Harvesting garlic

Just outside of my fenced-in vegetable garden, I grow garlic, onions, chives, several herbs and asparagus.  So far the deer, rabbits, woodchucks and other visitors have left these plants alone.   I harvested most of the garlic scapes earlier this summer, but I left a few of the garlic scapes on the plants to form garlic bulbils - tiny garlic bulbs that form in clusters at the end of the scapes.

Garlic (Allium sativum) growing in between oregano and chives, outside of the fenced-in vegetable garden.  Note the pink bulbils on one of the garlic plants.

Garlic umbel with bulbils and flowers.

Garlic bulbils

The bulbils formed are clones of the parent plant, produced asexually.  They are not seeds.  I generally let the bulbils fall to the ground to start new plants wherever they land, but the bulbils can also be collected and planted wherever you would like new garlic plants.

Usually the flowers on the umbel die before pollination and seed production can occur.  For those interested in growing true garlic seed, see this detailed article, which describes how the bulbils and flowers on a garlic umbel compete for resources.  Removing the bulbils from the umbel with tweezers allows the tiny flowers to develop without withering, so that seed production becomes possible.

Garlic harvest
Garlic is ready to harvest when a few of the bottom leaves have turned brown, but the top leaves are still green.  

Garlic that is ready to be harvested.

Garlic ready for harvest

This weekend I harvested about half of our garlic.  Since it had not rained in a while, the soil was dry and loose.  I simply grabbed hold of the plants and pulled them out.  It is best to wait for a dry day to harvest garlic.  Depending on your soil type, you may need to loosen the soil before harvesting your garlic plants. 

Harvested garlic

After harvesting, I placed the garlic on a slatted wooden bench on a covered porch.  It's important for the garlic to cure in an area with good ventilation that is out of the sun. Some folks like to make garlic braids.  I find the slatted bench method works just fine and is a lot quicker.

Garlic curing on a slatted bench.

The harvested garlic bulbs are different sizes.  I suspect the smaller ones have grown from bulbils.  

Garlic curing

We still are enjoying garlic from last year's harvest, which means we made it the whole year without running out of garlic!  After I cured the garlic last year, I cut off the stems and stored the bulbs in paper bags in an unheated basement.  The basement stays cool all year - not quite a root cellar, but good enough for storing garlic.

Elsewhere in the garden:

We've been harvesting the last of the Cascadian snap peas, the first of the green beans, a few early cherry tomatoes, Red Russian kale, and the ever-constant chives.  The green beans are from the black beans I planted in June that I had saved from last year's harvest (see this post).  We harvest many as green beans, but we will also let some mature into black beans.  

Green beans, peas and chives

Red Russian kale, Gardener's delight heirloom tomatoes, chives, green beans, strawberries

This has been one of our best years for strawberries.  We've had a steady stream all season. 

More strawberries!

This is what our asparagus patch looks like now that we've stopped harvesting it.  (See here for what this patch looked like in the spring.)   Photosynthesis in the fronds takes place all summer and nourishes the roots, allowing the plants to send out new asparagus spears next spring. The fronds are over four feet tall and beautiful.    Don't make the mistake I made of planting asparagus along the south side of a garden where it shades the garden.  

Asparagus foliage.

A few years ago, my daughter planted a packet of wildflower seeds.  Every year they come up and make me smile.  Here are some photos of the Echinacea purpurea from that patch:

Echinacea purpurea

(This post was shared on Harvest Mondays, Green Thumb Thursdays and Healthy, Happy, Green & Natural Party Hop.)

Growing, Harvesting and Seed Collecting

The beans I planted last week have already grown their first set of true leaves.    Below is a photo of the seedlings, grown from the black beans I collected last year.  I love how they grow with the seed coat still attached!   The tendril is from the Cascadian snap peas.  

Seed coat is still attached to the bean plant!

This week we ate our final installment of asparagus, along with lots of lettuce, kale, chives, cilantro, strawberries and some peas and garlic scapes.

Peas, asparagus, strawberries, lettuce and cilantro

Peas, garlic scapes, chives, cilantro, kale and strawberries

Elsewhere in the garden:

Clematis and rose

Mock Orange (Philadelphus) in all its glory

I've started collecting columbine seed (Aquilegia canadensis L.).  Lots of columbine are still in bloom, but the early bloomers have gone to seed.

Columbine seed pods, plus one visitor.

