GALECK, GALECK

Garlic, if there was ever to be an alien space invader made of kitchen tools I hope they have tons of GALECK

But in the mean time I preparing for my first garlic winter.  I grew garlic once in Fl. It was initially an amazing success, followed closely by unmitigated disaster. Not a single garlic in the pots or garden. However the year after I moved to Tucson my old roommate called me up "Hey, remember your garden? Garlic and Peppers seem to be growing like crazy over there!".  So while I did not get to enjoy the bulbs of my labor at least I know they were delicious eventually. Garlic makes my favorite i feel like crap dinners , Sopa de Ajo (from my FAVORITE cookbook, Clarita's Cocina-check it out) so I am definitely motivated to try again.

I started out at the AZGardenForum.  http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/azgard/msg0920362827535.html Turns out there is a bunch that goes into garlic. I am planning on doing a grocery store planting since so many of the garlic I buy already sprout when I forget them in the fridge.  So I'm pretty sure they are not sprayed with any retardant. So while my formal plan is to just shop and plop  I thought it would be nice to find some more out about Garlic to help with good planning on where it should go.

AH: Mother Earth News Fill us in: what do you know, the best kind for braiding :) Turns out these babies won't be ready till next summer.  Harvest time is when about half the leaves turn a yellowish color.  I need to figure out how to mark these guys as different from my chives, because they look similar. (My second test to identify plants after looking is tasting and they taste too similar for me to accurately identify between the two with any confidence)

Companion Issues: (and my NEW C.P. List) Plays poorly with Peas/Beans (Hmm, my chives are near the mystery beans, note to self to check on that later!) But it also plays VERY well with other plants turns out it is a "natural fungicide"  It is often grown with Roses to combat Aphids (see pests). It is also grown with fruit trees! (Who knew? not me!) They also support a lot of winter veggies, beets, and cabbages.


Pests: the reason Garlic is such an awesome companion plant is because it is supposed to help repel insects.  In fact in the War on Aphids, I considered making a Garlic Spray as one of my attempts to combat the gross lil devils. (I ended up making Tomato Spray because that was what was in the house). The lady at Arbico-Organics noted that the small flowers on herbs tend to attract lots of beneficials so I bet Garlic would as well.

Mystery Beans

They are getting bigger and definitely some sort of bean.  I love pea/bean flowers. They are so delicate and dainty. They also offer up a nice change from all of the yellow of the summer veggies (think squash, melon, cucumber).

 They also have some beans. Problem is they are sort of a mystery plant. I got a little crazy and I planted a Bush bean, some Pinto beans and black beans at various times. However I did not label any of them, and they took FOREVER to come up.   I have no clue which ones these are!  I've tried a bite and they seem a little small and too furry to be edible at this time.  So maybe I have my first home grown frijoles!

Growing Growing Mystery M2

M2 is getting bigger. Remember when she was only this tall Flowers all over. Yet not a single snack to eat.  I still do not know a thing about this gal or what she might be. I think I am just going to let her get bigger and bigger and hopefully she will be identifiable one day.

Winter Seasons

The weather has shifted.  It is starting to be coolish in the morning.  Winter here is short.  Before long I will be prepping for Summer Season.   This time I did something new, I planned.  Especially after the bug-hell I have been in I thought I should spend a little more time getting ready for winter. Plus I am hoping to cut down on the mystery plants. So I've consulted my Magic Garden Companion Guide, picked my winter veggies and Viola! A garden map to end all Garden maps:

Classy right?

So what did I pick and why?
Well first of all Aphids, Aphids Aphids.  The reason I have had so many aphids is because I have had so few beneficials.  I have had so few beneficials because I have no habitat for them.  I have started an "overwinter" garden (which will also be my main garden next year) but thought I would try to pull in some regular plants that might help.

Carrots: Attracts a TON of beneficials such as parasitic wasps, (see my first one HERE!).It also attracts lace wings, assasin bugs and "big eyed bugs" (whatever that is). It also provides added water to the soil (a must here in the desert). It grows really good with Peas and other winter veggies.

Beets: Add tons of minerals to the soil. Also a good companion plant to brassicas (brussels and cabbage).  They are improved by Garlic.

Onions: Supposedly keeps aphids away. I'm not sold on this as I have put in TONS of chives around my more aphid infested plants. But maybe a stronger allium would help. I will also be marking at least two to go to seed.  I think the flat white flowers will attract lots of the beneficials that I am missing.

Garlic: Not only another aphid resistor but also something that will help the orange tree-who knew?. So I sandwiched it between the beets and the orange tree.

Peas-now here is where things got tricky tricky. Supposedly peas and onions are not friends in the garden (despite making a tasty treat in the kitchen). So I pulled them apart a little bit, hopefully this is enough.

