Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Better Late Then Never...


Back on Dec 13th I planting my garlic, a bit late but the winter has been very mild. This year I am going for a less fussy garden so I just planted out a whole bed of the stuff. The bed is mainly planted with a large cloved hard neck variety, the farmer it came from calls it Elephant garlic. I also put in a few soft neck cloves that have a purple skin.


The garlic is now just starting to pop up. A good sign spring is coming!


The last couple days have been so nice which has got me in the mood to plant. Today I started a few cells of hardy greens including mixed lettuce, kale, winter density lettuce, red pac choi, tatsoi and bright lights chard. They are now on a heat mat and at the first signs of life they will go out in the coldframe.

Soon things will start ramping up in the garden so I will actually have something to post about. First things on the to-do list is getting my grow light set up and completing a garden plan. Once mid March rolls around I will be starting all the tomatoes, peppers, brassica's and peas. Here's hoping this season is better then last!


To wrap this up, the snowdrops made an appearance a couple weeks ago. It sure will be nice when it is green outside again!

18 comments:

  1. I figured you had been hibernating! Isn't it great to see the first signs of Spring? I've found that the bright lights Swiss chard does better for me if I overwinter plants sown in late Summer, then in March because they have a good root system in place they really take off! Welcome back! PS. I planted some of your Cherokee Purple tomatoes this week.

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  2. Yes, Spring is definitely in the air! Nice to see you come out of hibernation!

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  3. Dan, you're back! I've missed you :-)

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  4. Or should I say Winter has just left the building.

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  5. The garlic needs a period of cold to get the cloves to form so you should manage that.

    WE have elephant garlic too - apparently it isn't a true garlic but is more closely related to leeks and has a mild flavour so can be eaten raw in a salad! We will see how true that is.

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    1. The garlic I planted isn't the huge elephant garlic, I should have mentioned that. It has the same sized head as a normal hard neck. The only difference is instead of 7-8 cloves per head it has 4-5 large cloves. It is nice stuff, much less peeling.

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  6. DAN! lol it's been a while. I love your snowdrops.

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  7. One of the reasons I love your blog so much is because of the great photos. Thanks for sharing. Your soil looks amazing. We've got snow, not snow drops here. I think I might have to plant some for next year.

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  8. I agree! great photos. You know the most amazing part when you do gardening is when you see them growing beautifully.

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  9. I planted my garlic in Aug last year. We will see. It is the first time I have tried garlic. Yours looks great.

    Spring is just around the corner and I am starting seeds inside.

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  10. Dan is back in the garden! Hurrah! Missed your garden blogs my friend.

    The garlic is definitely off and running. I know a lot of folks do an early spring planting with excellent results. Have fun planting!

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  11. I haven't tried true garlic. I winter sowed some garlic chives. I have a very small space and went over the top winter sowing. I have listed most of what I am trying. I also have quite a few things popping up due to a few straight daysvof above average warmth. I hope a cold snap does not come and kill them all.
    Lissatink.blogspot.com

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  12. I live in Moncton, New Brunswick were we had a couple of days in early March that were above 20C. Sure felt like spring to me but we didn't plant anything. I did get some yard work done which is unusual as our yard is usually under water when spring arrives.

    I feel like I hibernated for most of the winter and now I'm itching to get in my vegetable garden again.

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  13. feels great to start truly gardening for my first time ever and it seems im a natural, growing moonflowers, as well as sage, basil, tomatoes, lettuce, chives. I still make rookie mistakes all the time. hoping that with my newly created blog i could recieve advice as well as maybe offer some experiences of my own. have a look at my blog : http://grow4show.blogspot.ca/

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  14. Hi, I just stumbled on your blog and would like to say how much I enjoy your posts. I just breezed through a whole lot of them and it makes me feel like I’m walking right through your plot. Also, excellent photos! The plants just pop out at me.

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