Two Garlic Flavored Lessons

In order to become a good subsistence gardner, one needs to build upon experience, knowledge and skill related to the many different phases of gardening. Soil, selecting and harvesting seeds, pest control, rotation and harvesting. Each year I am humbled by any and each of the tasks relating to these various phases.

Lesson One: Today I harvested one of the garlic types I planted last October. The lesson I learned is to LABEL YOUR PLANTINGS. Label them right away! I was sure I would remember which garlic was planted on the south side of the bed and which on the north. But no...I had no labels on hand and by the time I found some a few weeks later, the placement of the two varieties had completely left my brain.

Now you might say.."No big deal; just order the same varieties for next year and take care to label them." But remember the seed phase of gardening? Well garlic bulbs are the seed. And this year I have grown some incredibly good garlic (on the south side). And a subsistence gardener needs to be able to harvest and LABEL the best seed for next years planting. So here I have some of the finest garlic ever and I don't even know the variety. If I were to plant this garlic in October for next years crop, what would the label say?

Lesson Two: Reaping the gardening rewards is another phase of gardening where I get marked "Needs Improvement". Harvesting any of my vegetables at the most optimal time has always been a challenge for me. I'm not sure why but I always tend to wait a tad too long. As if maybe I don't want the cycle to end. But each phase of gardening has a beginning and an end. And you do the rest of your garden justice by not only planting on time, but harvesting on time as well.

According to the 'Garlic Experts', my garlic was not quite ready two weeks ago. But somehow I felt it was. The rule is there should have been some scapes appearing (not one was produced on either of my varieties). Garlic experts say to watch for the leaves turning brown and harvest when only 4 green leaves remain. Only a few leaves were browning and the tops stood tall and green. I felt it was time to harvest but still I hesitated. I would water deep instead.

Until today. I knew it was time! And guess what? I should have harvested two weeks ago! While the majority of this (yet to be named) garlic had formed beautiful heads, the result of my watering and waiting had added a few small cloves at the base of some heads that will fall off when I clean up the garlic. Not a big deal, but one more bit of knowledge and one more step toward next year and becoming a better gardner.