Garlic Mystery

Here's the scoop:
We've been growing garlic for years. Never had a problem with it. Until now. The above garlic looks perfectly normal. And healthy. The other day, we grabbed a bulb to use for dinner. Peeled the cloves. Everything looked great. One thing was missing though. The cloves had NO smell. Well maybe they smelled a little green. But they did not smell like garlic or taste like garlic.
We opened a few more bulbs. Same results. Needless to say, we're confused as could be. Besides the fact that we don't have garlic to put up for the year, we don't have our seed crop. We replant cloves from our harvest. So now, I'll have to find a few good sources for garlic.
I'll also be browsing the internet for answers to this mystery. If you have any answers for me, please leave them in the comments.
Until next time.....

Garden Notes ~ Late June

Wait. What? Late June? Already? Please slow down there summer!
It's been a busy week in the garden. I finished mulching everything, then spread wood ashes and manure. Now all we need is an afternoon thunderstorm.

The garlic is harvested. We put it under a tree atop wooden pallets to dry. I've got one eye on the sky because if it starts to rain, I have to get them into the garage.
Rattlesnake pole beans are starting to climb.
Tomatillos, resembling paper lanterns, are floating throughout the plants.
Cucumber blossoms. I'm eagerly awaiting my first cucumber sandwich. I live on those in the summer.
A section of the Roma tomato bed; staked, suckered, mulched and fed.
Dixie speckled butter peas. Excellent shelling peas.

I need to spend the afternoon in the studio, packing orders that are scheduled to ship tomorrow. Guess I better head that way.
Until next time.....

This Week

This week, I:
1. Dug carrots.
2. Tied our garlic and got it ready to go to the basement.
3. Dug potatoes. They will accompany the garlic.
4. Harvested coriander seed, making sure I left plenty behind to reseed.
5. Put up a bushel of peaches. Ate a cobbler and will be eating peach ice cream!

It is 3:30 PM and 110 degrees in the shade. 110 degrees! Still no rain. The garden is mulched and we water, but that ain't cuttin' it. The ground is so hard that I can't stake the tomatoes. I haven't seen weather this brutal this early in the season ever.
Have a fun, safe 4th of July weekend~

'Round Here

1. Blue Hydrangea. Sweet Blue Hydrangea. How I love thee!
2. Sugar snap peas are in! They have to be my favorite spring vegetable. My favorite 'while gardening' snack. I eat them by the handful when I'm out working in the garden. We've been eating a lot of stir fries with peas, green onions, carrots and garlic from the garden. This weekend I'll freeze some, so we can have them this winter.
3. Lavender. I wish I had scratch 'n sniff, so you could smell these blossoms. Some of the dried flowers will be making their way into my Etsy shop in the form of jewelry in the near future.
4. Garlic circle. I harvested our garlic yesterday. It's early this year, but so if everything else. They spent the day outside, in the shade of the umbrella.
5. The Jackmanii Clematis is in full bloom. I love, love, love this plant.

We haven't had much rain lately, although it's supposed to rain this afternoon and evening. Hopefully we won't get the high winds and hail that they mentioned. Fingers crossed. As soon as we do get the rain, I'll be tilling and planting the rest of the summer garden. And I'll be munching on sugar snaps as I do it.

After The Rain

Garlic bed

Daffodils

Snowdrops

Thyme

Chives Rosemary Parsley

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We finally got a REAL rain! Two hours worth. That makes for one happy garden and gardener.

I hope you're getting the weather that your garden needs. Now to lay some mulch down.

Pictured from top to bottom are:

1. Garlic blossoms with bumble bee

2. Fried green tomatoes anyone?

3. Clematis

4. Tomatillo starting to climb

5. Lavender, astillbe and hydrangea

Until next time.....

How Does Your Garden Grow?

These pictures were from this past week. The gardens are growing like crazy, despite the fact that we've had zero rain. I've been watering and mulching like a mad woman. I think we're in for a long, hot summer. Again.

From top to bottom we have:

Lavender

Parsley seedling with oyster shell marking. I use oyster shells to mark all of our plants in the garden.

Squash hill.

Dill and green onions.

Garlic blossom opening up.

Here's to a fantabulous week, hopefully with a splash of rain.

Until next time.....

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I harvested our garlic yesterday. After the spring flood, we weren't sure if the garlic would survive. I'm happy to say that most of it did.

The lavender will be ready to cut by the end of this week. I love this time of year. The smell of lavender hangs in the air. Dried bunches will be stored with our wool sweaters to repel moths.

This morning, I have to get our tomato stakes down from the garage rafters and begin staking them. When that's finished, it'll be time to mulch them with the bags of leaves that we hauled last fall.

So, how does your garden grow?

Until next time.....

Wordless Wednesday