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Planted Garlic – Sunday Nov. 12th. Purchased red garlic from Red Bank lady vendor at Chico Farmers Market, about 4 cloves. We have NOT had our 1st frost. I did not soak in kelp extract. Planted in box #4. ( box #5 was planted to beets week before ) Have not mulched yet. ( last years garlic was in box #1 & #2 – several varieties from Peaceful Valley )

[ Garlic – Plant in the late fall after the first frost… about November. Break the cloves apart and soak in kelp extract overnight. Plant in loose soil with lots of organic matter.  Plant in rows about 18″ apart and each clove about 6 inches apart. Plant blunt end (root nodes) down. Cover with about 2″ of soil.  Mulch over the entire bed, not too heavy, or remove some in spring time. Likes even moisture throughout the growing season so mulch and drip line will help achieve this.  Garlic does not like competition so mulch and weeding are important.  Summer activity is cutting the scapes. It is time to cut the scapes when they curl back down. Cutting the scapes will help improve the size of the bulbs. You can stir fry the scapes ( yum ).  Harvest time for most varieties happens between mid July and beginning of Auguts.  When leaf tips turn brown stop watering and wait about 2 weeks. When plants are about 1/3rd brown check bulb size on one or two plants.  Better to harvest too early than too late. Once out of soil tie in bunches and hang in a dark place with good air circulation for all sides of the bulbs.

Rotate the area potatoes are planted. Don’t go back to the same plot for 3 years.

Plant in early spring ( four weeks before the last frost – soil temp should be at least 40 degrees F.)  or late fall after the first frost may need mulch for frost protection.

Cut into chucks with 1 to 2 eyes per chuck. ( small potatoes plant whole) . Lay the potatoes out in a well ventilated space for one or two days to harden up /callus over the cut part.  (Should be seed potatoes not food potatoes that may have been treated to prevent sprouting. )

Potatoes wnat light soil with lots of compost and no weeds to compete with. Must have some way to cover the tubers forming on the stem to protect them from light etc.

8 inch deep trench, plant potatoes about 8-9 inches apart with rows about 3 ft apart. Cover potatoes with 4 inches of soil and then cover with 4 or 6 inches of mulch. In the spring when plants get to be 4 to 6 inches tall you can begin hilling.  Harvest any time after they flower, but only harvest what you can eat because they won’t keep.

 

18 new chicks are growing up fast at home in Chico. Alden is sweeping down the cobwebs and cleaning out the coop.  The chicken poo and straw goes down to the “composting center” by the pole barn.

Glorious Day for working in the garden.  Here is a panorama of the garden after the cover crop has been cut up with the string mower. We will now use the broad fork to gently dig the soil a bit, add some helpful nutrients for the soil organisms and broad fork again.

 

This Sunday in the morning I planted four new grapevines on the point and started to build the deer barrier. Then Jordan Reed arrived and we continued to complete some electrical clean up and improvement.  New switches, new conduit, junctions, & sub-panels and a new light post at the YAHB.

Top photo is the trench to the light post. Second photo is the new switch & outlets at the pole barn, the last photo is of Jordan Reed our friend who is an electrician.