Got some Garlic

It wasn't a good season for garlic. An early warm spring and no rain for months did not help the bulbs form to a good size before bolting. Still, I have enough for  next year's planting:

And I have some small, medium and tiny bulbs plaited loosely or tied together in a cool, dry part of the house.

Home grown garlic has a lovely 'zing' to it and I know what it was sprayed with: only water!

Ahhh ... Spring!

Ahem ... yes a time of massive reproduction in the garden!

And with these phallic fellas, it's hard not to see sex everywhere ;)

Mind you, it's the female asparagus that produces the fattest spears! I have grown these babies from seed, so they are two years old (I think). I have left the cutting down to next season as it is not good to do this too early. With weeds, neglect and gardener's laziness, a number of spears still popped up. I did pinch one to taste and it was delicious - crisp and light - no tough skin.


Daffodil flowers in a pot - for sheer perfume and visual pleasure!



A polyanthus that flowers madly every year a happy escapee from a pot.




Peach blossom. Sadly my peach has been affected by leaf curl ...



and it's too late to do anything about it this season. I've just pulled off some leaves, sprayed it and fed it with seaweed tonic and hope for the best.



At least the Cercis (Forest pansy) is happy!

Grand Garlic

I harvested my first batch of garlic a few weeks ago - very exciting!

After drying, carefully peeling the external one or two layers and plaiting them, they are now hanging proudly near our kitchen door. I had no idea how to do it so thanks to Gillybean and the fabulous internet, I followed the instructions. I think it looks rather rough, but hey, they hold together.

I planted two bulb's worth of cloves that a friend gave us. I think (but will have to confirm) that one is Australian White and the other Australian Red. I tried some of the red today and it was very fresh and had a strong flavour. The chemicals that are so active in garlic seemed to really have a "zing".

The red variety had these little "bulblets" that grow in the stem that you can plant like the cloves and one garlic bulb also gave me some bonus cloves as a second layer:





Another vegetable grown (for my first time) yet again proves to be more delicious than shop-bought stuff. I read somewhere that you can never plant enough onions - the same goes for garlic. I'm very pleased with my first attempt and they are keeping nicely, though they won't last too long as we can go through a few bulbs of garlic most weeks!

I left some of the flower buds on for show, so I just harvested the garlic in time.