Garlic, Leeks and Onions

Our garlic was a total failure this year. Something just wasn't right and I am officially done looking at it. We were able to get some straw from a friend and so I am pulling it out, composting it and covering it with straw until planting time. Through the mercy of my dear friend Cheryl, I will get a fresh batch of hard neck garlic this fall along with our mutual new experiment of soft neck garlic! I am really excited about starting this again.

Our leeks are marvelous again this year! Oh how we enjoy leeks and how they seem to enjoy our soil. I guess I was made for root crops. Stealing an idea from a preserving book, we are bringing a bucket of sand into the basement this winter and will trim the roots off of the leeks and plant them in. Watering once, checking monthly, they will likely hold until spring onions are cropping out of the ground.

Given our utter frustration with green beans, I have finally convinced my husband that onions are something we really ought to grow instead. We found discounted ($.50 and $.10) 50 onion sets at the local gardening store and threw them into our patio garden as an experiment in late July. They will only ever amount to table onions but something is better than nothing and if we can keep the kids away from them, we will have some red and white scallions for soups and fall stews.

Kale is a new crop for us this year and as such was only given a small space. What a mistake! The stuff is awesome and thriving in our yard! Who knew?! Next year Kale will get a place of honor in our garden so that we can eat kale chips all fall.

Tomatoes and Peppers 2011

This year all of our peppers and tomatoes were from the UWGB Heirloom sale. We were incredibly happy with the peppers and mildly happy with the tomatoes.

For the peppers, we came home with King of the North, WI Lakes and Quadrato Asti Rossa. All 3 are setting large squat fruit. The WI Lakes are the first to turn red on August 21st. The Kings are setting huge, gorgeous fruit. The Quadrato are totally inconsistent. Some have set softball size fruit and some have their first flowers now. (Aug 21st).

The tomatoes are frustrating. We spread our plants out more this year than any other year and still they are 6' high and collapsing over everywhere. The federle are fascinating. Gorgeous fruit (about the size and shape of typical banana peppers) with yellow and orange stripes on red fruit. These are somewhat hollow and dry inside making them easy to slow roast or cut for salsa.

The Amish paste tomatoes are good producers, rich in deep red, black and dark green colors and very meaty inside making them ideal of canning. They are just slightly larger than golf balls on the small size and about the size of tennis balls on the large size. They are sweet and when roasted taste like candy.

The Martino Romas are a complete disappointment. Nearly all of them have persistent blossom end rot, they are small plants which are nearly swallowed up by the massive neighbors (the Ferderle and the Amish Paste). They are a sickly red color and utterly unimpressive.

One of the conclusions we have come to this year is that our tomatoes cannot be grown together. Our soil is rich with whatever it is that makes these plants into giants. Our plan for next year is to put 1 tomato plant on each corner and one or two on the long grassy edge with 1 or 2 basil plants bedded around each. We hope that by spreading them out, we will give them adequate air circulation. Perhaps using garlic to connect them. The garlic will do it's most important work while the tomato plants are young and tender. When the garlic scapes have been harvested, the tomato plants will start filling up the empty space.