Garlic and more garlic progress in drying

Garlic is curing and cleaning up well. I thought I would have lots of muddy garlic but it is looking fine. So no washing required at the time of harvest. Braiding next:-).

Garlic everywhere

July 21, 2011 and garlic is drying everywhere in and out of the house. Nearly all varieties made some garlic, some better than others. The little red "Chinese" garlic, so called by the person who sold it to me in Port Angeles made little red bulbs that dried quickly outside. The rest of the garlic is unknown after losing my planting plan:-(. I think I can guess at some and next year I will be more careful, hopefully. There seems to be many differing opinions of how to harvest and dry. I pulled all garlic as the lower leaves dried, I did not bend them over and let the green tops dry with the bulbs in the garden. Next year I will try that. I washed some as I pulled them, others I have let dry with the dirt just brushed off. I wasn't able to keep the garlic dry before harvesting because of the rain but that seems to be important to having clean bulbs.
The elephant garlic I did not pull soon enough and the outer skins have pulled away so they will not dry and hold, oh well, roasted fresh garlic is still good. I waited a week to pull some garlic from the initial harvest and that was a mistake, the skins on those are split too, so it is true that there is a narrow harvesting range, too soon, too small, too late no storage possibilities.
Doesn't seem to matter that the bulbs are drying inside or outside here in Seattle as long as they don't get wet.
Braiding is the next thing, that should be fun to figure out, some books say braid before completely dry others say when dry...maybe both will work. Photos next if my plaits look reasonable.

Mid-July and the garden is full and maybe even some tomatoes in our future. Pulled 1/3 of the garlic and it is curing will continue to pull it up as the lower leaves wither, well not pull, dig it up. It would seem easy to pull but not in my soil.
Finally we have peas! The zucchini is blossoming, one hubbard squash flower but nothing to polinate it unfortunately. Loads of flowers which I let alone where ever they come up, doesn't seem to hurt anything so far. Beans are waist high without flowers yet but I think they will do well. I am going to pull the lettuces and start over today so that we can have salad again in September. Will try seeding some fall Broccoli...Hmmm wonder how that will do. Most everything has done better than I expected given the weather. There have been aphids on a few things but some soapy water with chili's from Hawaii seem to have stopped them for now. Off to pull up those lettuces!

Flowers

July and it is hot and there is an abundance of flowers and these peonies are the end of that abundance. Lovely to have these big arrangements in the house. Sweet peas are next which of course means small bouquets but lovely. I planted vintage type seed and the sweet peas have fantastic spicy aromas.
Peas are starting to get ripe, amazing! Carrots are growing, walla walla onions are about ready and it is soon time to pull some garlic. I only had one elephant garlic, pulled and roasted that on the 4th of July. Worth growing a few more next year. Still have lettuces, new crop of radishes about ready, beans are growing, potatoes about to flower and tomatoes are way behind but looking good, some flowers now and a few set fruits.
Only one pest issue and that is some aphids, pulled some lacinato kale and the collards as they were being overwhelmed by the little creeps. Spray of soapy water was not helping enough and I did not want them to spread.
Not too disappointed with the garden now but it was sure late in coming along.

June 21, the first day of summer

A few things going on in the garden but much is the same, loads of salad and I hope that will continue. Most of the radishes that I planted did not do well, I will add manure to that bed for fall and see if beans will grow there. I moved the radishes to a pot where I can watch them to see what grows better. I still have collards growing although I removed the red kale after it flowered. The finches love the flower buds and were fun to watch.
I have only one pea planting that did well, mostly something is eating them to the ground. I don't see signs of slugs so perhaps it is cut worms..ick!
Basil is tiny and with the heat today I hope it will grow a bit. I can see the Romano beans growing daily and it makes me understand the Jack in the Bean Stalk story:-).
All the herbs are doing well and growing and getting some fullness to their presence in this second year.
For something new I set out some brussel sprouts and they seem to be doing well.
The most fun thing is a new visitor; a rufous hummingbird loves the water from the garden hose and will bathe and play for quite sometime, I get tired of holding the hose before he gets tired of the water....very sweet.

Memorial day update

Given the continuing cold weather I am surprised that there is anything in the garden but there are some successes and some failures.
Failures; carrot seed hasn't sprouted, onions are not really growing, peas for the most part are still being eaten by something and not growing. Arugula is half sprouted, the half that is sheltered by another plant is about 1/4 inch tall the rest are pinpoints, interesting. Chives are very thin and not as prolific as normal.
Successes: lettuce is doing well and delicious, romain is sprouting from last weeks planting. We've had a number of salads already. Kale and Collards are the winners and have provided, pasta, quiche, enchiladas and just plain. They are yummy. Leeks are slowly being ready and that is great since 30 leeks at the same time is more than I can handle. And Potatoes are growing well and look like they are happy.
All the herbs are doing well. Today is weeding and a bit of clean up. Looking at the basil seed and willing it to sprout!

The warm weather has really made the lettuce grow, just really the last few days. Bunching onions, mache, buttercrisp and I forgot the other lettuce mixed with a tiny bit of mesclun will make the first spring salad of 2011. This week I did get tomatoes in the ground and some Romain lettuce seed planted. 2 sweet banana peppers that are 12" starts are also in the ground. Seems warm enough. Now waiting to see if carrots will sprout, a few tiny spots today.
Much more going on now that the nights are at least in the high 40's and sometimes 50.
Will see if any fruit is showing up, although I don't expect to really have any....