Garlic Patch 2020

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a sunny, cool day  (8 degrees C at 12:30pm).  I started on the garlic patch around 8:30am, when it was still frosty out.  The soil in this garden is heavy on clay, and it was wet from the rain we had a few days ago.  Plucking weeds and working in cold, frosty, sticky soil...uhg!  It made the hot chocolate I enjoyed once I'd finished planting taste that much sweeter.

These are my garden shoes, after I'd pulled most of the gumbo off!

 

 

The patch this year is in the South garden.  Planted are:

Brown Tempest (Glazed Purple Stripe) - small cloves, planted in a rectangular plastic container at the front of the patch.

Northern Quebec (Porcelain) –   NQ bulbils (tiny, like grains of rice) in a round plastic pot at the front of the patch.  Also 3 rows of cloves.  Many of them were “fused”/double cloves.   The NQ wrappers are white.

Central Siberian (Marbled Purple Stripe) – 1 row, plus a few planted around the plastic containers. Small cloves.

Baba Franchuk’s  (Rocambole) - 7 rounds collected at the end of this summer.  The wrappers on the bulbs of Baba Franchuk's were so thin/fragile that they fell apart and exposed the garlic when I separated them, so I didn’t plant the cloves.  The rounds were planted in the same row as the Kiev cloves.

Kiev (Rocambole) – 5 cloves from the solitary bulb that made it through the summer!  Planted in the same row as the BF rounds.

Red Russian (Marbled Purple Stripe) - 5 rows of cloves.

 

 

 

The garlic patch was covered by some leaf and grass clippings saved from last Fall.  More mulch  is needed, so hopefully we can mow the grass and fallen leaves this week.  

 

 

Garlic Plot Tilled and First Snow

   Yesterday, R. was able to get the rototiller and till a section of the South garden.  The gardens had little mulch on them this summer, so working the ground was like working cement.  It looks like I might get a garlic patch planted this Fall yet, albeit two to three weeks later than normal.  Once the ground has dried out a bit (it rained overnight and throughout today), I'll weed and get the garlic in.  We'll see next Spring how well the cloves and bulbils handled being planted in cold soil.

   Though we have had a few light frosts, we still have not experienced a hard frost.  It's so unusual not to have had several hard frosts by the second week of October.  However, I did a double take when looking out the window a few minutes ago: it is snowing!  Big, wet, fluffy flakes.  The first snow of the season.

   Slowly, but surely, the tomatoes are being cooked down and the sauce either frozen or canned. Several jars worth of Principe Borghese, Candy Sweet Icicle, and Bellestar tomatoes have been dehydrated, with another batch or two to go.  It will be so nice to have this done and put away.

   Most of the seeds saved from the garden have finished drying, have been labeled, and stored.  I finished putting together a package of seeds to send in to the Annual Canadian Autumn Seed Exchange hosted by Nicky North (this is it's 10th year running).  I missed participating last year, but am eager to see what kinds of seeds arrive in my return package in a few months' time.  It's like Christmas morning, receiving the return package from this exchange!

Tomatoes 2020

 

Hungarian Heart  - reddish-pink, large oxheart (often 1lb or more), heirloom, indeterminate, paste/canner/fresh, crack-resistant, few seeds, origin: Hungary, ~ 80-85 DTM.

 

Bellestar - red, medium-size, blocky/round 4-5oz fruits, paste, Canadian heirloom, determinate, compact, early set, ~70 DTM. Meaty and solid.  I will grow these again.

Candy Sweet Icicle - pink w/gold and orange stripes, large pointy cherry, open-pollinated, indetereminate, pretty, sweet and flavourful, mid-season, 70-80 DTM.  Tasty!  I will grow these again.

Cream Sausage - pale yellow/cream, open-pollinated, determinate, productive, paste/salsa, very mild citrousy flavour, mid-season, 75-80 DTM. 

 

Black Sea Man - brown/black, heirloom, beefsteak, 8-12 oz, rich flavour, slicer, determinate, can be grown in large containers, Russian origin, ~ 75 DTM.  One of my favourites.

 

 

Black Krim - black/purple, heirloom, beefsteak, indeterminate, very flavourful, slicer, ~ 80 DTM/midseason. 

Auria - red, heirloom, paste/canner/cooking, elongated/banana, sometimes called “Adam” in the Ukraine (where it originated), indeterminate, wispy foliage, midseason. Seems prone to blossom end rot.

 

Principe Borghese - red, heirloom, determinate, cherry, dry, few seeds, good for sundried tomatoes,~ 75 DTM.  Very productive and dependable, one of my favourites.

 

Jewish - red oxheart, heirloom, rare, indeterminate, few seeds, wispy/sprawling foliage, ~ 80-85 DTM.  Thick skin, solid tomato, good for sauce.

 

Work Release Paste - pink, heirloom, heart-shaped, paste, indeterminate, large, ~75-80 DTM.  Thin skin, easy to process. Originally from the Hudson Correctional Facility in Hudson, NY, USA.

Striped German - bicolour yellow marbled w/red, heirloom, indeterminate, large beefsteak, fruity flavour, ~ 85 DTM.

 

 

The largest tomato of the season was a Hungarian Heart, weighing 2lbs 6.7oz the day it was picked.

 

 Once ripe, a little less.