succession-planting

[cabinguy]

I just harvested 1/2 my garlic today a bit early but I planted my tomatoes in the middle of my two beds of garlic and thought they needed some sun, so I harvested one of the side beds. My plan is to top dress the bed where the garlic was with composted manure and plant Mustard greens ( Florida broad leaf ) . I've never planted Mustard greens before ( I'm in zone 5b ) is it to early to plant a fall crop of Mustard greens ?

 

[BarredBuff]

Looks great! A lot of garlic harvested. I am in Zone 6a and in Eastern Kentucky; so, we are fairly close. You can plant them later in the season I believe. In years past, we've sown them in the middle of August and harvested through early Winter. They were very prolific and my rabbits loved them too.

I have plans on sowing some around August 1st.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Wow, what a great harvest! Nice picture @cabinguy.

 

[Beekissed]

LOVE you place, Cabin Guy, and can only dream of having garlic that big and healthy looking.

 

[cabinguy]

Thanks BB I think Ill wait till the end of this month to plant the Mustard.
Glad you enjoyed the pic MMD
Thanks for the compliment Bee on the house and the garlic Ive been working on two different varieties.
I started growing garlic about 4 years ago, I purchased 4 or 5 heads of each from a local produce auction and have been keeping 20%
the largest heads year for seed stock. This year I will harvest 500-550 heads and each of the two varieties have been growing in size each year the one in the picture is the smaller of the two and has a bit of red in the skin. We love the scapes in the spring,ferment and few heads and make black garlic,dehydrate some, make garlic powder during the winter,use the whole garlic and this year experimented with making scape powder. Ive kind of standardized on my bed by growing one variety on each side of the bed with my tomatoes in the middle inter planted with basil. The perfect sauce bed, the garlic deters many of the bad bugs the basil attracts the beneficial bugs helping to increase the tomato yield. Many sources say the basil improves the taste of the tomatoes if planted near but im not to sure about that.

 

[Chic Rustler]

nice haul!

 

[framing fowl]

How do you make the black garlic?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm curious too!

 

[cabinguy]

Yes I make it.
Its really easy but it takes 3 or 4 weeks. You put garlic bulbs in a old rice cooker on the warm cycle and wait till done.
Make sure the rice cooker is not in the house because its very very odoriferous the first week. When done
the garlic becomes very sweet and soft and has a smoky molasses kind of taste with amazing health benefits. Ill post pictures next time I make it in a few weeks. https://draxe.com/black-garlic/

 

[cabinguy]

Planted my mustard greens two weeks ago in the bed where my garlic was. The mustard greens sprouted a week ago and are doing well ill need to thin them soon. This weekend im preparing the bed where i harvested my Yukon golds and I'm planting kale, Swiss chard and collards im hoping its not to late for the fall crops