Garlic Harvest: 2017

When green garlic leaves fade to brown, it's time to harvest them. It's important to get them out of the ground before tops get too weak to help pull the roots out. Also, as the leaves fade, organisms start eating away the membranes that cover the cloves, exposing these gems to soil. Although dirt readily washes off, bulbs are much fancier wrapped in colorful membrane layers. Also, it's only possible to braid garlic together if the leaves are strongly attached.

Garlic Bed with Parsley Growing Between Rows

Another View Showing Green Garlic Leaves Turning Brown

This year it took six hours to collect about 200 pounds of garlic and stack them exposed to air to cure them. The bulbs must be oriented separately from the leaves so they dry quickly without starting to make "compost". Our new wagon seems to be an ideal tool for curing because the mesh bed allows air to circulate.

Wagon Full of Garlic, Stacked So Bulbs Are Exposed to Air

Knowing that garlic is harvested before the end of July, in early June I broadcast parsley seeds all over the garlic patch. It's now growing very well and by September will be ready for freezing packets of parsley pesto. Last fall the garlic was planted through inches of leaves and other mulch. This spring, some garlic sprouts needed help getting through the larger leaves. Today the mulch has disappeared, processed away primarily by worms, but there was enough left in June to successfully germinate parsley seeds.

Parsley Now Without Competition from Garlic

This year has been cool and wet so garlic scapes didn't appear until later in June. We picked them as soon as they appeared so that the plants' energy goes into the cloves.

Fifteen Pounds of Scapes from the Above Garlic Bed

Glazing Details & Finally Planting Garlic

Weather this week has been sunny and warm, perfect for finishing up the greenhouse glazing details. Both the seven panels that make the transition from the building roof to glazing panels and the covering for the remaining five panels peak had to be reinstalled. 

Aluminum-Skinned Foam Panels Make the Transition from the Corrugated Building Roof to the Glazing Panels

EPDM Rubber Sheet Peak Detail

The new glazing panels are three inches longer than the old ones so they create a "drip edge" that will allow gutters to collect rain. Water has been running down the front wall because there was no extension to let water fall free. Next spring I'll install a system to collect rain and store it for watering both the greenhouse and outdoor gardens so we no longer have to pump water up from the pond. Ice and snow from both the connected building and the glazing slides down with lots of force and would damage gutters which would also impede snow removal, required periodically to make way for more snow.

To prevent rain from entering the internal passages of the glazing, I had to fabricate aluminum flashing that sheds water and allows any moisture inside the panel to drain. These flashing details had to be inserted just under the top layer of the panels so that they readily shed ice and snow but don't get knocked off by heavy frozen sheets when they slide down. Finally, everything had to be caulked to keep out winter winds.

Drip-Edge Detail That Covers the End of the Glazing Panels, Readily Sheds Ice and Snow yet Allows Moisture that Collects Inside the Panels to Drain and Will Let a Gutter Collect Rain 

I like to plant garlic during October so that it develops healthy plants before the ground freezes solid but this year finishing the greenhouse was more important. The first 300 cloves did make it into the ground today and the rest will probably follow within a week. An early thaw will let them flourish next season but we'll have to get by with a smaller harvest if we get an extended cold spring like this year.

Garlic Bulbs Ready to Be Broken Into Individual Cloves for Planting

First Wide Row of Garlic Cloves Planted, Root End Down

Garlic Bed Covered with Two Inches of Soil, Then Two Inches of Mulch

Second Garlic Row and It's Getting Dark Already!

Both Rows Ready for Winter!

Closeup of This Year's Garlic Bed Now Covered in Parsley That Was Planted in June Five Weeks Before Harvesting the Garlic. The Seeds Need Be Sprinkled Around the Thinning Mulch That is Being Eaten by Earthworms and Pill Bugs. This Parsley Is the Main Ingredient, Along with Garlic, of Our Favorite Pesto!