What did you do in the garden today?

[Matejka]

Water! So dry
We need rain

 

[Sally PB]

I’ll need a rototiller lesson before using it -last time I used it personally, was 2 years ago.

I hope you have a rear tine tiller. It does most of the work, and you control where it goes. If it's a front tine tiller, well, I'm sorry.

When I till, sometimes it ends up trying to push a big clump of dirt/weeds/leaves. I need to back up, kick the clump apart or to the side, then continue. Safety tip: Put tiller in reverse, back up, PUT TILLER IN NEUTRAL OR FORWARD before you go kick the dirt out of the way. I've never backed up over my feet, but I've had it back up "unexpectedly" because I left it in reverse. It's a DUH thing, but easy to do.

Any experienced garlic growers: how does the garlic in the first pic look to you? And should I be thinning them at some point? Also, could a clove send up two stalks? I’m positive I tried to space out the cloves, but in a few spots there are stalks close together…might be that two cloves are close, but I don’t have any experience here.

Garlic in the first picture looks like my fall planted garlic. Very nice.

Such a different look!! It makes me laugh. Interestingly, the tiny ones are all three different leaf sizes. The one on the left is seen pretty well, then the one on the far right is very tiny and thin. We’ll see what happens in a few months!!

Small top cloves make small plants. I've planted some, and they make a little clove by the end of the season. The general advice is eat the small cloves, save the big ones to plant. If I grow out the top cloves, I save those to plant at the end of the bed to see what they do. Since they're not clones like the cloves, I might end up with a "new" garlic.

they can send up 2 stalks, but they are usually pretty close together & it results in sort of 2 cloves underground, one bigger, one smaller or they look sort of deformed growing together. They end up perfectly fine to use though, no biggie. The other possibility, & what happens to me, is the stupid squirrels come in & dig & move them around before they're really established.

Your garlic looks good, looks about the same size as my fall planted. I plant mine pretty close & always get great sized bulbs, it's never been an issue.

I'll grab a pic of mine when I go out. Mine is 3rd or 4th gen now, I always save a couple of the biggest bulbs & plant them in the fall.

I'm on the 4th generation of my original purchase of cloves. It's another one of those "I don't need to buy it anymore" things.

 

[Acre4Me]

I hope you have a rear tine tiller. It does most of the work, and you control where it goes. If it's a front tine tiller, well, I'm sorry.

When I till, sometimes it ends up trying to push a big clump of dirt/weeds/leaves. I need to back up, kick the clump apart or to the side, then continue. Safety tip: Put tiller in reverse, back up, PUT TILLER IN NEUTRAL OR FORWARD before you go kick the dirt out of the way. I've never backed up over my feet, but I've had it back up "unexpectedly" because I left it in reverse. It's a DUH thing, but easy to do.

Garlic in the first picture looks like my fall planted garlic. Very nice.

Small top cloves make small plants. I've planted some, and they make a little clove by the end of the season. The general advice is eat the small cloves, save the big ones to plant. If I grow out the top cloves, I save those to plant at the end of the bed to see what they do. Since they're not clones like the cloves, I might end up with a "new" garlic.

I'm on the 4th generation of my original purchase of cloves. It's another one of those "I don't need to buy it anymore" things.

Thanks! Our tiller is rear tine. We have two neighbors with tillers. One has rear tine, other has front tine. They allowed us to try theirs, so we got to see the difference. We chose rear tine bc of this- clearly the better option for large areas.

Glad to hear about the garlic. Interesting…the bulblets could be different or varied. We will have to see when we dig them up in a few months.

 

[Sueby]

I'm on the 4th generation of my original purchase of cloves. It's another one of those "I don't need to buy it anymore" things.

I haven't been able to get mine to keep past April or so. So I do end up buying some, unfortunately. I don't have a good place to store it though, I have no basement or cool storage. How do you keep yours & how long does it last?

 

[Iluveggers]

Any experienced garlic growers: how does the garlic in the first pic look to you? And should I be thinning them at some point? Also, could a clove send up two stalks? I’m positive I tried to space out the cloves, but in a few spots there are stalks close together…might be that two cloves are close, but I don’t have any experience here.

I haven't been able to get mine to keep past April or so. So I do end up buying some, unfortunately. I don't have a good place to store it though, I have no basement or cool storage. How do you keep yours & how long does it last?

I grow hard neck garlic. I pick my scapes in early June, bulbs in July, and save the biggest cloves to plant in October. This year I wanted to plant more than usual as we’ve been going through it so quickly, so I bought a few cloves at the farmers market & planted them as well. Have about 150 growing nicely!


Today I was hoping to plant tomatoes before the rain tomorrow but I feel so achy. Hopefully by this afternoon I can muster up enough energy to at least get a few in.

 

[Sueby]

@Acre4Me - heres what I mean by the 2 stalks, very close together:

& heres the whole bed of softneck:

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. I picked a nice bunch of asparagus this morning (which I really should have picked yesterday). This mini heat wave is gone after today. Thank goodness. I may try to mow the side slope after my coffee. It's not horrible out there right now and there's a nice breeze blowing. I'm pretty sure I have enough dirt on hand to fill one of the new containers. So I hope to get working on that either today or tomorrow. Happy news, my Red Pontiac potatoes are starting to pop through the dirt. No sign of the White Superior type, but they will likely start soon. I thinned my first planting of radishes. Definitely need to plant more. I also need to plant dill and basil. I may have to pull some of my parsley plants out of the herb bed. They seemed to be taking over. My rosemary plants are enjoying their places in the herb garden. I have 4 tiny Meyer lemons developing along with 4 mandarin oranges. As soon as I can determine a good place for them I plan to let them hang outside for the Spring and Summer. Hopefully the squirrels and chipmunks don't have a taste for citrus. LOL! Have a great day everyone.

 

[jerryse]

Rhubarb pie in the oven and dishes in the washer . Soon as the pie is out it is outside for awhile before it gets too hot . Last hot day for awhile .

 

[WIchickMama]

Do I need to pinch off flowers from the 1 yr old barefoot strawberries I planted this year? The are everbearing if that makes a difference

 

[Sueby]

Do I need to pinch off flowers from the 1 yr old barefoot strawberries I planted this year? The are everbearing if that makes a difference

It is recommended. I did on mine, it was tough!