Fortunately we were spared more heavy rain at the weekend so during a break in the rain I took the opportunity to dig up the rest of the garlic as it appeared to be going to seed - small cloves forming further up the stem. So the full harvest in amounted to 54 bulbs of the stuff, in varying sizes.
Ok we like garlic, but I'm not sure we get through one bulb a week! Seven are so far accounted for, one to the childminder and six bartered for a book, but as you can imagine we have garlic drying all over the place inside due to the lovely summer weather we're having.
Having just got all the garlic up and the heavens opened again and I got soaked, despite taking refuge under the tree. Fortunately it was a short shower and quite warm so I dried off reasonably quickly whilst I picked the broad beans. Not many and quite small in size, but tasty. Some of them had been eaten, by what looked like bean weevils - one of them did a runner before I had a chance to get it on camera but from memory and a quick Google search they look like bean weevils to me.
Also propped up the Jeruslem artichokes that had taken a bit of a battering in the winds and rain with some stakes, added some half hearted stakes for the beans and generally ignorred all the weeds. The beans are doing very badly due to all the flooding and bird attacks, hence the half hearted staking. The few strawberries left had gone rotten or been attacked by slugs, but there do appear to be some raspberries forming. One of my two remaining pumpkin plants had been snapped off in the winds as well, so another good week on the allotment. Maybe next year I'll just grow garlic ;>)
Company
Whilst quiet down there (I don't thin too many people are motivated to go down the allotment during the current rains) I did have the robin below for company:
5 comments:
The garlic looks great! You have certainly done well to avoid the dreaded rust - most people don't seem to have got much of a crop at at all this year.
You can always freeze the surplus.
You peel the cloves and pulp them in a blender, then add a very little mineral water to make it easier to looser, and freeze it in ice cube containers. Once frozen individually, they can be turned out and bagged if neccesary.... When the receipe calls for garlic, just lob in a cube!
That Robin certainly is a friendly little chap :-) http://flickr.com/photos/pcgfatbob/633125359/
We're also struggling due to 3 weeks away and the incredibly heavy rain. Our potatoes have actually migrated by about 2 foot from their original positions.
My garlic is pitiful ! about the size of small conkers!
The wife veto-ed freezing the garlic as she thinks it will make the freezer smell of garlic.
Chris, sorry about all the water ;>) I am trying to stop in from coming on to my plot, so if I can divert it past mine you might get less as well!
Thanks for writing this.
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