I’ve been eyeing a rather large plot of garlic being grown by one of my fellow gardeners at Rock Farm. He seemed to know what he was doing so I was taking my cues from him. I came in this weekend and saw that he had harvested his garlic. I had read to harvest when half of the leaves have started to die back but mine wasn’t to that point yet so I was really unsure if they were ready. I ended up asking him to look at my plot and he felt they would be ready to harvest. I pulled a couple and was very pleased with what I found. Nice big heads of beautiful garlic. Only one head was split open and past its prime. I am so glad I didn’t wait.

Very early in the season I had planted some Nigella and Dill together. BIG mistake. Their leaves are so similar it would be easy to mistake the nigella for the dill. Not sure if it is poisonous but thankfully I didn’t harvest any. I had thought it odd that my dill seemed to die off and then come back. I guess the nigella waited to come up till after the dill was all but gone. Still, I won’t make that mistake again. I love their beautiful flowers and hope to save some seeds from this batch.

July has been fairly warm so far. I’ve been at the garden watering EVERY day. Trying to get carrots to sprout in this heat is an exercise in futility. They just lie there and laugh. Wanting to keep the soil shaded and cool I decided to try to cover them loosely with some kale branches from the overwintering kale I recently removed to make way for some cucumbers. I can water through the branches but the soil should stay cooler than the surrounding soil and help with germination. At least that is the idea.

I tried growing tomatoes in the garden last year but while I got a lot of green tomatoes, there just didn’t seem to be enough heat or sun. My plot is in a far corner that doesnt’ get late afternoon sun. I also tried a container tomato on the balcony last summer and that seemed to do really well. I’ve opted to do the same this year. I have one Celebrity and one I’ve never tried. A dwarf indeterminate called Iditerod. The Celebrity, as expected, will have the first tomato. Makes my mouth water just looking at the photo.

One of the garden protectors hanging out on a zucchini leaf. Hello little lady.

Lessons Learned: NEVER mix plants with similar looking leaves if one is edible and one is not.