2009 Garlic Harvest

Garlic does quite well in our West Texas soil, water and climate.  We easily doubled our harvest from last year (2008) and plant to double it yet again in 2010.  This harvest (pictured) took me all day right at the end of April.

Garlic Curing

A bit of curing in a shady place and it’s ready to provide pungent passion and pizzazz for pasta, pizza and a plethora of other provisions.

If you want to grow garlic in zone 7, find a type that does well in your area and plant it in early autumn.  It will grow through the winter and be ready to harvest at the end of April.  Keep it weeded and watered and you will be rewarded for your labor.  In the

One of the big ones

meantime, eat your veggies, Nonnie and Pop said so!

Thanks to daughter-in-law Keely Nikaye Carpenter Whitsett for the pictures.

Bermuda Wars Resume

Ah yes, ’tis the season of Bermuda…not that lovely Atlantic archipelago but the cursed and unwelcome grass that invades the homes of my vegetables.  All gardeners love to see things grow in the summer with the exception of certain weeds.  My weeds are, in order of despicability, Bermuda, Khaki Burr, Nutgrass, Bindweed and another kind of grass that has burrs that stick to any article of clothing that come too close.  Bermuda, however, remains the chief offender.   I like the way Carol Ann Sayle of Boggy Creek Farm put it.  When it looked like our Texas dry spell had killed the weeds…

The Bermuda grass had cheated of course, never meaning to die at all. During the months with no rain, it lay sullenly restricted, while its roots searched beneath the soil for elusive moisture. It was intent on keeping us on edge, and when the rain came, it sneeringly erupted and spread its runners vigorously, and flung its seeds where runners found it hard to go.

In Charamon Garden the Bermuda’s runners don’t find much of anywhere “hard to go.”  Well, gotta go, time for Bermuda patrol.  In the meantime, eat your veggies, Nonnie and Pop said so!