Your 2026 Garden

[Justagalwithchicks]

Sorry about the multiple quotes/answers..

Music has been fantastic for me. Very big cloves, usually 4 or 5 big cloves.
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Yes, garlic is planted in the fall. Plant it before the ground freezes; for me, I plant sometime between mid-October and Nov 1. (This is well after the first frost.) Put the cloves pointy end up, with the point about 2" below the surface of the soil. Then mulch thickly.

When the greens poke through the mulch in the spring, I pull the mulch back from around each plant so it can keep growing, unimpeded. I leave the mulch to keep the weeds down.

I get scapes in June, and dig the garlic bulbs when the bottom few leaves have turned brown. That's usually in July, so there is plenty of time to grow something else that will be ready in 60-70 days. I think I've planted zucchini in the garlic bed and gotten squash.

Music is what I plant also. It makes delicious garlic scape pesto.

 

[Debbie292d]

Sorry about the multiple quotes/answers..

Music has been fantastic for me. Very big cloves, usually 4 or 5 big cloves.
View attachment 4277934



Yes, garlic is planted in the fall. Plant it before the ground freezes; for me, I plant sometime between mid-October and Nov 1. (This is well after the first frost.) Put the cloves pointy end up, with the point about 2" below the surface of the soil. Then mulch thickly.

When the greens poke through the mulch in the spring, I pull the mulch back from around each plant so it can keep growing, unimpeded. I leave the mulch to keep the weeds down.

I get scapes in June, and dig the garlic bulbs when the bottom few leaves have turned brown. That's usually in July, so there is plenty of time to grow something else that will be ready in 60-70 days. I think I've planted zucchini in the garlic bed and gotten squash.

Thank you so much for all of the info!

I've planted zucchini in the garlic bed and gotten squash.

So garlic changes what you plant there? This is really intriguing!

 

[Sally PB]

So garlic changes what you plant there? This is really intriguing!

Whoops, no, I got zucchini squash. I meant to convey that after harvesting the garlic, there was enough time in the season to still grow zucchini.

 

[fuzzi]

 

[Debbie292d]

View attachment 4278372

That is gorgeous! Is it a type of orchid?

 

[jxp]

There are smaller varieties - the Silvery Fir seeds I got are only supposed to get around two feet tall, and I believe someone brought up microdwarf tomatoes a while back although I don’t remember the variety names off the top of my head. Tiny Tim maybe?

I grew a Patio tomato once. Both the plant and the fruit stayed very small. Tasty little buggers.

 

[jxp]

View attachment 4278372

Pretty.

 

[jxp]

I saw a video a couple years back about mushroom compost. They claimed it's recovered and bagged from commercial growers and even though the spores aren't producing enough for them to be commercially viable, there's still some left in there. So whenever the video guy buys it in bulk from his local mushroom farm and takes it home, he makes a proper conditioned home for it and grows out some mushrooms for his own use before using the compost on his garden. Made me want to grab a few bags from the big box store and try it. Haven't yet.

 

[jxp]

The bean sprouts were a success!
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Here's my favorite sprouting setup. Comes with an outer bowl to hold water for the twice daily 3 minute soak and an inner basket to hold the seeds/grains/beans. It's small enough that I don't make too much at once and I use the thumb holes to put water into the bottom without disturbing the sprouts.

 

[fuzzi]

That is gorgeous! Is it a type of orchid?

It's a crocus, first flower of Spring.