TODOs May
Really?, Already? May?
Time flies at this time of gardening year it all seems to come at once. I have been busy gardening for myself and for clients and I love it. All the rain we have had in the droughty South East of the county!, has made everything grow grow grow though a little sunshine would not go amiss to get something flowering as well as putting on leafage. Enough complaining frmo me I am delighted with the rain though a bit tired of explaining to friends with house-bound kids that it’s great for us all that we’re getting out of the drought. It will no doubt stop soon as we’ll be having some summer sun in the coming months.
At the end of April I visited Prague for the first time, a stunning city with so much to see, 4 days was not enough. What stuck me was how out of kilter their flowering seemed to be, Lilacs in full glorious bloom but apple trees barely opening their buds. Having come from the UK where our lilacs were firmly furled and apple blossom all but blown away it seemed bit back to front. That said the weather had just turned warm, well hot to be fair 30-33 degrees for 4 days and sun sun sun, more gloriousness and heavenly to be out of the constant downpours for all the sight seeing we did.
After trips away is always exciting to come home mostly to see what has survived in my abscence or thrived in the garden. There had been much greening, the lawn is emulating the day of the triffids and the Irises (in pots) had put on a great deal of growth.
Seasonal veg is still sulking and reluctant to come out in the cold (unheated green house and cold frames) but the salad H-Edge has started to sprout and not yet been slug munched. The Pak Choi is putting on some leaf and the stems thickening up and shooting up which is good because they’re in front of a rampaging Centaurea montana Alba which is ALSO shooting up in all directions and putting on it’s late spring growth.
The big task in the next weeks is staking potentially floppy, taller perennials – Delphinium (larkspur), Anthemis (marguerite), Centaurea (cornflower), Peonies, Papaver (poppy) Getting stakes in early makes it simpler to contain them later on. I’ve used some lovely 3/4 circular metal frames bought last year at Chelsea (3 for £9 was a bit of a bargain) and when those ran out I resorted to 1m lengths of bean pole secured with rounds of garden string and when they ran out I used the still bendy branch clippings from the Forsythia to stick into the soil and weave together to make a kind of fence around the Lychnis coronaria.
Anthemis tinctoria Sauce Hollandaise
This year I have left the Hemerocalis (Day Lily) and the Achillea (yarrow) as they were transplanted last autumn and aren’t looking like they’ll grow on much this year. I may have to revisit that though.
PRUNE:
If your Clematis montana has done it’s flowering stint for the year NOW is the time to give a good haircut, be firm with older plants as they are very very vigorous vines in the right position and happily take over if not kept in check. I am currently growing one up a rather unsightly Holly that cannot be got rid of in the vain hope that the montana with smother (and kill) the Holly in years to come!
FRUIT, VEGGIES AND CUT FLOWERS:
Keep planting successional carrots, beetroot and salad leaves on a weekly basis to give you a regular crop at the other end of the cycle. I have two large IKEA bins hosting Carrot seedlings and Parsnip seeds. The parsnips have yet to surface, the carrots are romping away.
Plant Basil the Alys Fowler way. Ann Marie Powell Tweeted that she had had speedy success (less than 48 hrs) with this method so I followed suit (remarks of Lemming will not be received kindly!) Some black basil seed was hastily, if lightly sprinkled over a 9cm pot of damp seed compost, pressed into contact with the soil but not covered with same, covered with a spot of cling film and placed in a window near a heat source. In my case it was in the south east facing window of my office near the radiator. They took 4 days to emerge and are now putting on steady growth in readiness for repotting and more heat and sun in the coming months (optimistic I know). Looking forward to lots of fresh basil this summer.
Plant Squash seeds. After so much joy with the Alys Fowler method for Basil I tried it on my other seeds and low and behold up came the Courgette, the Boston Squash, Perilla and some Calendular. The pumpkin and courgette are already potted on into their own 9cm pots the rest are waiting for the clement weather to arrive first.
The seedlings of Phlox, Stocks and Cosmos are romping away and already in module mode. I have given away lots and lots of these as I over seeded in the February rush. Mark Diacono said in a River Cottage Bites episode “grow a little of a lot…” which struck a chord here and I have cut back seriously on my usual excesses of seedlings. My lovely neighbours and friends will not benefit from the annual veg seedling glut but I will be able to try more varieties this year and there will be room in the greenhouse (well, maybe…..)
