Here's an article from Hamilton Spectator I thought you might like: Like most good things, garlic is all about timing.
Like most good things, garlic is all about timing
PUBLISHED: 2013-07-24 12:00 AM
UPDATED: 2013-07-24 12:00 AM
Pat MacDougall shows off a garlic scape in her garden near Bayfield. When this twirly 'pigtail' straightens out and points skyward, it's time to dig up garlic.
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garlic grow?
In this, one of our wettest summers in decades, it's probably performing like mine. That is, fast!
Those fascinating curly green pigtails — they're called scapes — started appearing on my garlic plants at the end of May, at least two weeks earlier than normal.
So now comes the biggie dilemma: when should I dig the bulbs up? If I do it too early, the result will be small, hard garlic that's immature and difficult to cook with.
Yet wait too long and those yummy bulbs will start splitting apart. This is a disaster too, because then the garlic won't keep long.
If you too are fretting about timing, here's a tip from savvy gardener Pat MacDougall.
"Leave a couple of scapes on your garlic plants. Don't cut them all off," she recommends "Then when those scapes uncurl themselves and stand upright, that's the time to dig the bulbs out."
MacDougall should know. With partner Shelagh Sully, she grows some of the best garlic in Ontario. Four years in a row, their big, beautiful bulbs have snared first prize in the fall fair held at Bayfield, Ont., a pretty little village on Lake Huron, south of Goderich.
In fact, their perfectly timed crop is in such high demand that folks in the know order several pounds of the stuff weeks in advance.
"Garlic just does well here," says MacDougall modestly. "And I love to grow it."
She has more tips on her trowel too: "Put bone meal in the holes when you plant garlic in fall. Then leave a thick layer of leaf mulch over the planted spot all winter."
Sounds good, Pat. However, in an area that's plagued by squirrels, I recommend skipping the bone meal: those rats in fur coats sure love digging it up. Good drainage is also crucial (garlic languishes in soggy soil) and weeding around the plants.
Yes, it's tedious, especially this rain-soaked summer when Mother Nature's nastier creations are multiplying like mad. Yet if you let dandelions, thistles and other weedy thugs get the upper hand, your garlic will give up.
MacDougall and Sully operate Coventree Gardens, a six-acre spread a few kilometres inland from Bayfield.
When they bought the place 14 years ago it was "just a field," according to Sully, but they've transformed it into a lovely garden lined with paths of lavender. It's open to the public and featured in a brochure called Interesting Gardens. For a copy, go togardensofhuronperth.com.
The pair are also known for their garden produce and for Asiatic and Oriental lilies (mercifully, the loathsome lily beetle doesn't seem to have reached their neck of the woods yet).
And that prizewinning garlic? If you want some, act fast. Call 519-565-2572or email coventreegardens@hotmail.com.
In this, one of our wettest summers in decades, it's probably performing like mine. That is, fast!
Those fascinating curly green pigtails — they're called scapes — started appearing on my garlic plants at the end of May, at least two weeks earlier than normal.
So now comes the biggie dilemma: when should I dig the bulbs up? If I do it too early, the result will be small, hard garlic that's immature and difficult to cook with.
Yet wait too long and those yummy bulbs will start splitting apart. This is a disaster too, because then the garlic won't keep long.
If you too are fretting about timing, here's a tip from savvy gardener Pat MacDougall.
"Leave a couple of scapes on your garlic plants. Don't cut them all off," she recommends "Then when those scapes uncurl themselves and stand upright, that's the time to dig the bulbs out."
MacDougall should know. With partner Shelagh Sully, she grows some of the best garlic in Ontario. Four years in a row, their big, beautiful bulbs have snared first prize in the fall fair held at Bayfield, Ont., a pretty little village on Lake Huron, south of Goderich.
In fact, their perfectly timed crop is in such high demand that folks in the know order several pounds of the stuff weeks in advance.
"Garlic just does well here," says MacDougall modestly. "And I love to grow it."
She has more tips on her trowel too: "Put bone meal in the holes when you plant garlic in fall. Then leave a thick layer of leaf mulch over the planted spot all winter."
Sounds good, Pat. However, in an area that's plagued by squirrels, I recommend skipping the bone meal: those rats in fur coats sure love digging it up. Good drainage is also crucial (garlic languishes in soggy soil) and weeding around the plants.
Yes, it's tedious, especially this rain-soaked summer when Mother Nature's nastier creations are multiplying like mad. Yet if you let dandelions, thistles and other weedy thugs get the upper hand, your garlic will give up.
MacDougall and Sully operate Coventree Gardens, a six-acre spread a few kilometres inland from Bayfield.
When they bought the place 14 years ago it was "just a field," according to Sully, but they've transformed it into a lovely garden lined with paths of lavender. It's open to the public and featured in a brochure called Interesting Gardens. For a copy, go togardensofhuronperth.com.
The pair are also known for their garden produce and for Asiatic and Oriental lilies (mercifully, the loathsome lily beetle doesn't seem to have reached their neck of the woods yet).
And that prizewinning garlic? If you want some, act fast. Call 519-565-2572or email coventreegardens@hotmail.com.
(Sent via my iPhone's Hamilton Spectator application. Visit the App Store to download or learn more).
Gerry T Okimi
Turf King Hamilton Halton Haldimand
95 Hempstead Dr Unit 14, Hamilton ON L8W 2Y6
905.318.6677
Website: www.turf-king.ca
Email: hamilton@turf-king.ca
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