our homestead: garlic harvest 2011

My husband and I harvested our “wedding” garlic at last. I’ve been both lovingly and jokingly calling it our wedding garlic because it was planted about a week before our wedding last October. I remember a year ago I wasn’t stressing too badly about the actual wedding, nope, I was worried about getting my garlic in the ground before we left for our honeymoon and it would be too late when we returned to plant it. Garlic is planted about the same time tulip and daffodils need to be planted- during early autumn when it’s not so hot that the garlic will sprout, but certainly well before the first killing frost so the cloves get a chance to acclimate. The garlic, planted clove by clove and shielded by layers of good compost and mulch (I used wheelbarrows and wheelbarrows full of crushed, fallen maple leaves), will lay dormant in the soil over the winter until awakened in spring, when its first little green sprouts will emerge. These little sprouts become leafy green tops as the clove continues to develop into a full head of garlic.

Anyway, last year I remember having a lot to do in regards to my garlic while also preparing for our wedding. My planting bed was to be the abandoned bed underneath one of my parent’s old greenhouses. I spent the morning of the day I was to retrieve my wedding dress from Portland, Oregon, clearing the entire bed, ripping up all the weeds and removing the skeletal remains of dead tomato plants. As soon as I’d cleared the bed, I jumped in the car and drove to Oregon to get my dress.

Now here’s where I became a true Bridezilla. My husband’s friend, Steve, came into town to stay with us a few days before the wedding. He was to be one of our groomsmen and, boy, was he a good one! While rushing around trying to finish wedding stuff I was lamenting about how I wouldn’t have time to till the soil of my garlic bed. Steve volunteered…even though he didn’t exactly have work shoes with him. I have this memory of looking out the window, watching Steve rototill my garlic patch in a very nice pair of shoes. He did an excellent job too! Thanks to Steve’s help, I was able to get my garlic planted within a couple days of the wedding. *Phew!*

As far as the results of the harvest, my husband and I pulled up two overflowing wheelbarrows of garlic this past week. We knew it was time to pull the garlic as the tops were wilting and turning yellow. Last year I planted elephant garlic and two varieties of hardneck garlic: Spanish Rojo and Spicy German. My plan is to replant 2/3 of the harvest this September and to eat the rest. To cure my garlic for storage, I’m letting it all lay out on a table where it can be exposed to light and dry out for about two to three weeks. Then, I’ll either trim the greens from the garlic bulbs and toss them in a burlap sack or braid them and hang them in my basement pantry. My husband and I have been enjoying heads of roasted garlic nearly everyday, smeared on bread or chicken. You can bet we’re keeping the vampires away!

DIY almanac: what to plant in the garden in July

July is a very busy and very rewarding month for vegetable gardening. This year we've had a long, cold spring but I'm hoping that summer is here at last. According to the forecast we're supposed to have 10 straight days of sunshine, so I've been working hard outside to take full advantage of the light, doing more intensive-weeding, feeding my already established plants and sowing lots of seeds (mainly beans and winter squash) in preparation for growth. It's funny because every time we have a sunny day I swear my Hop vines grow half a foot! Along with the work I've been enjoying lots of homegrown peas, potatoes, cucumbers, kale, turnips, early onions and more at my dinner table.

Anyway, a big part of planning for July planting is considering when the next major killing frost will be and how this compares to the length of time it will take for vegetables to mature (usually noted on seed packets in days unless you've memorized the planting rhythms). Last year, the earliest frost we had was in late October...I remember this because I made the mistake of leaving some of my harvested sugar pie pumpkins out on the porch. The frost hit them and they became mushy. Sad story. At least this was after I had had the chance to make a few batches of pumpkin chili, a pie, bread and "pumpkins stuffed with everything good" (a recipe I heard on NPR), so I did get to enjoy most of them.

