Talking Sweet About Nothing

I planted approx. 50 garlic cloves in late October. We're hoping for larger bulbs this year. We figured out our garlic seed from last year was not open pollinated, causing it to grow, but never bulb out. They were small, but very potent. Here's our open pollinated garlic (Asian Tempest) around the beginning of March.

From Garden '12

After cleaning up last fall, I planted a winter ground cover of rye grass, hairy vetch, and other replenishing annuals. I also collected bagged leaves from around the neighborhood and put down a 6 inch layer over all growing beds. The leaves decomposed and the grasses thickened up, looking like this by mid-March.

From Garden '12

Actually, right before those pics I mowed the ground cover down to make it easier to till everything under. Tilling will kill the ground cover, and incorporate all the compost into the soil. Here's the same area after tilling.

From Garden '12

From Garden '12

Not so pretty. Most of the backyard looked like this. All the green bits you see were dead within a week, graciously donating their organic matter to my soil.

And here's the garlic in mid-March.

From Garden '12

The last thing to get caught up on are my seedlings. We saved seeds from our Basil and Dill from last year. We started those seeds in our basement, along with Marigold seeds. Here's the setup at the beginning of March when we started.

From Garden '12

And here they are not too much later by mid-March.

From Garden '12

I think that catches everything up to now. I hope to do a better job of posting our progress this year.