When the seed pods turn brown, it's time to collect the seed.   The small black seeds will rattle around and fall right into your hand if you turn them upside down.  The green seed pods are not yet ready for collection.   

The columbine seed pods start out green and closed,
and then gradually turn brown and open up. 

Columbine seeds ready to be collected.

I like to toss the seeds in areas that could use some more columbine color.  I save some seeds for later, but I seem to have the best success with columbine when I  scatter the seeds now in early summer, and let them over-summer, over-fall and overwinter outside in place.

(This post was shared on Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions and Green Thumb Thursday.)

Harvesting and planting more

Yesterday I went out to pick some basil leaves to have with dinner, and I discovered a handful of Cascadian snap peas were ready to be picked!  

 

Cascadian snap pea

I'm glad the peas are ready, because it's almost time to stop picking the asparagus.
Although this week we had no shortage of asparagus:

lots of asparagus this week

More lettuce, asparagus, strawberries and cilantro.

Today I harvested more peas, strawberries,
chives, cilantro, and lots of kale.

Aside from the basil which I planted from seed this spring, everything else that I harvested this week was either a perennial that I planted in a previous year (asparagus, strawberries, chives) or a volunteer that seeded itself from plants that went to seed last year (lettuce, kale, cilantro).

This week, the Reduce Footprints Change the World Wednesdays challenge (#CTWW) is to plant some food.   I decided to plant some of the bean and squash seed that I saved from last year.  

Black beans saved from last year, still in their pods.

A mixture of beans I saved including black beans and scarlet runner beans. 

Butternut squash seed saved from a particularly delicious squash.

 I planted the bean seeds along the fence where the peas are now so they'll have something to climb, and I planted two kinds of squash in small hills of compost right next to the beans - sort of a modified three sisters garden minus the corn.

compost hill

I encourage you to plant some food for the Change the World Wednesdays challenge and to check out the wonderful harvests at Daphne's Dandelions.  

 Elsewhere in the garden, the roses are in bloom along with foxglove, columbine, geraniums, irises, oxalis, forget-me-nots, bleeding heart, peonies, and more!

oxalis

geranium

columbine

foxglove

(This post was also shared on Healthy, Happy, Green & Natural Party Hop.)

Harvest Monday

This week I've been harvesting a lot of asparagus, kale and chives.  

Asparagus,  kale, and chives from the garden

To the kitchen

Straight into a frittata.  Very yummy!

Also, we had some lettuce

in a salad with chives

And, our first garden strawberries of the year!

I'm happy to have discovered Harvest Mondays at Daphne's Dandelions, where we can share what we are harvesting each week.  Some of the posts are beautiful - take a look.

Ten Reasons Why You Should Grow Asparagus

Asparagus growing in my garden.  Each crown sends up multiple spears.  

1. Deer, rabbits, woodchucks, chipmunks and squirrels leave asparagus alone!

2. It’s a perennial!  Plant it this year and you’ll enjoy it for decades to come!   Each spring it will come up whether you’ve gotten around to gardening yet or not.

3. It’s fun to see asparagus spears popping out of the soil – they really look like someone just stuck them in the ground.

4. You can start harvesting and eating homegrown asparagus early in the season, before most people plant their tomatoes outside.

5. An established asparagus patch can be harvested again and again over a two month period, letting you enjoy lots of asparagus for 8 – 10 weeks.

6. After the harvest period is over, the plants grow tall (up to five feet) and leaf out, transforming from a food item into an attractive fern-like plant.

7. You won’t have to worry about shopping for fresh veggies or finding a place to store them in your fridge – instead, just go out and pick some asparagus.

8. Asparagus is very nutritious.  It’s an excellent source of vitamin K, folate, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin C and vitamin E according to The World's Healthiest Foods Website.

9. Growing your own asparagus is so much cheaper than buying it at the store.

10. It’s yummy!

Last Tuesday's harvest of asparagus.
Six days later,  I harvested double this amount.  

One of the things I LOVE about growing asparagus is that none of the animals around here eat it, so it can be incorporated into your landscaping without requiring deer fencing.    My asparagus patch has coexisted with deer, rabbits, woodchucks, chipmunks and squirrels for a decade without any nibbling whatsoever.

For more information on growing asparagus, check out: The Old Farmer's Almanac.

(This post was shared on Green Thumb Thursdays, The HomeAcre Hop, Healthy, Happy, Green & Natural Party Hop and Real Food Fridays.)