Earth up your spuds as their green tops emerge, unless of course you’re trying the cover them in straw and pray method (or no dig!) in which case do not forage about in the straw and compost looking for growth it doesn’t help them grow any faster or bigger.
Put in your bean canes in readiness for planting in a couple of weeks. either in arch formation with stabilising side, cross struts and a cross bar on the top or teepee shapes strung together at the very top. I have enough canes for 3 large teepee shapes and enough space this year too. So I am growing green and purple climbing French beans and some runner beans. I am also trialing mixing my sweet peas in with the climbing beans, mainly for space reasons but also to see if it helps with pollination.
Pea netting can go in too with some study stakes at either end to support the inevitable burgeoning crop that will come. I didn’t stake sturdily last year and the whole netting collapsed under the weight of peas. It is much more difficult to re-errect the pea’ vegetation network once it has collapsed!
It’s not quite time to put out Dahlia and semi tender plants, watch the weather forecast for more balmy conditions and the end of frosts. I am anticipating the last week of May/first week of June for planting them out along with hanging out my hanging baskets.
Centaurea montana Alba
VISIT:
The Malvern Show 10-13th May Malvern, Worcs
Chelsea Flower show 22-26 May at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea.
Chelsea Fringe 19th May – 10th June. In it’s very first year, don’t miss out
Sissinghurst early June would be my favourite time to visit
Yorkshire Sculpture Park I am longing to make this trip this spring it is Joan Miro, Jem FIner and Sophie Ernst
Most of all enjoy your natural spaces be it your garden, a public garden, your allotment, an NGS garden, a walk in the country and remember there is no bad weather, just poor equipment!
Like this:
TODOS April
Assailed by a never ending list of things todo I keep a master list for garden tasks in the kitchen, mostly scribbled on my latest Gardener’s World calendar but some months it stretches to include post it notes stuck one on top of another. With the arrival of each new magazine ( I get 4 or is it 5 mags a month?!) or garden program (GQT, Beechgrove Garden and of course Friday nights with Monty and GW) I add to it, which to be honest makes it frightful and frightening at some stages of the year!
That might seem terribly disorganised and I will admit to having it electronically as well – spreadsheet by plant by month – so it can be sorted and juggled and pondered over if there is time, which is rarely!
Mostly I have it down to what MUST be done that month as a priority and what should be done but could wait a bit, follows that. It helps to not miss vital pruning or planting stages and that way there is no arguing with myself about the necessity of completing certain tasks.
So April’s MUST do’s – not an exhaustive list by any means and anyone wishing to add to task or ask a question please feel free to comment!
MULCH MULCH MULCH
What can I say, there is so much about our current drought that I probably don’t need to say this but just in case you missed …….Apply a 10-15cm layer of mulch (soaking wet news paper or cardboard under bark chip or homemade compost is good) to reduce evaporation and lock in as much moisture as you can.
Alternatively hoe the top 5cm of soil to a fine dusty tilth. It acts like a mulch though if your site is exposed and windy it’s probably best to stick with adding a mulch!
PRUNE:
Formative prunes after flowering (that’s 1/3rd of old wood to the ground and upto 30% off remaining branches) – Viburnum bodnantense etc, Lonicera purpursii, Forsythia, Chaenomeles
Formative prunes before flowering (that’s 1/3rd of old wood to the ground and upto 30% off remaining branches) – Buddleija
Grasses – cut back deciduous varieties to 10-15cm above ground level – already a bit late for this if they are off to a green and glorious start.
FRUIT, VEGGIES AND CUT FLOWERS:
Plant those spuds! I’ll be trialing a new (to me) method of planting on top of the ground and mulching over them this year. NO DIG rocks!!!
Dig out trenches for beans and peas and apply a well rotted compost. Beans are GREEDY feeders. Plants will go in in 4-6 weeks
Dig in green manures, a bit late for this too but not too late quite yet. Cut the leafage down and chop up with a spade/rotavator and then dig the sod over and into the soil. In theory it needs 4-6 weeks to break down, though mine did it’s stuff in 3, good wormage levels I think. I am planting sweetcorn, pumpkin and and courgettes (2 of the 3 Sisters) into mine in mid May.
Chop back old wood of Autumn fruiting raspberries to 10cm above ground if not done in winter.
Get any Dhalia tubers into slightly damp compost, only half cover the tuber, in a frost free area to give them an early start before planting out.
Keep liquid feeding your bulbs as they grow, preparing them for bulking up before next year.
