It was the last day of September. I wanted to get my garlic planted this weekend but other things got in the way. The beds are already prepared and I just have to mark off the planting grid and stick in the cloves and bulbils but there is no need to rush I have a couple weeks left to get them in and I want it to be a pleasant rewarding experience done with care rather than a sloppy rushed job. The garlic would probably grow the same either way but a big part of gardening for me is the personal satisfaction and the look of the plants as they grow with uniform precision spacing.
I spent the last few days getting things ready for winter. I had a number of projects, painting, patching, window repairs, etc. that need to be finished and need to get them completed before the temperatures drop and the snow flies.
On the sixth of October I planted my garlic cloves, just over 200 of them. It rained hard last night again and some more this morning so I was working on a couple indoor projects when it finally cleared up about mid day
The varieties are:
Martin’s Heirloom,
85 of the larger cloves and 49 of the smaller ones for a total of 134
I planted 24 cloves of this last year and now have in excess of 150. I planted all of the larger and some of the smaller ones as listed above. The remaining ones will be eaten. Not much of an eating crop this year but next year should see me with 134 bulbs, and even if I keep 50 of the largest bulbs to replant that will leave me 84 for eating. That’s about 1.5 bulbs per week for the year. Not quite enough yet but getting there.
Those 50 bulbs I don’t eat should then give me about 250 cloves for replanting. WOW!
I purchased a few cloves of each of the following varieties just to see how they grow here and what they taste like.
Chesnok Red, 20 cloves
Planted all cloves of the two bulbs I got.
Red Toch, 26 cloves
Planted all cloves of the two bulbs I got.
Italian Late, 18 cloves
Planted all cloves of the three bulbs I got.
Georgian Crystal, 12 cloves
Planted all cloves of the two bulbs I got.
Spanish Roja, 14 cloves
Planted all cloves of the two bulbs I got.
Rosewood, 6 cloves
Planted all cloves of the two bulbs I bought. These cloves were huge and had only three per bulb.
If these are good and grow well for me they sure will cut down on garlic clove peeling time.
That Takes care of the cloves now I need to plant the bulbils that I have.
I am estimating that the bulbils that I grew on the Martin’s Heirloom along with those I purchased of the Old Homestead and Moano Special varieties will total between 400 and 500. Won’t really know till I finish planting them.
I am hoping to do that tomorrow. A nice Sunday afternoon project.
I also planted five shallot cloves, grocery store variety. They are supposed to be a perennial and grow similarly to multiplier onions.
On the seventh of October I planted my garlic bulbils, just over 500 of them. It rained just a bit last night so I was able to get out into the garden much earlier than yesterday.
The garlic bulbil varieties are:
Martin’s Heirloom, 376 planted to harvest as rounds next year. These will be replanted next fall and harvested to following season as bulbs. I also planted 85 of them very densely in a small bed to be used next spring as green garlic ( like scallions with a garlic flavor ).
I also purchased some bulbils:
Moano Special, 63 bulbils planted
I ordered a packet of 50 and planted the best ones in the garlic bed. (there are still a few left in the packet)
Old Homestead, 110 bulbills planted
I ordered a packet of 200 and planted the largest ones in the garlic bed.
I still have some of Martin’s Heirloom , Old Homestead and Moano Special bulbils not yet planted which I will hopefully find space for in the coming week. Since my officially designated bed space for garlic is full I’ll fit them in here and there also to be used as early spring green garlic.
Next project is to divide my clumps of chives and bunching onions. Perhaps this week.
Have not gotten to those onions and chives yet. I’m still cutting greens from them.
More seasonal projects reared their ugly heads and needed to be tended to. Mainly gathering the numerous brush piles that were created throughout the spring and summer into one place for the second annual brush burn. I hate burning brush but it seems to be accumulating at a rate that would soon overtake everything if I didn’t. I do it once a year after the first significant snowfall so it needs to be gathered now. You wouldn’t think there would be this much from only an acre of land but the previous owners let things get very overgrown. I’ll keep clearing out a little each year until I get ahead of it. Also this year I am building a nice insulated box to go over our little window air conditioner. Last year I just wrapped a bag filled with insulation around it ( not the best solution but it worked for one winter). I also replumbed the kitchen drain line. I have also repaired the interior basement window frames and have replaced the bagged insulation previously used on the inside with nice neat easily removable styrofoam panels.
I did manage to squeeze in some fall garden cleanup, removing spent plants and weeds etc.
Sometime this month we found apples for $0.20 a pond and picked up about 90 pounds of red delicious, yellow delicious and Johnna Gold so I have cut cored and sliced numerous batches for the dehydrator.
On October 18′th I planted more garlic bulbils.
Martin’s Heirloom, 48 bulbils planted
I still have a few more left
Old Homestead, 48 bulbills planted
I still have a few more left.
Still have not separated and replanted the bunching onions and chives. Still getting fresh greens.
On October 27′th I planted more garlic bulbils.
Old Homestead, 75 bulbills planted densely in a small bed for spring garlic greens.
And I still have a few more left.
Got to work on the wood pile a little. This is different than the brush pile. When we moved here I tore down a small deck and stairs leading to the front door ( have not replaced them yet, never use the front door anyway and in case of fire can just jump out if necessary. I’ll get to it some day.) It was mostly rotted. Well the wood got piled up out back with the other wood I’ve been gathering from the previous owner’s junk pile in the back. I have already taken two trailer loads of junk to the dump from this junk pile, one last summer and one this summer. I am hoping one more load next spring will see an end to that eyesore. Anyway, I’m sorting out the pile and cutting up all the burnable wood. There were a lot of old branches and smaller tree trunks on the old junk pile which I can toss it on this year’s brush pile fire.
Here it is the end of the month October 31’st. Today I worked out in the garage/shop cutting lumber for yet another set of shelves to be assembled in the basement when the weather turns bad. I swept up almost a 5 gallon bucket full of sawdust from this and some previous projects for spreading on the compost pile.
I made a valiant effort to organize the garage/shop which is full to overflowing with a very nice assortment of usable junk, being stored for future projects. I didn’t make much of a dent but as long as I can get the car in I don’t feel like I neally need to get rid of any of it.
As an example, I picked up a little cabinet with six shelves, perfect for CD/DVD storage. You know the kind with the little peg holes all the way along the inside of the sides. Well for fifty cents I got the cabinet and the shelves but no little pegs to hold the shelves up. Well at the big box store I could buy 4 pegs for $0.98, enough to put up one shelf. That would be about $6.25 including tax to put up the six shelves. I certainly would not pay $7.25 total for this set of shelves, so there it sat with the shelves all laying at the bottom. So, while organizing today I came across a 28 inch metal rod, more like a really thick piece of wire. I sanded off the rust and low-and-behold it fit. Tomorrow I’ll cut off 24 one inch lengths and the shelves will be usable and still just costing me fifty cents and a little elbow grease. So that rusty piece of potentially useful junk just saved me $6.25. I never imagined it would be worth that much when I tossed it into my scrap metal bucket.
The more things that you reuse, repair and recycle the more valuable your stash of junk becomes.
The month is finished and so is this post.
Originally posted: October 31st, 2007