New Garlic (Sub) Varieties for 2016

After growing Red Russian garlic (the most common in these parts) for a number of years, I decided to try Music (along with the Red Russian) for this past season.  I thought the Music had a milder flavour, but I still liked it and the bulbs were larger than the Red Russian.  I also had some challenges in 2015 with leek moths doing some pretty serious destruction to both varieties so this wasn't the best growing year to use as any baseline measure.

I went to the Perth (Ontario) Garlic Festival in August.  I had planned to write a post about it, but found it rather dull (friends who have gone most years have said it seems to have suddenly gotten smaller).  However, I did pick up some interesting new varieties which I'll try this year.

All the garlic I'm growing is Hardneck which includes three varieties: Rocambole, Porcelain and Purple Stripe.  Since I've always grown Red Russian, I am already familiar with Rocambole.  What I didn't realize was that the Music I grew last year was of the Porcelain variety, not also a Rocambole.  That is likely why the bulbs were bigger - it seems that is typical of the Porcelains.

I've planted 4 of the 5 types into 2 raised beds.  The raised bed frames were moved from elsewhere in my garden and have just been filled with the topdressing soil I had ordered in the spring (yikes, I still have about 8 yards of soil on my driveway that should be dealt with before the first snow).  Just so I remember myself next summer when I begin the harvest, they are planted as follows:

Leftmost Bed - two rows each (L to R): Majestic Porcelain, Mennonite Porcelain and German White Rocambole. All three of these varieties were purchased at the Garlic Festival from Ken Best of Norwood Ontario.  And such huge cloves.  I had two bulbs of each variety with 4-5 cloves per bulb.

Majestic Porcelain: Creation of this garlic is credited to Paul Pospisil whose Beaver Pond Estates was just a few minutes from my previous home in Lanark County.

Mennonite Porcelain: The origin of this one is a bit more confusing but seems to have been named by Railway Creek Farms after receiving a bulb from a Madoc resident (okay this is weird, because I also used to live in Madoc so this year's garlic is like a tour of my previous residences).  They called it Mennonite to remind them where it came from - farmers in London Ontario area named the Bass Brothers.

German White Rocambole:  Can't find much about the origins of this one.

The second raised bed was filled with the Music.  I didn't have enough of my own to plant so just bought some more seed garlic (also at the Garlic Festival).  The Music is from Arran Hill Garlic Farm of Allenford Ontario.  There are too many references to the origins of Music garlic to know which is accurate but it is quite popular in colder climates.  I should have about 25 of these next summer.

I haven't planted the Red Russian and hope to get to that by next weekend latest.  All of the Red Russian came from my friend Dan (grown in Lanark County).  I'll probably put in at least 50 of these to bring me to close to 100 garlic in total.

The two planted beds were covered in straw - a must for me right after planting as my cat likes to dig into fresh dirt and I don't want the cloves getting moved around.  Within a few weeks they should start to get some good roots.  The roots and the mulch (I'll add more before the first snow) will help avoid heaving from frost.

And so that's one more garden chore (almost) crossed off my list for the fall preparation.

First Frost Warning

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That time of year has arrived in my corner of the world - the first frost warning of the season.  The outlook for the upcoming weekend (Thanksgiving weekend in Canada) is much more to my liking.  So as soon as I got home from work I ran around covering everything up and harvesting some of the more delicate crops (then ran around again taking a few photos!).


I don't have a lot left although more than I did at this time last year as I did a "fall planting" of a few greens including the arugula that I harvested tonight along with some swiss chard.

I left most of the brassicas to deal with the frost as they should be fine ... including the remaining two batches of tuscan kale (below) and the mature brussels sprouts.

I did cover up the small cauliflower in a pathetic attempt to have them mature but unlikely there will be time.  And I covered my one remaining pumpkin plant and the fall planting of beans (but I'm a bit lazy so did a lousy job).

I covered the carrots (not sure why, I'm pretty sure they can handle a light frost??) but I left the parsnip uncovered as I've been told they taste better after a frost.

And I thought I'd take the opportunity to share an update on my greenhouse plants since there is NO risk of frost inside!!

Earlier in the year, I believed several of my pepper plants from inside the greenhouse had finished their growth cycle and I basically tossed them outside to die.  After several rains and a bout of hot weather, I noticed flowers on a few of them.  I brought them back into the greenhouse and they've started an entire new round of peppers!!  The plants themselves look a bit weak but lots of peppers coming my way.

Ancho

Pimiento!

Blurry King of the North

And these hinkelhatz never left the greenhouse and still have a few left - this is only possible because of my greenhouse as my outdoor pepper plants died off several weeks ago.

And this is one of two remaining sweet pickle pepper plants - these are honestly the best looking peppers of this variety that I've had all year.

The chocolate cherry tomato plant is still flowering (this is one of two of these variety in the greenhouse).

As for fall plantings, I just have this one swiss chard batch in a container ...

And these beets that I may have got in too late, but hoping the greenhouse keeps things warm enough for some to mature - worst case scenario, I will enjoy some beet greens!

Keeping my fingers crossed that the plants I covered up will make it through the frost (or better yet, the frost doesn't actually happen tonight!!).

Harvest Monday: October 5, 2015

It's about that time of the year when we usually get our first frost in these parts - I've covered a few spaces the past two nights as the temperature got a little too close to freezing for my liking.  But it's warmed up a bit today.  I really hope the weather holds out a bit longer so I can harvest a few more beans (Royal Burgundy and Delinel) from my fall planting.  So far I've harvested just the small handful shown above along with some radishes.  The radishes were planted specifically so I could make my potato salad but the green onions haven't sized up yet and likely won't make it before the frost hits. I guess I'll pick some up at the farmer's market.

I was holding off on harvesting parsnips as I read somewhere that they taste better after a frost.  But some were getting pretty big so I pulled this bunch along with more Nantes carrots.  I really like the Nantes carrots and will grow them again next year for sure.  They grew much faster than other carrots I've grown and I like the taste.

I also harvested the remaining cabbage.  I've had to peel away quite a few leaves to make sure there weren't any little slugs left.  After soaking the heads for a while, I still found a worm.  I was so paranoid about the one little head, I just cut it right open to check (guess I'll have to cook that very soon!).

A previous harvest of cabbage was sauteed with leeks and bacon then stirred into some homemade mac and cheese.  Sooooo good!!

Thanks to Dave at Our Happy Acres for taking up the torch for Harvest Monday's so gardeners around the world can continue to share their goodies each week (and a few "baddies" now and then).