After some very warm days and a lot of rain, my garden has thawed. I'm always surprised how much is growing, even in the middle of the winter. My winter rye crop is growing nicely. I use this as a cover crop over the whole garden - to add some organic matter. That's what all the grass-like shoots are.
My garlic top sets have turned into tiny little shoots. Last years garlic row surprisingly is a nice row again - I must have missed some cloves. This fall's garlic is OK too. Small, but OK.
I also found several little sprouts of pretty salad greens - volunteers, scattered here and there. I have two rows of lettuce I planted too late in the fall that is hanging in there. I wonder if it could overwinter an make an early spring crop? I have the same question about my late fall planting of broccoli. I wonder if it could overwinter? And the kale may still be OK in some areas, though a lot of it was very damaged by the cold days earlier this month.
It looks like winter will return tomorrow and my garden will again be under a thick blanket of snow. In the meantime, the warm thaw is a nice respite.
You have a ton of garlic out there! Wow. The possibilities...
ReplyDeleteI think what you are seeing is the winter rye shoots. I edited my description to mention this. I use and annual rye as a cover crop in the winter to add organic matter. I'll turn this under in the spring.
ReplyDeleteI don't really have much garlic. Unfortunately. I planted too late this year. Its only my second year with garlic and I'm just learning.
I have lots of sprouts from the top sets, but I bet they will take a few years to mature. I have about 10 sprouts from last year's garlic bulbs and maybe 20-30 from the supermarket garlic I planted this fall. The nice hard neck garlic I saved from our Farmer's Market did not sprout yet :( (I'm sad about this). I love garden garlic and hope to do better in the future.
Garlic is considered an invasive species some places, and many of the great new garlics discovered over the last few years have really been found growing on old homesteads. This is one of the reasons it's so easy to grow. It's amazing how easy it is to leave a few cloves behind by accident.
ReplyDeleteI usually dig up the garlic still growing from the previous year as 'spring garlic', right before I prepare the bed for more plants.
First of all... love your blog. Just found it a few days ago and I'm thrilled it's here. Started my garden for the first time last year and I'm in Connecticut. Will be great to learn from you.
ReplyDeleteMild winter so far and I had a whole bed of spinach that pushed through it all! Was small and not incredibly healthy, but made a nice couple of salads for me just before Christmas.
Nice to think of garlic as an "invasive". Yumm. I'm looking forward to a nice sustainable crop of garlic that gives me enough cloves to replant the next year.
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