Last fall my neighbor gave me several of his famous garlic bulbs to use as seed so I could plant my second garlic crop in the vegetable garden.  My first crop was not very successful, mostly because I did not pay attention to cutting off all the scapes in the spring. My harvest in July was puny. This time I planted each clove in well tilled soil and mulched heavily with spoiled hay in mid-October. You can read about Rol Hesselbart and the advice he gave me here.

Having heeded all of Rol’s advice planting the garlic, I also obeyed him by carefully removed all the garlic scapes in the spring. Well, almost all of the scapes. One escaped  (pun intented) my notice and grandson Drew found it as he helped with the harvest. It is just a little taller than he is, and we all marveled to see the seed head with its tiny tiny garlic bulbules. I just found a website that explains how those bulbules can be left to ripen and then planted. This is something I might have to try next year.

The garlic bulbs are now drying in the Great Room but I assured daughter Kate that I will not have to buy any garlic for several months. I will save out six of the biggest and best bulbs and use those cloves to plant in October.