Planting annual flower seeds into modules or seed trays and keep them in an unheated greenhouse until the frosts pass (Mid May/June). This year I’m doing Ammi, Sunflowers, Phlox and Stocks and Cosmos. They’ll sit alongside Tomato, Pak Choi, Cavalo Nero, Peas and French and Runner Bean seedlings.
VISIT:
For seasonal inspiration and ideas on extending your own gardens seasons visit at least one amazing Spring Garden. Try Great Dixter, Beth Chatto’s, RHS Hyde Hall or for something more local to you have a rummage through this Telegraph list, an oldie but still a goodie!
Miserable day at Great Dixter
Well it said light showers and it was wrong, it fair tipped it down over Great Dixter from noon to 2pm today. A short spell of sunshine between two large rain clouds allowed for some hurried shooting and ooohing and ahhing at the glorious Tulips displays and burgeoning herbaceous display but in truth being hampered by a brolly and dampish squib waterproof and hoodie didn’t help.
TULIP AND GRAPE HYACINTH
Everyone seemed a bit mis too, not many smiles from the few who did venture out not even the ‘wet weather geared up’ staff, though the lady in the tea shop/shop was a complete gem and lent us two bin liners so we could perch on a soggy bench in the little garden when the sun burst through.
BRICK PERGOLA
I have been to Dixteronce before in high summer and it was breathtaking then, this time it was the Springy ‘bedding’ and pots that blew me away. It is an excellent reminder, if one needs it, that Tulips can in fact make a spring border just as vibrant and full of colour explosions as the big blousey summer borders.
TULIPS IN THE LONG HERBACEOUS BORDER
The combinations of bulbs and spring flowering shrubs and perennials leads the eye and links seemingly effortlessly, though I suspect a great deal of effort goes in in reality, through the spaces.
DAMP TULIPS IN RAINBOW COLOURS
Big blocks of bold colours blend, in a shouty kind of way, with the beautifully with the super-verdant rain drenched greens of the up-coming herbaceous plantings. Sumptuous.
MORE PICS HERE
BENCH UNDER FATSIA JAPONICA
If you haven’t been to Dixter in Spring, GO, GO, GO!! Put it on your list of things to do, places to go, this year in the next week or so before the tulips go over or for next year.
TULIPY GORGEOUSNESS
Grasses
OK so it maybe a tad early in mid-spring to be dividing grasses but as we are now in drought, officially (since 5th April) I thought I’d risk it.
I manage a large grassy border which has some congested clumps and some baldy bare patches and there needs to be some balancing out I think.
Carex flowering
I started with Stipa tenuissima, digging it out, pulling out all the dead debris and then taking my Swiss Army pruning knife to it, hacking it neatly into 4 chunks of root and stalk. then replanting immediately and watering in. Instant fix of one bald patch, enormously satisfying.
At the end of 2010 a huge Anamanthele lessoniana (Stipa Arundinaecea as was!) popped it’s cloggs and in doing so spreading a mass of, and I do mean a thousand of so, seeds which have sprouted happily into a 1m2 ‘Stipa Lawn’. Easing a clump or two out, gently separating into smaller clumps I managed to fill another bare strip with plants and give the clumpy lawn specimens some space to expand.
Luzula flowering
The grass border looks better already. The Crocosmia (12 or 15 varieties) mixed in with the grasses are coming along nicely too and bulking up incredibly well.
Next year the monster variegated Miscanthus will have it’s turn to be chopped about!
Snow & Blossom
I am certain many gardeners are staring with trepidation at the weather forecast every evening as the Spring reverts to ‘normal’. WHY? well snow, snow, snow and the dread frost.
In 2010 I planted a Reine Claude Green Gage which is a green plum variety, one of the most common and delicious when ripe. Slightly smaller and rounder than the usual purple plum more like a green Mirabelle and just as sweet. Anyway in the warm days of the last two weeks it has burst into flower all 5 stems COVERED in translucent white blossom.
GREENGAGE REINE CLAUDE
YUM I thought lots of fruit this year – last year, it’s first year, I assiduously stripped it of flowers to stop it fruiting and put all energies into rooting and establishing.
So if it snows or we have a heavy frost and the fruit has not set…well no fruit, or not much will come later. Very disappointing.
I have a box of old net curtains and some tatty horticultural fleece at the ready and if snow moves this far south, well I have access to a chunk or two of straw!
Next doors apple has sensibly NOT flowered yet.
