We are novices when it comes to garlic and harvesting garlic. All the garlic that appeared in our raised planter was put there by someone before we moved in. It was a surprise last year when they popped up and our Daughter in law informed us what they were. This year we were a wee bit more informed and were told if we removed the scapes as soon as they appeared we would get larger bulbs. That advice was timely and good.
This is what the scapes look like and you remove them before you harvest the bulbs. They are good for eating, too. You can see the curly stem with a single bulb on the plant and you can remove them easily.
Next year we will be even smarter about how to pull up the bulbs and what to avoid. I watched a lot of youtubes on the subject after we pulled the bulbs up. Why not before you might ask? That’s the way I roll. Hopefully I’ll learn from my mistakes.
Hanging the harvest in the Cold Room that we have in our garage using the deer hanger. It’s dark and dry (hopefully). We’ll check them in about 3 weeks to see how they are doing. When they are good and dry we will cut off the stalks, trim the stringy roots and brush off the dirt. Then we’ll store the bulbs in mesh bags like lemons or oranges come in, something airy. Then we’ll store them in a cool dark spot.
Going into the cold room this morning to take the photo I was hit with that pungent fragrance of garlic. It smells like an Italian or Greek restaurant in there!
On the weather front: Our little digital window thermometer tells us our high yesterday was 107 degrees. Today they are predicting 111. Time will tell. Dear is mowing today very early (6:30 am). Our neighbors aren’t close enough to mind too much. We continue to water in the coolest part of the morning.
On the Cataract front: My eye is doing well and Dear is administrating the 3 different drops 4x a day. Tomorrow we move to only 2 different drops 3x a day. Thank you all for your encouragement!
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 