Weeds, Garlic and Mulching

The garlic is about a month ahead of last year. Probably due in part to a fairly mild winter and a long and wet early spring. I also fed them once in early March (probably time to feed again). I wonder, too, if mulching the garlic this year contributed to it's robustness. It is certainly contributing to the fact that weeds are very few in the garlic beds this year and the weeds that do get a toe hold are highly visible and also easy to remove.

As you can see by the photo, this season I mulched with shredded paper - mostly shredded bills and newspapers. When well watered two or three days in a row, it bonds together and holds up well to 50 MPH winds even when dry. If you fluff it up, however, even mild breezes will blow it away, causing some degree of nuisance and litter. Most of the garlic was able to push its way through the paper mache like layer, but several of them needed help. I did not realize this until after a few were pretty stunted. Once I understood what was happening, however, I moved the mulch away from where the garlic was emerging and then repositioned the mulch near the garlic after it was up.

This seems to work on my small scale of about 100 bulbs, but I am not sure how practical this will be if I want to grow, say, 300 or 400 bulbs. 100 bulbs might give me enough garlic for our own garlic consumption, but 300 or 400 bulbs would allow me to either share, sell or barter some of my wonderfully stinky crop.

I am also experimenting with using shredded paper as a mulch in the "watering ring" around my fruit trees. The paper absorbs water very well and also protects against erosion. With a 2 inch layer of mulch, I am able to use the hose pretty forcefully to fill up the watering mote without digging holes in the mote. And, as mentioned above, is an excellent weed suppressant. So far, everything that has shredded paper as mulch are doing well, but I wonder, with all that carbon, will they need extra nitrogen? So far I have two trees, strawberries, peas and garlic mulched with shredded paper. By the way, as a side note, shredded newspaper makes better mulch than shredded bills and junk mail. Also, it decomposes better. When the weather stays consistantly above freezing at night, I will be interested to see if worms take up residence under the paper.

Some day I will have a real compost pile and I will be able to mulch with compost. Then I can compost the shredded paper along with other garden wastes and not have to rely on store bought fertilizers (even if they are organic) that were created far away from my little plot of ground.

We should get some dramatic warming around the middle of May that will hopefully trigger bulb formation. Mmmm, I can taste the spicy hot flavors of my favorite Siberian already... in addition to the "eating" garlic, I have also planted a few cloves here and there among the garden. I'm going to let those "flower" (even though they aren't real flowers) just to see what they look like for myself. Maybe I'll even plant a few of the bubils produced from the "flower" and see what happens to them. It will take them several years to go from rice grain sized bubils to full sized garlic bulbs, but it could be fun to watch the process.

Spring is Here!

It's the First Day of Spring.

I am blessed to have

upon my finger tips

the warm and fuzzy smell

of over-wintered

Oregano.

Herbs have had a place in the home since before gardening, when people would gather the plants from the wilds. And while our pharmacopoeia has expanded to include all sorts of exotic drugs, there is still something primal and comforting about having an herb garden of one's own.

Surviving and bringing the aromas of last summer are both oregano and lemon balm. The garlic has broken ground and basil seedlings sit under lights waiting for warmer weather. A few sweet marjoram seedlings straggle in small pots.

One of my favorite herbs is basil. There seems to be a basil for every occasion. Lemon basil, lime basil, pretty purple basils with pink flowers, spicy basils, and, of course, the good old standby, Genovese basil. They say to plant them 6 inches to 12 inches a part. I plant them closer, knowing that I might be encouraging disease when the humidity is high.

I try to plant most of my herbs in 2 parts sand to 1 part potting soil. They like good drainage and don't appear to be hindered by a lack of fertility. The only herb I really plant in good soil is garlic.

A 4 ft x 8 ft raised bed should keep me well stocked with most herbs for the whole season with plenty to save for freezing. Well, except for garlic. A 4 ft x 8 ft raised bed holds about 45 - 50 cloves of garlic - not really enough garlic for me. This year, I have two beds of garlic with a total of about 100 cloves.

I wonder if I let the oregano creep in and around all the other herbs if it will bother them? The oregano I have is labeled "Greek Oregano" and seems to be a creeping, not really climbing variety. Last year two tiny seedling spread to cover about 2 square feet of ground over the course of the summer. This season, it has already expanded a good 6 inches further. At that rate, the whole bed should be well covered by Autumn.

Time to start thinking about buying another little $2 rosemary plant. I have been, as yet, unsuccessful in keeping one alive indoors through the winter. The little $2 plant I bought last year, however, grew into a sizable little bush over the course of the summer, even with frequent trimming.