GREENGAGE REINE CLAUDE
Lawn, or is that TURF?
Spring has sprung and the grass is growing. What more could you want? well an informal presentation on the ins and outs of lawn care might be nice!
I will admit to having succumbed to lawn fever earlier in the year and sprinkled the patchy patch behind my house with indestructible, shade loving lawn seed mixed in compost. Watered lightly and waited, and waited, and waited. Last week it decided to show it’s shoots and then shot up about 3 cm in a couple of warm days! I want a sward by the end of the year, it’s a long time to that point but it’s a modest goal I think.
Lucky for me the Rolawn rep came to visit the SGD cluster group meeting this week. Dave, plied us not only with info and promo literature but also soil and left me with 2 sample patches of their best product. Medallion and Minster Pro. I am gleeful, I will have two patches of fabulous turf in the garden, not exactly what I had in mind but nevertheless 2 patches will stand out and act as a good guide to perfection.
Medallion and Minster Pro in a sample box
Rolawn are the turf kings. They have been farming, yes farming, hectares of the stuff in Yorkshire for 40 years. Plenty of rain and a cool steady climate apparently, well up until the last couple of dry winters and hot springs that is, so a perfect climate for growing excellent turf.
Having studied lawn care with the RHS I thought I knew quite a bit about it but in fact there is much more to know. It’s not just about mowing, aerating, scarifying, weeding, feeding, top dressing etc but about laying it correctly in the first place. Gardening well, pretty much always comes back to good preparation.Thinking about things like Where, When and What you lay turf on is important.
The absolute basics are to remove old turf, compost it elsewhere in the garden by turning it upside down and leaving for 6 months.
Turn over you soil to a depth of 5-10cm no more, overusing you rotavator can destroy the soil structure making it nigh on impossible for the turf roots to find food, water or purchase.
Raking the area over and removing/breaking down big clods of earth and then firming the soil with your heels. I laugh at this particular step but it is a vital thing to do.
Follow all this preparation with a application of pre-turfing fertiliser in the top 25mm.
Turf needs to be laid on a damp surface so if it’s been dry water before laying and then lay your turf in offset pattern on the fine tilth you’ve just prepared.
Dave says it should take in 3-5 days, so be prepared to get mowing as soon as a good tug doesn’t have you standing with a patch of grass in your hand!
Usefully there is every kind of information on how to make and keep a good patch of turf on the Rolawn TV website with some chap from TV series Emmerdale apparently. One wonders if he now actually knows how to lay turf?!
Media
Totally thrilled to be in the Guardian this weekend. Yes that’s right THE Guardian newspaper! A big Thank You to Jane Perrone for the opportunity.
Putting together a planting plan from the Van Meuwen/Thompson & Morgan plant catalogue (and begging list), which had a number of iterations and the final plan is very pleasing. Most definitely do-able in lots of gardens, with gloriously lush green texture and flounces of periodic whiteness …oh and then there was the pale pink thyme – that several people have mentioned as their first comment! – I know it’s a White garden but honestly 95% or the year it will be pale green and cream, for a fleeting week or so it might flower palest pink but if you’re hedging it, which after all is it’s purpose, well no flowers, Zero, Zilch, NADA…. There are limitation to what one can ‘demand’ T&M stock, white Thymus was not on the list!
I’m sure VSW would have understood after all her Leucanthemums have yellow middles!
See a live view at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2012/mar/23/white-garden-sissinghurst-plants
Order the plants from:
http://www.vanmeuwen.com/vip/guardian-reader-offers/white-border-collection/G70781VM
Mulch
A bit more on being waterwise.
Cardboard Mulch.
I love it. I first came across it watch Alys Fowler’s You Tube segments on her allotment. She referred to it at some point as similar to making a lasagne but a mulchy version. What a great visual that has been.
After scavenging any piece of cardboard from friends and family, as well as my own, I have visited the local recycling unit who were only to happy, if a tad bemused, to load up the car with large thick cardboard sections. I have 100m2 of plot so the larger the better.
The way it works for me is that I lay it on grass or a weed patch at the plot and wait for it to decompose, now I know I should dig out and weed first but this way it makes the plant so much weaker that by the time it gets uncovered it’s much easier to remove invasive nasties.
The worm population loves it.
This is a good time to get your mulch down, before the annual weed seed start flowering and scattering their progeny!
Drought and being a bit more waterwise….
