Posted on 10/07/2023 6:34:16 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
With a giant that lived up on top!
M.M. If you grow it yourself it makes a great difference in how much you use. Now that I grow it and have around 50 heads after harvest it goes in about half of what I cook!
For sure!
My heads and cloves were huge this year. Apparently, garlic has the ability to adapt very readily to the environment in which it is growing.
I always save out the bulbs with the biggest cloves for replanting. By doing so, I have significantly increased the size of both.
After I plant them, the rest will be put through the Cuisinart and made into homemade chopped garlic.
Not described in Genesis, but still an interesting system!
LOL! ‘Hey, Bub! Get your garlic bulbs in!’
My beds are pretty full of bulbs for now. I’d like to do a ‘naturalized’ planting of Daffs though, and some in pots I can over-winter in the greenhouse for spring blooms on the porch.
I’ll see what Walmart has in stock these days. ;)
Cool, breezy, partly sunny day today - Fall!
Big Red Fox scampered across the front yard last night, setting off the motion lights on the porch - saw him earlier this week as well. He’s also showing up on the trail cam at the deer food plot - he’s a very handsome fella’!
All the Berkie Spot babies are doing well - big mama didn’t squish any last night.
Headed for Aldi’s to get ingredients for lunch tomorrow when we’ll have company. The grass is almost dry with the breezy conditions & will definitely be ‘mowable’ when I get back. Lots of new puffballs have sprouted up & other mushrooms as well - the rain yesterday morning was like fertilizer. The puffballs aren’t dry enough to spew spores when I run over them which is a good thing - I try not to run through the clouds & inhale any of the spores.
Coyotes are back in the area ... at least 3. One big one keeps showing up on our trail cam at the food plot. I am sort of surprised the fox is still around - they usually vanish if we have coyotes in the area. I won’t be going to the back fields without taking a little ‘peace of mind’ with me.
When I mowed this afternoon, I was totally shocked at how many maple leaves have fallen already. The trees are still very full of leaves, no bare spots yet, so that’s deceiving. I now have huge piles rounded up against the base of 3 maple trees. As soon as we’re clear of company (after tomorrow), I am going to have to construct my new compost pile and start raking/hauling. Last year, I didn’t keep up & it was a real pain getting that many leaves in the compost pile. The new compost area will be bigger for easier access & that extra space will also give me the ability to turn the pile & speed up decomp.
I have garlic to plant too. Where I plant it is still covered in squash vines but they are dying. I just looked at the overnight temp for tonight 39! Will have to cover three planters of lettuce today. Just starting to pick my second crop.
Leaf compost is the best stuff. I’ll be doing some raking soon enough, too! :)
Nice to hear about the Fox - we have them around once in a great while. Coyotes? Almost always, but they don’t come near the house due to all the dogs we have. They put on some beautiful ‘concerts’ but I’m not sure why they need to do it at 2am! ;)
When I was mowing the upper part of the front pasture last evening (where my garden is located - I did the lower half last Friday), I was seeing huge clouds of smoke from behind my brother’s house. Either the house was on fire, or he had something in the smoker. As I mowed, I would hit a wafting breeze ... that smelled like a BBQ restaurant that has the smoker going in the back. Turns out, he was smoking ‘wings’ & then he/SIL had their fire pit going.
This morning, I was on the back deck frying bacon - mom didn’t want the house smelling like bacon for the company that will be here for lunch. My SIL is babysitting her grandson today & she told me that they could smell the bacon frying at her house across the pasture! I’m kind of surprised (ha ha) that I didn’t end up with a raccoon, fox & coyote at the back deck, attracted by the bacon aroma!
Mrs. Augie and I survived our trip to sunny Florida. Spent five nights on Pensacola Beach, then bopped over to St. Augustine for two nights. Visited #2 Son Clint, his BFF, and the two grandkids. Would have liked to stay longer, but they had to work and the Atlantic was raging, so we headed back to PB for two more nights before going home.
It’s amazing how fast, even in a drought, the weeds grow when you turn your back on them for a few weeks. Punting on any new fall plantings was a good move on my part. I spent some quality time with the weed whacker to knock down the undesirables that took over while we were away, and picked up most of the garden hoses and soaker lines.
Now that I’m home and getting back into a normal routine I’ll get some lettuces going in the greenhouse and resume the cleanup work. Garlic planting time is just around the corner, the hoop house needs to be re-skinned, the greenhouse needs a new roof, tomato cages need to come down, and the whole thing needs to be dug up and converted to raised beds.
I’m tired from just thinking about all that.
We have tons of leaves but they are almost all oak leaves. Too acidic.
The Salanova is something I've wanted to try for a couple of years and is something the market gardeners in every metro foodie area sell year round. The tie die tomato is just cool looking and is supposed to "have a taste that rivals the heirlooms".
Will try a small patch of the lettuce this Fall.
You will LOVE having raised beds; I have 16 of them and they are VERY easy to maintain and weed and with some compost in the spring and a thick layer of mulch, they are VERY productive.
And as I age, they’ll be getting TALLER. :)
Yes, Oak leaves SHOULD be used sparingly as mulch or in the compost heap, unless you use them as mulch around acid-loving plants like Blueberries and Hydrangea.
I bought the ‘Salanova’ lettuce last year when Johnny’s had their sale and they worked very well in the greenhouse going into fall. :)
We have neither. When we had our goats I would bag up about a dozen big trash bags of dried oak leaves. They were a treat for our goats who loved than, would put a few handfuls each day in the winter with their hay.
Oak leaf mold provides protection against Root Knot Nematodes. Good stuff!
I got an email from Johnnies Seeds today promoting their “prospera compact” Basil.
I bought some and planted it in late April and it made it through the summer and its still growing this late in the year. I Planted it right next to my tomatoes and I had very few problems with Aphids or Fungus. (Some fungus in late summer.) Good taste too!
Good night!
Yes, Ms. Pete agrees!
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