October 31, 2018
My wife put kale leaves on a cookie sheet and baked them until they were black. As they were cooling on the counter I mentioned that they would make good bat wings for Halloween decorations. She was not amused. The kale leaves are coming back as soon as I pick them but not the Swiss chard. They are taking a nap..
It's like they know they've got another year to produce seed because they are biennial. They spend the first year growing extensive roots and large leaves but don't produce seeds until the second year. The beans are not growing but continue to ripen what's on the vine. I got another meals worth yesterday, only three days from the last picking..
November 01, 2018
November is when I've always planted garlic cloves and onion sets. The patches have been weeded, raked, and covered with an inch of compost. Some rain has now moistened them and started the compost's integration into the soil. If the tip of my dibble comes out dry I'll have to water them in longer than it takes to settle the ground around the roots. Tiny air pockets around the root zone should be eliminated for best germination. There are so many different varieties of garlic and onions that you could embark on an endless journey of discovery..
I can't imagine being able to taste the different varieties of garlic once it's cooked, which is how we eat ours. And if it's eaten raw it seems the garlic taste itself would override any subtle flavor differences. I know I must be wrong because a neighbor down the road has a sign out front advertising 23 different varieties of garlic for sale. Discerning palettes must abound..
November 02, 2018
I tried to plant garlic yesterday but the ground was too dry. When I pulled the dibble out the compost would fall back down the hole. Apparently there has not been enough rain yet even though we have puddles. The compost was much drier than I realized and not only soaked up all the rainfall but remained loose and too fluffy to plant in. I put the sprinkler on it for an hour and let it soak in overnight and will try again today..
The sprinkler will go on the onion patch today since it was the same compost used as on the garlic patch. It's a good lesson on how absorptive compost can be. When I put down a 3" layer on the melon mounds it will take more water to saturate the ground underneath than I realized. There are tiny weeds and grasses germinating in the meadow pathways because they are compacted, but not in the meadow proper because it's still fluffy..
