Saturday, April 19, 2008

Trying to break the curse.

Having been gifted with an amazing case of Brown Thumb most of my life, I am attempting to break the curse and do some gardening. If all goes well, my Nemophila will soon be joined by some garlic in the back yard and Delphinium (Black Knight) in the flowerbed out front.

13 comments:

  1. good luck!
    Our neglected grocery store garlic was sprouting in the kitchen so I planted it outside next to the stump. It's 3" taller this week.

    umm... what does mature garlic look like?

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  2. Y'know, that is a good question...

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  3. I think, Tam, your brown thumb will continue. Garlic should be planted in the fall (it will grow, but won't reach maturity).
    But hey- it's a start!
    Good luck anyway...

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  4. But... but... they said early Spring was okay too!

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  5. You know what Dorothy Parker and Fran Liebowitz said...

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  6. Easiest way to grow garlic is to leave a couple of bulbs in the ground over the winter. When spring comes, the individual cloves will start to sprout. Just pull them up, separate them out, and replant them. Each will grow into another bulb. If the garlic tries to flower, nip it off; I let mine bolt and now have garlic all over the yard where I don't want it, and have to constantly pull it out as a weed.

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  7. Ouch.

    You do know that Garlic once started is almost impossible to stop, right?

    Not like that's a bad thing, actually.

    Beans and peas. Nothing to 'em. Easy peasy. So to speak. And some tomatoes. Need it with the garlic.

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  8. Perennials are definitely the way to go. Those delphiniums are gorgeous. Be sure to plant some chives - almost foolproof and very tasty on a baked potato...and Mike just told me to tell you to plant some peppermint (make sure it's in a pot, not in the ground) for those nights when a mojito is the only thing that will do.

    Have fun!

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  9. I'll second the tomatoes. Make sure to get the types that produce on a continual basis. There are some that have all of them ripen at one time. Not good unless you plan on canning.

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  10. + 1 on the peppermint plant. Up until now, I had mangaged to deftly kill off every plant I have ever owned. Four weeks in, and my peppermint is not only surviving, but thriving. It even managed to survive my repotting it to a larger pot. Amazing! Make sure you keep it in the pot, though, or it will become a pest.

    Now I have all the peppermint I could possibly want to perfect my mojito recipe. Enjoy.

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  11. I love delphiniums. I'm a sucker for blue flowers. I'm betting you could do well with lobelia up there in that climate, and also you should check out columbines.

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  12. I killed a cactus once. I gave up after that.

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  13. Mature garlic looks as though it carries the weight of the whole world on its stem...

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