My garlic was ready to harvest so today seemed as good a time as any.Somewhere in amongst all those weeds is garlic ready to be harvested. Pretty easy really. Just stick a digging fork under the bulb to loosen it a bit then lift it out of the soil and knock off the excess soil.
(If you click on the photos it will take you to the bigger picture. But please come back!)
I was more than surprised at the size and quality of my crop. This is the haul from a 9m/sq area and I probably could have planted the rows closer and increased the size of my crop further. And the smell while knocking off the soil was delicious.
When the leafy part of the garlic has dried I going to have a go at a Garlic braid. If I can manage a half decent job I'll post some photos.
There was some massive bulbs in amongst the crop and these ones here I have put aside for planting next year. I put the dutch hoe in the photo to give you some idea of the size of the bulbs.
Beans, Borlotti and Ying Yang.
Straight after I harvested the garlic I did the lazy gardener thing. As I had stuck the digging fork into most of the bed to lift the garlic I just raked the bed out shaped up a few rows and planted, firstly, a row of ying yang beans around the out side (because they are a semi-climber) of the bed.
I then planted six rows of borlotti beans in the rest of the bed.
To make up for the lack of soil preparation I'll hill the beans when they are about six inches high with a blood and bone enriched compost then follow that up with some chook pen straw for mulch. Then when they just start about to flower I'll run around with some sulphate of potash to help with flowering and pod set.
Well that's it for today
Cheers and happy gardening
Stewart
The head of Australia's national science organisation says climate change poses extraordinary challenges to global food production in the future. CSIRO chief executive Megan Clark has warned higher prices on water and agricultural carbon emissions will make it difficult to sustain the world's growing urban population. Dr Clark told the National Press Club in Canberra that the amount of food needed over the next 50 years is equal to the total amount of food ever produced by humans. "That means in the working life of my children as much grain as has ever been harvested since the Egyptian time," she said. "As much fish as we've ever eaten, as much milk as we've ever taken from reluctant cows on frosty mornings, every frosty morning that we've ever known." She says the challenge will be made even more difficult because climate change will put a higher price on water and on agricultural carbon emissions. "One area where we will have to adapt very quickly is in food production," she said. "It is really hard for me to comprehend that in the next 50 years we'll have to produce as much food as we have ever produced in human history." (ABC News)