Not on the Map-Dill, and Coriander- Both are good garden plants.  Also both taste good. Also Dill and Cilantro are closely related; seems good right? Well maybe not. They cross pollinate.  I have dill growing in the overwinter garden; hopefully that will be far away enough to put some coriander in the garden but where? Carrots and Dill don't play nice, does that mean Coriander won't either? I'm going to need more research to figure this out.

Also I forgot to add Broccoli from some bizarre reason. I think they will go where the lettuce is and the lettuce will be sprinkled around the garden like basil was during the summer. OH yea and SPINACH, forgot that too, i'll find a spot somewhere...

Mystery Plant part Deux

and once again the garden is full of surprises, notably this one:

No seriously, what is this?

And not only is there another mystery plant, she is living WITH the other mystery plants.  (in fact I think I spied a 3rd mystery plant in that corner but I just CANT with that right now). So while I still try to figure out my first mystery (no news on that front as of yet) we are on to M-2 as I like to call her.

And clearly she's a girl, she has bells, one of the first things I noticed as I attempted my sleuthing.  Here's a shot:

It's a little blurry but those bells seem to house the flowers.  The flowers are pretty, similar to okra in shape and with a small dark center.  They only stay open for a day or so.

 and have a beautiful "star" shape when they first open.


Now google images has gotten me some BEAUTIFUL yellow flowered plants but nothing quite like this. It has grown much faster than M-1 but there is only one of them, hopefully she can self pollinate and I will get to learn what this is.  I have no weeds like her in the garden and so I must have planted her. I tried a leaf-not good- (and probably a habit I should stop).

mystery Babies

I had a dead patch of garden I recently mulched along with the more active parts of my garden. I had recently pulled out a humungo-squash and was preparing to use this as a spot to dig in some compost to get soil ready for winter plants. A few weeks later I went outside to dig some kitchen scraps in and I found a surprise.  Mystery Babies! They are getting bigger. they have even developed a second set of leaves~ TRUE LEAVES! That means they are true plants ! Now what are they? Time to do some research

The leaves are smooth and thin. The seedlings look like tomatoes but the true leaves look too smooth at this point. Also check out that stem...red.

Oh wait, Tomatillo's have red stems-I put some tomatillos somewhere in this garden in June, (two months is average germination time right?)

Tomatillo Seeds someone bothered to label

But oh wait: 

This is a tomato seed

Red stems... the "true leaves" of this tomato plant seem more pokie than what I've got going on, but there certainly are a lot of tomato varieties out there!

So lets follow along and see what happens as they get bigger, who knows maybe I am totally wrong and they will turn into this:

Cha Cha Cha...CHIA

Any one remember this:


I do...(and in the spirit of full disclsoure, I had one, I think a looney tunes one?). So why are we remembering terrible infomercials from the 90's? Because I never grew up Because I am trying to grow one again! I have tried growing chia seeds in the past, we never got very far-which is incredibly frustrating seeing as they GROW WILD IN THE DESERT! (useful wild western plants).  However there is incredibly little information on growing them. Why do I want them? Well glad you asked:

Omega 3x6 baby                                

See-healthy!

Chia seeds are amazing-besides being a delicious sprout to add to salads, they are are high energy food. They have protein, fiber and fat and are a whole grain food you can absorb (which makes them beat out flax seeds) and they are incredibly high in anti-oxidants and have Omega 3 and Omega 6 (I don't make this stuff up )They get "goopy" when you add them to liquid (technically called mucilaginous but that sounds gross.) and so when used with chocolate milk you get a rich desert. I add them to iced coffee for a delicious drink/snack halfway through the day.  My husband adds them to his protein shakes when he rides his bike.   However they are HARD TO FIND.  There has been a chia seed shortage) due to limited growers and natural hardship. This is just another example of how important your own foodshed is.  These little seeds are costly as well, I can find them at Costco for 6.99 a pound but the grocery store has them for 10.00 a pound.

So over the next few months I am going to figure out how to make these guys grow. I am growing from my last purchase of seeds from costco (http://nutiva.com/chia-seeds/). I have some sprouts going in sheltered spot and as they get bigger I am putting them into the garden. Follow along!

Where I started:

growing chia seeds: This is a great article to figuire out needs/size/temps/harvest

Desert Harvesters: A lot of sites say the flowers are harvest in the spring but Desert Harvesters guide tells me to plant in the fall-and they are one of my garden bibles here in this hot pot

"the baby plants". I put in small pinches and this patch has been thinned like crazy-i have probably pulled 50 seedlings out of this batch. These are some fertile babies, almost every seed I planted sprouted. 

Toddler Babies: These guys have been transplanted into the garden. They almost died the other day when after two nights of rain were no match for the sunny 100 degree weather.