So there it is from April 5th we, in the South that is, will be in an official hosepipe ban. Drought has officially hit (21st Feb 2012) due in the main to the drier winters and increasingly warm summers.
DEFRA is asking all of us to help by taking shorter showers, 4 mins which to me sounds like a ship shower (dowse, lather, dowse!) and not running the tap whilst cleaning your teeth – who does that, didn’t your Mother ever tell you about wasting the worlds resources? and pushing up the family water bill!
I have mixed feelings about a hosepipe ban as unlike many gardeners I abhor sprinklers and the mostly inefficient auto-watering systems one sees about the place. Of course I speak as someone with a small enough patch to not worry about watering by hand but then I don’t water anything unless it’s in a pot, in it’s first season of growth or a crop of some sort. Plants shouldn’t need it and doing it just creates bad habits in the plant/tree!
So how can we help ourselves with this imminent water shortage?
Soil
Yes that’s right improving your soil can help with water retention. The more organic matter it contains the better it stores moisture. Organic matter can be added as compost, well rotted farm yard manure or green waste from your council. Typically this is done in late Autumn (November) or Early Spring (Feb/March) when the ground is moist. Spread a thick layer (50-75mm) on top of your soil leaving a 7-10cm gap around the stem/trunk of plants and then let the garden worms do the rest.
Right Plant Right Place
I know I know broken record stuff but it holds true for a reason. Planting moisture loving plants on dry slopes of sandy soil is going to cause a headache even if we didn’t have a drought. Beth Chatto‘s wonderful Dry Garden has shown that even in areas with low rainfall, and they have one of the lowest in the country, it is possible to plant a fabulous garden that won’t guzzle water but will still make a breathtaking display right through from Spring to Autumn.
Good plants to aim for are those you might find in mediterranean countries, silver leaved Lavenders, Salvia’s all sorts of furry and silver leaved plants and of course succulent Sedum, Euphorbia and Sempervivums. The hairy leaves capture any moisture that falls and traps it for the plant, small leaves transpire less, grey reflects more light, fleshy leaves hold water well and so on. These plants have adapted well to their native environment and we can make use of them in our bid for low water, drier gardening. The RHS do a good drought tolerant plant list but then also investigating your own local varieties is half the fun.
MULCH IT
My favorite topic and a favorite pass time - I definitely need to get out more – A bit like improving your spoil mulch helps in the retention of water, stopping it evaporating as quickly so the plant has more chance to sup it up. There are lots of types of mulch from black plastic and bark chips to aggregates including gravels.
I get my bark chip from a local Arboriculturalist for paths but for anything going on the border it has to be well seasoned or there is a risk of nitrogen leaching from the bark and causing imbalance in your soil, most shop bought bark chip will be well seasoned.
As with soil improvers make sure this is laid between AUtumn and SPring so that the soil is good and moist before the mulch goes down. Mulch acts as a barrier both ways, so if your soil is dry it will take much longer to get wet.
More solid barriers, like Terram (a permeable black membrane), can be very useful in weed suppression and water retention but I find them a bit annoying if I want to have a fluid planting style – i.e. planting all those things that have tempted me in the local nursery! – it can get tatty if cut too many times and basically should be reserved for industrial style mulching and weed suppression
Water Sensibly
So we’re back to those sprinklers! Water garden plants in the evening, after the heat has gone out of the day. Water at the base of the plant don’t waste if on the leaves, really dowse each plant, soaking it once a week rather than watering every day. The soaking of the soil makes the plant send roots down in search of water rather than noodling about in the top 10cm, which is more prone to drying out and consequently not a great place for a plant to have all its roots!
For pot watering I challenge you to a test, take a couple of pots and water them as normal, after 15 mins take the plant out of the pot, soil and all, and see how far down you watering has gone. I suspect, unless you already know this one, that you water will have gone down a mere cm or two and nothing like the depth of the pot. A good rule of thumb is to soak your pot from below for half an hour, so a deep drip tray or bucket is good. This encourages the plant to send it’s roots down and also it takes up the water it needs.
One more thing on pots, large pots do better as the fluctuations in temperature and water are reduced, aim for 60cm or bigger. Terracotta are the best for root protection and limiting temperature fluctuations but plastic pots will obviously retain water better. Clustering pots together creates a cooler micro climate. Metal pots are the devils work and basically fry the roots!
Water retaining gels
When making pots or hanging baskets for the summer, mix in water retaining gel to your compost. The crystals soak up water and create tiny reservoirs of wetness to be released later. Do not use them in winter pots or baskets as the same dampness is likely to cause root damage and possibly freeze.
