter quite well. My concern is mostly for the soft neck which is almost certainly a warmer weather variety grown in California. Will it survive? If it survives, will its growth be affected? The answers to these questions will be available in a few months, so stay tuned.
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By John, on November 9th, 2010 |
 The first killing frost of 2010 finally arrived on November 2nd, two days after Halloween. While I welcome a later than normal frost for the extended growing season it provides, I have also been eager and anxious to get my garlic in the ground. According to most reliable sources, garlic should be planted a week or two after the first killing frost. That’s because garlic requires a cold treatment for optimum shoot and bulb development, much like a daffodil. The University of Minnesota Extension offers a good comprehensive document on the ins and outs of growing garlic in northern climates.
For the coming growing season I will be growing two types of garlic, neither of which I have any ideas as to their variety. All I know is that one is a hardneck variety because two undiscovered bulbs from last season overwintered and left me with about 10 new bulbs that will now provide the seed stock for next year’s crop. …continue reading
By John, on August 15th, 2010 |
 We didn’t plant any garlic this year but we had a (small) harvest anyway. It seems that we didn’t get it all out of the ground last year and two bulbs overwintered providing us with nine new plants; ergo, bonus garlic. Given all of the unpleasant surprises we gardeners face each growing season, this is the kind of garden surprise I can live with. Those in the know will see that this garlic is a hard neck variety. My wife loves to make pesto from the garlic scapes which only …continue reading
By Phyllis, on June 13th, 2009 |
 What? What’s a garlic scape? Well, when a hardneck garlic variety reaches it final growth phase it sends up a curly shoot called a scape. This is basically the garlic flower head and they need to be removed to force the plant to put more energy into making a bigger bulb. Scapes are edible and I like to use them for Garlic Scape Pesto. They have a wonderful flavor that is a cross between garlic and scallion that is just delicious! After garlic is dug up it needs …continue reading
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Back in November I posted about my experiment planting garlic purchased at Costco. I followed that up in December with a post about how rapidly the garlic was growing despite the cooling weather and my fear that it wouldn’t survive the long New England winter.
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