david c

Earlier this year, on a whim, I planted some garlic in my garden. I picked up some extra heads from the grocery, and just stuck them in an unused corner of my veg patch. Well the tops started dieing off a week or so ago, so I've pulled them all up to cure. I ended up with about 30 heads of garlic, but they are all fairly small. I assume this is because I planted them in the spring rather than the fall like I was supposed to. I would guess that the biggest of them are about an inch across, but otherwise they all seem healthy.

I am trying to decide if I should use this garlic in cooking, or just replant it all later this fall, and hopefully harvest some much larger heads next year.  I know that garlic is a plant that will adapt to you garden conditions if you keep replanting it year after year, I am just not sure if there would be a benefit to planting a whole, smallish, head instead of a single clove.

Any thoughts?

What is the best time of year to plant Sunchoke tubers?

I have been thinking about trying them out for a while now.

I had a ton of volunteer tomatoes last year. They stayed pretty small for the most part. The fruit that developed on them wasn't anything like the fruit I got from the parent plants. It was mostly very tiny cherry like tomatoes. The flavor was so so. If I get some pop up this year I will probably just pull them. Unless they are totally out of the way of anything else I am planting it wasn't worth keeping them around. Plus there is the whole rotating crops to reduce disease.

I have had copper work in protecting individual plants.

I have a roll of copper foil tape, which is use to shield electronics from interfearance, and I made a few rings out of it and placed it around some plants the slugs were hitting pretty hard. Once I picked off the little baby slugs that had been trapped in the ring, there hasn't been any new holes chewed in it.

I already had the copper tape from work, and the type I have is $50 for 18 yards. I did some poking around Amazon, and they have a 36 yard roll for about $11+S&H. Not sure how this one might hold up outside, but is is cheap enough to give it a try.  http://www.amazon.com/JVCC-CFL-5CA-Copper-Conductive-Adhesive/dp/B000UZ8SJK

Just curious if that would be a good idea. I know people say not to use cedar planks for raised beds because something in the wood inhibits some plant growth.  Just wondering if putting the cedar shavings from my dogs bed in the compost would be a bad idea.

I can always toss them into the yard debris bin and let the local waste management company worry about it.

I've never kept goats, being a city boy, but wouldn't a tether work?  I suppose it depends on how many goats you are talking about. Drive a sturdy stake into the ground near where you need the goat to do it's work, and tether him there with something he won't chew on.

One of these cork screw type Dog Tie-Out Stakes might do the trick. I have one for my dog that I use while camping, and it is near impossible to pull out.

http://www.amazon.com/Super-Duty-18-Dog-Tie-Out-Stake/dp/B001ELMBEM

I suppose the biggest issue would be shade, water and whatever else the goats need. I understand your desire for letting them roam and take care of themselves.

I am FINALLY starting my compost pile at home. I would like a worm bin, but I don't have the resources at the moment.

Just curious if I should try and keep the heap out of direct sunlight. Would it dry it out to fast, or would the extra warmth from the sun help kick start the breakdown.

On a whim a few weeks back I purchased three extra bulbs of garlic while doing my shopping.  I split up the cloves and planted them out in the garden. The majority of them have already sprouted up. I figure there are at least 24-30 out there. If they are spraying the traditional garlic at the supermarket to keep it from sprouting it doesn't seem to be very effective.

I would give it a shot. Even if it doesn't go as well as a fall planting, at least you'll have grown something. Plus garlic bulbs are like 50 cents or less, so it isn't like you are breaking the bank by experimenting.

I will try and remember to post the results when they finally harvest.

Joel Hollingsworth wrote:
At a party last night, a friend was singing the praises of cilantro's frost-hardiness.

I know some people plant crocus in their lawns to have something green in the early spring. Do you suppose something like cilantro (maybe not exactly that, but the seed is really cheap from the grocery store) might have a place in keeping the lawn green when the dominant grasses are dormant in the winter?

Not sure what variety of cilantro your friend is using, but in my experience it has died off completely each year here in Oregon. Plus cilantro is a pretty tender plant, I don't think it would like being walked on.

So I have gotten three loads of coffee grounds from my local Starbucks now, and I have some observations.  First of all, the drip grinds are still pretty wet and messy to work with, they also include the filters. Shouldn't be a huge problem for the compost pile, but it was kinda annoying to pick them out when I was just spreading them out around my garden. I have gotten a few bags from their espresso machines, and those grounds are much better to work with.  There are no filters to deal with, most of it is still in the little puck shape from the espresso machine, they are also very dry, and finer than the drip grounds.

Starbucks also provides a bit of info about coffee grounds. One of the bags I grabbed had a sticker on it which said this:

Coffee grounds are a nutritional additive for your soil. During the brewing process, most of the acidity is removed, leaving used grounds with with an average PH of 6.9 and a carbon-nitrogen of 20-to-1.

It also goes into how best to apply to your plants, and composting and such.

I am thinking about spreading some of the finer espresso grounds on my lawn to see how it likes it.