Garlic

Two garlic bulbs arrived yesterday from Gurney's. I choose Silver Rose Garlic and California White Garlic. They are meant to be delivered considering timing for planting based on your location. I would have to certainly wait for outdoor planting (we still have snow on the ground), but my plan was to start them indoors as soon as they arrived. And this is what I did.

My sun porch is not insulated and it's quite chilly throughout the winter, but temperatures are warming up and the sun heats the room during the day. Yesterday, the temperature reached 65 and I don't think the room will go much lower than 40 anymore this year - even with outdoor frost. This should work out well, since the garlic is cold tolerant and is an early spring crop.

The Silver Rose cloves were planted in individual compostable pots that I will transfer to the ground when we start the outdoor gardens. I started the California White garlic in two long containers, plus a few in individual compostable pots for transplanting. I'll be watching for the sprouting greens soon. The bulbs should come to maturity in about 4 months, when the greens begin to brown, but green leaves are still present. At that time, the bulb is dug up out of the ground and dried for several weeks. I also plan to use the greens, called "scapes" in the kitchen as I would a chive.