Another planting consideration to make is to anticipate what kind of weather we'll have from July through October. Most vegetables can be planted and grown now, but some might not do as well with the raising temperatures. Potatoes, for instance, prefer a long, cold start and are usually best planted around the end of March. I've heard of folks having some success planting them late, but I suspect that yields won't be as much as they could be. However, one should consider that we've had a funky spring, so maybe planting potatoes now could be like a game of catch-up. Peas are another crop that are usually planted in early spring. I have heard of people planting a second crop for fall. Yields, again, might not be as good as the prior crop, but if anything, you're building up the nitrogen in your planting space and controlling weed growth, so the peas are acting like a green manure. Pea vines are also delicious sauteed in a hot pan. If lettuces, spinach, and arugula get too hot, they'll bolt (go to seed), but it's good to throw them in the garden anyway. I usually try to put them on the shadier side of my garden, or plant them as living "row covers" between plants like squash and corn.

In early July you'll want to plant the following:

-beans! get them in now

-corn (it's a little later to plant corn, but we have had a weird spring and some local farmers have had to replant their corn too)

-winter squash (pumpkins, delicata, acorn, spaghetti...I'm holding sugar pie pumpkin seeds in the photo above)

-second-crops of summer squash (like zucchini, patty pan, crookneck, etc)

-salad greens, chard

-root crops like beets, carrots and parsnips

In mid July you'll want to plant the following:

-cabbage family members like kohlrabi, cauliflower, broccoli and kale for overwintering (a touch of frost makes them taste extra sweet)

-arugula, spinach

our homestead: oh hey, potatoes!

All of the potatoes I planted back in early spring are growing and appear to be very healthy. I planted French La Ratte Fingerlings, Peruvian Purples and Nordland Roasters. I've been foliar feeding my potato plants about once a week now...usually I give them a little spritz of a mix of water and organic fish fertilizer (nice and stinky). I also like to crumble a little compost around each plant now and then. It also helps that I planted sugar snap peas next to my potatoes- legumes grab hold of nitrogen in the air and bring it into the soil (nitrogen promotes leafy green growth). Right now, my pea starts are about a foot tall each.

Two of the best preventatives of potato blight include crop rotation and good nutrition. I'm growing my potatoes in soil that has been free of potatoes or tomatoes or any other Nightshaders, and I'm keeping up on the nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous.

Anyway, I did my first "hilling" yesterday. Hilling- where one draws the soil up around the potato plants on either side to build a raised mound- is essential for edible tuber development as tubers that are exposed to sunlight can turn green (a green potato can give you a stomach ache). The potatoes will branch off along the stem of the plant, so in hilling the soil, I'm ensuring that my tubers will grow in darkness and thus be fit to eat. There's nothing like a new potato- fresh, buttery and sweet with thin, papery skin. Mmm...

our homestead: planting asparagus crowns

I was visiting with my mom the other day when she informed me that our local nursery had $1.00 Jersey King and Sweet Purple asparagus crowns for sale. $1.00! Hot boy! That's a deal! The asparagus crowns I'd been dreaming about were retailing at around$7.00 each, thus about 30 minutes after she let me in on this great find I was at the nursery, digging through a tub of soil picking out the best 10 crowns of each variety. Such a steal...I felt like an asparagus vandal.

Asparagus is a ferny spring perennial which will last about 15 years, providing delicious crunchy spears at the very start of the growing season. The only catch- you have to let it establish itself in the first two to three years after planting it before you indulge. So, there's a bit of planning involved when you decide where you want to grow your asparagus. I chose a previously prepped, deep raised bed at the bottom of my hill that receives ample amounts of sunlight every day (asparagus loves sun!). I checked my soil about a month ago, it seemed I had a pH of about 6.5...asparagus prefers a pH range of 6.5-7.5 so before I planted my crowns I sprinkled a few handfuls of wood ashes along my bed in the hopes that it would help maintain a pH ideal for my little crowns. Asparagus crowns are really cool looking- they are essentially a clumpy bulb with several long rooty tendrils. If you hold two up under your nose they'll make an earthy mustache.

To plant the crowns I dug 20 holes, 6 inches deep and about 18 inches apart from one another. I've also heard that folks can dig a long, 6 inch trench, but I wanted to stagger my plants. I spread a few inches of homemade compost in the bottom of each hole and then gently set each crown into place, being sure to spread about all the roots as best I could. I then covered each crown with about 2 inches of soil, and as my asparagus spears emerge from the earth I'll hill soil up around them (much like you hill potatoes). I then mulched around my asparagus. Throughout the next few years I'll try to keep my crowns well-fed and weed free so that they might prosper and become a welcome friend at future springtimes.