2012 Garlic Harvest

We've apparently been growing a variety of softneck garlic as well as a variety of hardneck garlic these last few years, and careless (and rather unfamiliar with garlic before these past couple years) me just didn't realize until now!

Last week I pulled our garlic as it was starting to get fairly dry and we were forecast to get a day of possible thunderstorms. I lay it all on the deck and then promptly forgot about it for the next two days, first a hot sunny day where the garlic likely got sunburnt (cause p.s., apparently garlic sunburns), and then a day of afternoon thunderstorms where the garlic likely got a bit damp.

After the rain showers I brought it inside and put in a warm yet dry & shady spot in the corner of the kitchen for a week or so longer, then over the weekend Little M and I tidied it up for storage. My husband isn't all that fond of the softneck variety we have, so I won't bother replanting any of that this fall.

Our softneck variety isn't forming cloves at all, it is all still in the round stage. Since we got these varieties from my husband's brother, I have no idea what varieties we have. They may not be ones that do particularly well over here at all - I think we will likely get some local varieties to plant this fall and see how they do next year!

This is our third summer gardening here, and I keep telling people who are just starting their gardens to give themselves at least several years of grace - even with a childhood with many hours spent in the garden, its taken me these three years to really feel like I have gardening down pat here, and with some crops that are newer to me, or that I haven't been focusing on trying to improve, that time will be still longer until I feel confident in growing that particular crop well - garlic is obviously one such example!

What about you - is there a crop that you have been slow to learn how to grow successfully? Mine is obviously garlic. Do you have a crop that you got the hang of really quickly in your gardening space? Mine seems to be hubbard squash.