Goodnight Garden

Even though there's no more swimming in the lake, no more camping trips, no reading our books while the kids play on the beach for us till next summer, we really do have it pretty good in the early fall on the island. We have had lovely warm weather and blue blue skies most days this September.

In the garden, the strawberries are producing nicely, as is the lettuce. The tomatoes and squash are still ripening, and our winter crops of kale and rainbow chard are trying their best.

I have a long list of things I'll do better next year, like building a plastic cover to protect our tomatoes from the wind, and to keep them warm for an earlier, better crop. And more. More of everything, especially greens. And next year, I swear it, I will grow a decent crop of carrots.

But, it is time to move on and prepare the garden for the winter. The last thing to go into the ground in our garden this year is garlic. We planted some of what we grew last year (although we've already eaten most of it!), and some that we bought at our local farmers market. We chose soft-neck garlic because it is easy to grow, and will keep in a dry, dark place for longer than the hard-neck varieties.

To prepare the garlic, we pulled whole bulbs apart and separated them into cloves just before planting. We prepared the garlic bed by working in a bag of fish compost, and then digging two trenches side by side, about 3" deep. When the trenches were ready, we placed the garlic cloves into the them, about 5" apart, and then covered them with soil and watered them well. Before long, we should see the greens come up, and they will last through the winter. We will harvest this crop next summer, likely some time in July. Now all we have to do is wait!