Planting Garlic, Greens, and Radishes Before the Rain

October 13, 2035

On Monday (October 6), I took a few pictures of the red pineapple.

For breakfast, I made baklava muffins. These were so good; I’ll share the recipe in a different post.

In the short garden beds, A1 and A2, I turned in the dirt and compost Bruce put on the beds with a pitchfork. In bed A1, I dug up a large sweet potato that had been left behind. After turning in the dirt and compost, I planted garlic in bed A2. I labeled each square with the name of variety I planted in it. I planted four softneck garlic varieties: Nootka Rose, California White, Inchelium Red, and Transylvanian Softneck.

For those of you who are curious, there are two types of garlic: softneck and hardneck. Hardneck garlic needs a longer period of cold weather to grow, while softneck garlic requires only a small amount of cold weather. Hardneck garlic gets its name from its hard stem that is ridged and hard to bend. Softneck garlic has a soft stem that is easy to bend, so softneck. Softneck garlic is used for garlic braids. Hardneck garlic produces a scape (edible flower stalk), while softneck garlic doesn’t. Softneck garlic can be stored up to 12 months, while hardneck garlic only lasts for 6 months. Next year, I might try a hardneck garlic as well as the softneck garlic variety I like best.

After planting the garlic, I topped up half a bed with some Bama Dirt Pro Mix. I turned the dirt to mix it together. I then planted Japanese mustard, radishes, and arugula.

Bruce worked on getting the next long garden bed put together while I was busy planting. I took a short break from planting and helped him with the screws on the side pieces.

The bumble bees were on the basil flowers.

The sky was too overcast for a sunset. It started raining during the night.

On Tuesday (October 7), it rained almost all day.

It started clearing up around 5 o’clock. We did get a pretty sunset around 6:30 pm.