Tuesday 6 October 2009

Garlic

I have been planting next years garlic this month. I grew Elephant Garlic this year and its mild flavour made it very useful for roasting and eating whole. I grew my garlic in pots and used the thinnings as green garlic. This was very successful but for a change next years will be growing in the ground again. I bought the bulbs from the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm when I was at the Garlic Festival in August.

http://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/garlicfestival.aspx


The festival is not just about garlic as there are plenty of other attractions -


I have harvested Lemon Grass




and Ginger



I have grown both in my greenhouse and they have been very successful this year. The cats are attracted by the lemon grass leaves - it seems to have the same effect as catnip!
We had torrential rain in the middle of the week - the gardens needed it as the ground was very dry. Today is sunny and dry and the garden is still looking beautiful. Trees are starting to lose their leaves and these contrast nicely with the autumn flowers and berries. There is still plenty of colour in the gardens.



Autumn colour on the University of Surrey campus

4 comments:

  1. Hello Maureen. I love your tips on how to grow garlic. I have visited Gilroy, California who proclaims themselves the "Garlic Capitol of the World". You can actually smell garlic in the air. Anyhow, I add garlic to almost everything I cook.

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  2. Hi Maureen! Your post gives me an idea - to plant elephant garlic. One of my twins admires everything huge (he loves numbers, too, and gets so excited when reads about something gigantic). He hugs big pumpkins and holds big squashes like babies. I think he will be thrilled with giant garlic. Thank you Maureen! Also, I greatly appreciate adding MySecretGarden to your list of faves on Blotanical!

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  3. I've been debating whether to plant my garlic this fall or wait until spring. Have you ever tried planting in the spring?

    Found you through Blotanical.

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  4. How interesting to grow garlic in pots! Never thought of that Maureen. I love the beauty of your ginger! I bought some like that and have it in the freezer just bring it out to grate and back in it goes. Works great that way. Local ginger ... I never would have thought that possible. Of course the energy to freeze it is not so great. Well it is not the only thing in there... Carol

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