06 October 2008

Garlic: the last crop of the year

With our garlic bedded down, this year's growing season is officially complete. We planted 120 row feet of garlic, which could produce 30 lbs next year. We mulched with our wheat straw, scythed and carried just a few feet, from the 300 square foot plot of bread wheat grown in the background of the image.




Although we are still grazing on chard and kale, and expect Brussels Sprouts and Cabbage any day now, there are more bare spots than growing things when I look at the garden through the kitchen window. We are cleaning up the garden now, collecting decaying plant matter for the compost pile, and gathering seed crops we managed to squeeze in to our growing season.



We let the hens loose durring the day to scratch around for grubs in the newly turned ground. Our garden, including grains, will double next year to just over a half acre. Of course, the hens also help Pilgrim clean up any oats he leaves behind.

2 comments:

Chiot's Run said...

I'm getting ready to plant my garlic any day now. I'm so excited, I got a spicy garlic lovers mix - yum yum. Can't wait till next summer.

Does your garlic last through the next season.

Freija and Beringian Fritillary said...

susy, spicy garlic lovers, that does sound yummy. This is our first year being able to plant garlic, we have moved gardens a few times in past years. I am so thrilled. Some friends of ours gave us a bit of their garlic bounty last year and it lasted well through spring until it was all eaten up. And this summer when they again shared their harvest, we kept it for planting. The garlic was in very good shape, still firm, and starting to grow a green core, but not sprouting out the top yet. Hoping for a good harvest next year.