Garden 2021

[Meerkat]

I found this:

I first bought it in 1982 or 1983 from Jung's Seed Co. It was the first and last time that I saw it. It was simply listed as "Topset Garlic", or something similar, and sold only as bulbils. Upon getting them home and reading the planting instructions, they were to be planted 4 to 5 inches deep. Whoops, that can't be right! I contacted Jung's to point out the error and it was due to failure to convert metric to English. It was supposed to be 4cm to 5cm! Therefore, anyone who bought a packet, and planted according to instructions, got nothing in return.

Now forward 20+ years and I've been growing it ever since. Thus far, nobody can find out what it originally was named or if it were merely a local landrace from somewhere. Information on where Jung's obtained it went up in smoke several years ago. Thus it's sort of a mystery as well.

It's a hardneck variety, possibly a German porcelain type, and with rather large bulbils. An old Bavarian friend told me that they used to use those large bulbils in cooking and making stock. Those bulbils will produce normal divided bulbs in a single season, and that's how we planted them for many years. Some years, we got a lot of small bulbs and other years had larger ones and always from bulbils. In recent years, we began planting back cloves instead and got really big bulbs. (Go back and read other threads about growing and harvest results for it.)

Overall, it's unlike any other garlic that I've grown. It may be close to Schumacher which is another old heirloom from around this area. Both have similar growth habits except that Schumacher has more red on the clove skins. I've yet to see if Schumacher will do when grown from bulbils but they are about the same size.

I've completed planting the Martin's today and have at least 50 cloves and 100 bulbils left yet. In my Exchanges offer, I failed to mention that the 10 cloves come with 20 bulbils. Anyone who has received it now are being trusted to do a mass grow out of at least 30 specimens. 30 plants, allowed to produce bulbils, can be enough to support a major business in a few years!

Martin

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1720329/martin-s-heirloom-garlic-what-s-the-history

We have a old lady here who has been growing Elephant Garlic most of her life from the same plants,her daughter gave us some about 20 yr ago. It is some good stuff,not that we still have any.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

We have a old lady here who has been growing Elephant Garlic most of her life from the same plants,her daughter gave us some about 20 yr ago. It is some good stuff,not that we still have any.

You want me to send you some garlic. I got plenty. About 25 pounds of it still.

 

[Meerkat]

You want me to send you some garlic. I got plenty. About 25 pounds of it still.

MoBook,how nice of you but right now I'd just have to store it,its really heating up down here now. I'll sure keep it in mind though.

 

[Amish Heart]

Finished all the flower planting this morning for the deck, and have started in on the acorn, butternut, and button squash transplanting from the seedling containers. I saw online for the NM Poultry Swaps that a guy took a photo of his chicken going for grape leaves. He said a nice man at the Albuquerque nursery told him to plant them for shade cover and leaf food for the chickens, when the grapes are harvested. The guy was thinking about planting bouganvilla of all things, which would die off in the winter. So. Had to call my son, and of course it was him telling him that. Taught our son about chickens, and I always stripped the grape leaves after the grapes were done for chicken feed.

 

[UrbanHunter]

It looks like we will have rain every other day or so for the next 2 weeks, saves me a lot of work and the garden is loving it. I think the tomatoes are growing about 3" a day.

I realized that the indoor tomato had grown above the lights, looking closer there was about 3' of plant hidden up there, I removed the lights, put up some rope to support the newly discovered vines below the lights, and re-installed the light fixtures. In the process I harvested a half dozen tomatoes.....

I have a little problem with the seeds falling off a tree near my garden space and ending up all over the place (they clog the gutters and try to sprout in the garden space), my question is does anyone else have the problem and do you have a way to efficiently remove them, without killing your plants? I'm considering using a leaf blower, but am a little uncomfortable with the idea.

 

[Amish Heart]

Nope. And I have the helicopter type seeds all over the place that came from a big tree. We did have our rain gutters changed to the covered ones, and that has helped.
My favorite cousin and her daughter and her daughters came over this afternoon. I gave them a huge box of plants from the greenhouse...tomatoes, cucumber, squash, peppers. I overseeded. Must have 50 or 60 tomato plants in there.

 

[LadyLocust]

Today, when I checked the garden I see that my spring planting of spinach is now coming up, I am also seeing some of the flowers I planted as pest control showing their heads.

I picked a couple of in-door tomatoes today and the outside plants are now growing well, I am happy to report that all of the San Marzanio tomatoes are now a foot tall, considering I was just praying they would live when I transplanted them, I feel very blessed. I hope they do well on the fence support that I installed.

The bulbs I planted last fall have or are now flowering. I followed the wife's directions, planting the ones that flower first in the back and the later one in the front so they appear in waves and hide the plants that are losing their flowers. Spring is fun.

I place 3 barrels in the rack that I built. This weekend I hope to make the second half of the rack and if I am lucky connect the lines to the water collection system.

Our bulbs are up but won't get flowers for a while. I do have a yellow iris that is blooming - it's a volunteer. Spring is fun.

 

[joel]

Enjoy, mine are gone, I now waiting on Asian lilies.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Our iris's are blooming, I watch for a stem with a couple of flowers and then snip it so I can bring it in to share with the wife. It is funny, I see the flowers and the wife sees the crab-grass at their base. I guess life is a matter of perspectives.

