Yesterday we pulled our first garlic--the ones with the yellow leaves and were looking "done." We only harvested about a dozen heads since the rest aren't ready/ripe yet. After I hung them in the barn, my husband took a photo of the larger ones. These are the grocery store garlic that we bought and planted last season, and I saved two heads to plant this season: One of this season's grocery store plants is to the left--the ones we don't use will return to the garden as cloves this fall and hopefully become nice heads.
Wow!!! Those are beauties. They look like just a single bulb so when will the pips or cloves form or are they already there but I cannot see it?
A good idea is to leave some garlics in the ground without harvesting and when they pop up, then you dig them up and seperate them and replant them in their new place. This way the garlic will already have some roots. I find that I seem to get bigger garlic this way.
Looking really good, Jane. Why, I can almost smell them. The wild garlic here is blooming at the moment and it is a treat to cook with...but those large beauties of yours look smashing. --Chapeau !
Thank you all for the kind comments! KK, the cloves are there, hiding under the dirt and a heavy coat of the outer paper covering. When the heads dry I'll take one partly apart so you can see the cloves (if I remember--if not, remind me please). Odif, our heat in the summer kills garlic (also onions, greens, and the occasional gardener!). I'd like to try your method, but considering our climate, I don't think it would work for us. Sjoerd, it may be that you can smell the garlic! Between the onions and the garlic hanging to dry, our barn is extremely aromatic.
Heh, heh, heh...well, unlike my bride--I do not smoke and always seem to detect fragrances a leedl bit better than she.
