Monthly Archives: September 2014

Planting garlic

garlic 92314Thinking ahead to next summer, how much garlic do you want? I usually don’t grow that much only because it takes up space for a long time. Planting now will get you heads of garlic in 9 months-at least in zone 6. Growing your own garlic turns out a sweeter and more aromatic head than you would otherwise get in stores. I have 3 squares planted for a total of 27 heads of garlic-perfect for us. Right now I’ve got 4 more weeks of planting things to get ready for the winter garden. This year I’m doing something a little different-I’ll be harvesting all winter out of my 4X16′ bed, but I am overwintering my entire 2X16′ bed with only 5 crops. This will give me a great head start come early spring. The remaining 5 boxes will slowly be put away for the winter.

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Fall garden heading into winter

91414 fall gardenThe gardens have been spectacular this year! It’s certainly slowing down but it’s starting to transition to the full winter garden. The main 4X16′ bed will be all I do this winter. Last year I also winter gardened in the 2X16′ next to it. I’ll be using that bed to overwinter 4 or 5 different things to get a quick jump on spring. To date I’ve planted kale, tatsoi, beets, scallions, leeks, spinach, claytonia, cilantro, lettuce, chard, mache, minutina, and turnips for the winter harvest. I’ll be doing a repeat planting of many of those next week. Arugula, mizuna, and radishes will finish off the planting season and will be completed by October 20th. It’s going to be a great winter.[ois skin=”below post”]

A look at a variety of summercrisp lettuce

mottistone august 2014This is one of the many varieties of summercrisp lettuce that I grew this summer. We’ve come through the hottest months of the year and now it’s time for us to start eating this delicious lettuce. It’s very difficult to successfully grow lettuce in our hot summers but with a few tricks anybody can do it. My ebook that’s all about this subject-growing lettuce in hot weather-didn’t make it out in time. I finished it but it was too late. I’ll be publishing it in the spring of ‘2015. In the meantime, as you look at this wonderful head of lettuce and think to yourself “I should have planted some of this”-start your fall and/or winter garden right now. Or you’ll be saying the same thing to yourself in another 6 weeks with some of the other things I’ll be growing. I’ll be having my last class of the year in a few weeks. We’ll be discussing low tunnels and other things that will help you have an eventful winter season.[ois skin=”below post”]