Yesterday, I transplanted some celery in with the tomatoes, increasing the size of those beds has really expanded their utilization. The new spinach, carrots, and the flowers I planted in there are also up so it will not be long before it is full of green. I have about 3 dozen starter cups with flowers starting, they will need homes soon. I saw a couple of blooms on the outdoor tomatoes yesterday, it is the little things that really brighten my days.

 

[phideaux]

Since we can't work a big garden anymore.

My peppers in barrel

My onions in buckets

My Cantaloupe

My tomatoes

One of my strawberry patches

My lone grape tomato

Already harvested a few onions.

Will be harvesting strawberries soon, as some are turning.

Jim

 

[joel]

My brother use two bath tubs.

 

[phideaux]

Another new strawberry patch.
2'x2'x5'

Jim

 

[Meerkat]

As I said before we started too late to have much of a garden down here this year.
Hoping to get pears and figs from out trees at least.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today I harvested some lettuce in the rain, the direct sow plants in the new raised beds are sprouting and most of the transplants are also doing well. I am excited as the 3 new raised beds could end up being a whole vegetable department before long. Lettuce, spinach, celery, carrots, green onions, peppers, and tomatoes all within easy reach of each other. I wanted to put in some hanging cucumber plants that could climb between the two trellises, but the wife says that would be over kill.

The over winter spinach is starting to bolt, I pulled pods of flower starts off 4 plants this afternoon, so I will only get 2 or 3 more harvests off it before the plants are done, but that should give us a good start of frozen spinach for next winter. The new direct sow spinach is now showing the first true leaves so one should be finishing up as the other comes on line... I love it when a plan comes together.

The flowers that I planted are starting to come up so I will be able to start planting them around the garden and yard to help control pests and give my mess some happy color.

I regret not having my rain barrels connected as the rain they are predicting would have been enough to fill all 400 gallons easy. Hey, you can only do what you can do...

On a sad note I tried to start my Okra too early lost most of the plants before I could transplant them and half of the transplants died due to a late cold snap and a ground hog, I have direct sowed the 1 packet of heavy hitter I had in reserve, would have ordered more but they were sold out.... I hope that they all come up and are productive.... Note to self for next year, DO NOT START YOUR OKRA BEFORE MARCH 15!!! Yes I am yelling....

 

[Amish Heart]

A rabbit is feasting on my cabbage still. It prefers the red cabbage. I read an article on Victory Gardens and it showed to plant a tomato plant, then a cabbage, then tomato....maybe because rabbits don't like tomato leaves? Anyway, cabbage is put out way earlier than tomatoes. My tomatoes are still in the greenhouse for another week.
I need to go water. Being lazy. Sams Club putaway wore me out.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Grand daughter and I will finish planting the new raised bed.
Window box of strawberries.
Got to get more dirt before Saturday.

 

[Bacpacker]

Amish our raised beds seemed to have solved that problem. But the deer has worked my pineapple sage over. Everything else seems to be ok..pest wise.
I took some pics last night that I'll put up. I'm pleased with progress so far with everything. The maters are kinda sad due to the late freeze we had, but after pruning they seem to be coming out of it, just will produce late. I've still got peppers to put in the ground yet. But they look good, will have a nice root ball. Green beans, okra, and Cukes are coming up finally.

First pic is L-R Taters, late onions, shell beans(3 types)

Asparagus and Leeks, Maters in next bed, cabbage in last. Onion in the 2 beds to the right.

Flat Dutch Cabbage

 

[Bacpacker]

Early Cabbage

Echenisia (NOT SPELLED RIGHT)


Lettuce and Spinach

 

[Bacpacker]

Maters and onions

Onion Bed, I've got 2 of these

 

[Amish Heart]

Looks really good!
I'm thinking about throwing mothballs around my cabbage. Maybe the rabbit will go away.

 

[Bacpacker]

Just realized how badly I need to weed eat around the beds. UGH

 

[Amish Heart]

Those beds look good, I didn't see any weeds

 

[Bacpacker]

Look at the last pic, outside the bed. It is bad

 

[Amish Heart]

All I see is stuff to pull and feed to the chickens. Free chicken food.

 

[Peanut]

Look at the last pic, outside the bed. It is bad

That looks like lanceleaf plantain at the right bottom edge of the last photo.

 

[Amish Heart]

See? It is chicken food and Peanut even identified it
Seriously, though, I pull 2 very large buckets of weeds every morning for each chicken run. Most of it is dandelion leaves. If you took a walk around the non planted areas of our farm, you'd think we were farming dandelions.

 

[Bacpacker]

That looks like lanceleaf plantain at the right bottom edge of the last photo.

That stuff is all over my place. Likely in places I haven't even I'd it yet. I made tincture last year from it. Might be a couple types even. We have a decent amount of Heals all around too. I need to harvest a bunch of it this year.

 

[bamadeb48]

Planted so far, 3 long rows of okra, 8 rows October beans, 21 summer yellow squash, 30 something tomatoes, 2 rows climbing Lima’s, 1 row Kentucky Wonder beans , two rows purple hull peas and 2 rows red potatoes, will have to till up some more yard to plant melons. So busy but love this!

 

[Meerkat]

View attachment 65919
Early Cabbage

Echenisia (NOT SPELLED RIGHT)


Lettuce and Spinach

Looks great BacP.

 

[phideaux]

@Bacpacker ,@bamadeb48 ,
Y'all make me jealous.

Wish I could still garden like y'all.

Hope you have a big harvest.

Jim