Tuesday 17 November 2009

Planting garlic

According to the calendar of the moon, last weekend was a good time to plant garlic, but we missed it, so we did it today, in a bed which we put a lot of goat manure in last winter.

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Some of the garlic we bought in Villereal market when we were there in September – we bought 5 kilos, so we haven’t eaten it all yet!

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We’ve put a drip-feed hose along the middle of the double row so that we can water the garlic easily in the late spring and early summer when it needs a lot of water. After planting the cloves about 7 or 8 cm apart we covered them with straw to conserve moisture and to try to stop the birds pulling them out before they root.

Our leeks are growing well and we pulled the first two today. We’ll eat them tonight sautéed in butter with pancetta.

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DSC00166 Since we’ve had some rain and the ‘second spring’ has begun, the oregano has started to grow again, so I’ve cut some leaves to dry and store for the winter.




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There are a few small aubergines still growing – we barbecued two for lunch today, with a sweet onion. The aubergines should carry on growing slowly until the first frost which could come any time now, but isn’t forecast for at least the next week.





There’s still a lot of colour in the garden – roses, especially, and the leaves of the cherry tree in the garden next to ours:

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And we’re still harvesting green chillies although they won’t turn red at this time of year. I picked one today – there are more, but we don’t eat many hot peppers so I’ve left the rest for another time.

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9 comments:

sleepyduck said...

The leeks with pancetta sound great! As does the garlic... the aubergines... the chillies...

Jan said...

Goodness, 5 kilos, that sounds a lot of garlic! I've probably got about 50 in, about half of which were retrieved from last years onion bed in a small state of growth, so I just put them back in! Those roses are gorgeous, I'm waiting for ours to start blooming again after coming to a standstill in the summer.

chaiselongue said...

Sleepyduck: yes, the leeks and pancetta were delicious!

Jan: 5 kilos of garlic doesn't last us very long - we can't possibly grow enough as we eat it with (almost) everything! But it's good to grow some of our own, which we mostly barbecue as whole heads in the summer.

impoftheyard said...

These are lovely shots of and yes, the leeks and pancetta sound great. Eating garlic with almost everything sounds great to me too. I wish it I could pop over for lunch.

Stefaneener said...

The leeks look fantastic. I'm with you on the garlic, I told my spouse today that every single meal I cook (with the exception perhaps of scrambled eggs) starts with either garlic or onion or both. All alliums, all the time here!

Enjoy -- nice artichoke peeking up in that one picture.

Heiko said...

I had an idea that when we planted our garlic last week that we were spot on with the moon phase and all, good to have it confirmed. Do the French also meticulously garden by moon phases like the Italians?

easygardener said...

I wish we had a longer summer season here. I had another go at Aubergines which I tried years ago but true to form the weather turned cool and their growth stopped. A pity as they were orange when ripe so very attractive - but they only grew an inch long!

mo said...

Now I know why I don't have a lot of success with garlic.....I stick it in and leave it to it's own devices!

nihatyh said...

useful is a plant garlic in turkey, we use almost all the dishes and he's my taste wonderful natural antibiotic.