Scorching the Garden 2020 Part 11
This is the third documented grow for us and we are introducing a lot of new things this year. We have more hardware, better software, and the same growing plan that has worked for many years. July is here and we are more than half done with the grow.
The plants are starting to grow. They took about 3 weeks to get over their transplant shock. We think that the plants were: (1) Root bound-we’ll transplant seedlings into larger pots prior to final planting and (2) the compost dried and got hard-we’ll use a looser compost with more soil. We’ll also water more often the first week after final transplanting.
The dill and cilantro are thriving. Dill and cilantro are great herbs and delicious seeds. Win/win!
The weeds that are giving us the biggest problem are morning glories. They are RELENTLESS! They travel several meters under the cardboard until they find a way out, and then tunnel below the woodchips. Next thing you know, one of these buggers pops out with like 2 feet of albino roots behind it.
All we can do is yank them and pull out as much of the root as possible. It seems like no matter how much we overlap the cardboard, that vine will find a way around it. Eventually, they will run out of energy and not be able to sustain without sunlight and die…eventually.
We pulled a nice garlic harvest from a couple of our gardens. We grow several strains of garlic, including elephant and a variety that came from Italy around 100 years ago. We keep the little nuggets that pop out and a few select cloves for next year’s grow. Not everyone that gets plants gets pulled. Sometimes, the stalk breaks and the bulb is still in the ground. All that will happen is that it will split underground and produce a clump of garlics that we’ll get next year.
After its out of the ground and washed, we dry the bulbs in the sun for a few days with the leaves still on. Once they dry, the tops get clipped and the roots are scraped and they are set to dry for another few days until the skins are flaking off. Then we can peel, wash and freeze them for later.
Last year’s grow (the blue rain barrel) seems to be a bit more mature at the end of June than this year’s (generator and water buffalo). We’ve had less rain overall and its been significantly hotter, earlier. Thank you for hanging around during the mundane parts of grow. Next post, cooler stuff will have happened that we’ll talk about, such as a review of our sauces by up and coming hot sauce siren, Katie Bannister of KTB Saucy on our new REVIEWS page.
Check out her site, which she updates regularly with reviews, inside stories about the producers, in article and video formats. Definitely someone to check out. https://livingandreal.com/