Water Butts
It has to be said they are not the most elegant of things but they are fabulously useful in drought a couple of well placed containers connected to drainpipes will really boost your plants. Rainwater is also far better for plants than chemically treated tap water not to mention keeping the water bills down. Some funky new designs are on the market. You might consider grey water recycling as well but this is a slightly more complex occupation, you can find more information about the how’s here.
One final note to all you lawn lovers, a brown summer lawn is the new green, it will re-grow once it rains, don’t waste your water on the sward!
A bit more info about this drought:
http://www.ceh.ac.uk/news/news_archive/February-2012-UK-hydrological-summary_2012_17.html
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/drought/31749.aspx
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/interactive/2012/mar/14/drought-proof-your-home-interactive
and something to annoy the English
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/29/welsh-want-english-pay-for-water
Growing Garlic this year?
On a whim at the end of last year I planted a bag of garlic that I purchased from the clearout tray at Homebase. Jamie Oliver‘s latest packaged item announced an extended season of garlic, what could be better?
Growing a garlic crop is immensely satisfying and can be done with limited time or space which is how I first came to grow it in a pot on a patio in London. I think that time I used some left over cloves straight from the fridge which in hindsight is not ideal but it works. Subsequent forays have used bulbs from reputable growers and seed merchants!
I read somewhere about it being traditional to plant it on the shortest day of the year (Winter Solstice – 21/22 December) and harvest on the longest day (Summer Solstice 21/22 June). Basically that’s aiming for a good 6 months in the ground, plenty of time for the cloves to plump up and multiply. I aim to get it in before the year end, especially if it is going into the ground which has the potential to be frozen solid from January – luckily for us last winter (2011/2012) was so mild that planting was possible for all but a few days.
Garlic, like many root crops prefers well drained, not overly rich soil. I have a loamy clay so digging in some organic matter and a bit of grit works well to give them a good start.
Breaking up the bulb into individual cloves and setting them out at about 15cm (6 inches) apart and 5cm (2 inches). Now I am not one of those people who takes a measuring stick with me. Over the years I have worked out my body measurements and know that my right index finger from tip to 1st knuckle is about 5cm and the span of my thumb to little finger with middle fingers down is about 17cm (middle fingers up it’s 20cm…) and so I use them as a rough guide to planting distances.
Go on, measure your own hands, booted feet, normal stride, extended stride and so on you’ll be amazed how useful these dimensions can be in veg growing and planting. Incidentally try placing your bare foot along your forearm, elbow to wrist, it is supposed to be about the same distance.
So back to garlic planting approx 15cm apart and 5cm down in rows 15cm apart. Plant cloves with the fatter end down. The row spacing also allows for easier hoeing of weeds. As I only had 1 Elephant garlic clove I didn’t have to worry about increasing the planting spaces but you can adjust spacing ; up/down per general clove size; larger/smaller
There are many excellent varieties of garlic and quite a few British growers including several from the Isle of Wight. Jamie’s pack included Purple Wight (early), Iberian Wight and Elephant all of which have excellent flavour, are easy to grow and the range will give me a longer season of cropping.
In spring as the weather starts warming up shoots will begin to appear. As with any oniony sort of crop once it pokes it’s first leaf up it is tempting to passing birds to pull out and throw about – they never seem to eat it just play with it! So if you have a playful local bird population use small chicken wire arches or fleece to protect it at this stage.
Garlic does like water, with standard British weather there shouldn’t be much need for watering but if you have a dry spell, drought or you’re growing them in very sandy soil they will need some extra watering, regular intervals are best.
That’s it for growing, not much to do but watch and wait and hoe those weeds.
Once the tops go yellow and begin to dry out it’s time to think about harvesting. I usually harvest all at once if I am going to dry and store them, though odd bulbs for fresh use come out as and when required. Wait until at least 50% of the crop is ready and then lift them carefully with a fork. Remove dirt and place them somewhere to dry thoroughly. If we’re having a corker of a summer this could be outside, but in reality they need about 2 weeks of completely dry sunny weather to thoroughly dry out so in the UK possibly better to find a more reliably dry, airy spot.
Once dried cut off the roots and you can plait them and hang them up for use, saving a bulb or two for next years crop.
I will be saving at least half the Elephant for next year, that’s if it deigns to come up this year!
Flickr Photos
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