Planting Garlic and Another Heat Wave

Since last week, here in San Diego County, we have been experiencing one of the longest heat waves I can remember.  Today the temperature reached 101.  Yesterday I think we made it to 104!

When you get to the bottom of this post I have a 10 day forecast for our area.  Is that really rain I see forecast for the 23rd? There is a chance that Hurricane Odile on the Baja Coast may bring us some rain, we have a 50% chance, but then we have a 50% chance that we won't.  Maybe I will get out tonight and do a rain dance under what is left of the moon and hope for a 51% chance of rain.

Not much else to do with the high heat so I spent the mid-morning under the shade of the front veranda and planted up 32 garlic cloves.  This is garlic that I grew last year and kept the smaller heads to separate into cloves to plant this fall, for next years harvest.  I hope this batch will do better than last years,  I only got a dozen or so that were large enough to use for cooking.

You can see by the sprout that these were ready to be planted.  I lost a few that rotted but I did end up with about 32 cloves.  I will give them about a month to 6 weeks in the pots and then plant them out in the garden.

"Garlic used as it should be used is the soul, the divine essence, of cookery. The cook who can employ it successfully will be found to possess the delicacy of perception, the accuracy of judgment, and the dexterity of hand which go to the formation of a great artist."

Mrs. W. G. Waters in 'The Cook's Decameron,' 1920

10 Day Forecast for Escondido

Mon Sep 15

102^°F Observed High 12:05 pm

Tue Sep 16

101^°

Wed Sep 17

106^°

Thu Sep 18

88^°

Fri Sep 19

83^°

Sat Sep 20

80^°

Sun Sep 21

83^°

Mon Sep 22

^86°

Chance of rain:

10%

Tue Sep 23

88^°

AM Showers

Chance of rain:

50%

Wed Sep 24

90^°

Chance of rain:

10%

We're picking Tomatoes, Onions, Garlic and More Squash!

Tomatoes are coming in now.  I picked a few Anna Russian Pink, Purple Russian and Paul Robeson Black. The Green Zebra are also starting to ripen now and I picked a couple of those yesterday.  The San Marzano's seem a bit behind this year. One of my plants is struggling, but hopefully, I will get plenty from the other plant.

The green ones are from a San Marzano plant that I pulled out this morning. The plant looked sick, I don't have space for sick plants!  

 A couple of Mango's off to the left side are from the Farmer's Market.

Mortgage Lifter is loaded with green tomatoes.  The Ponderosa plant that is on the driveway bank is over 8 feet tall now and has more tomatoes on that one plant than I see on any of my others.  Although, Southern Night and Cherokee Purple are not far behind.  I picked about 6 Southern Night yesterday afternoon.

Persimmon Orange only has a few tomatoes on it.  I don't understand why, last year this variety gave us a lot of fruit.  This is in the same bed as the San Marzano so maybe the soil needs some boosting for next year.  I have been fertilizing on a regular schedule of every two to three weeks and they all get the same amount so it can't be lack of that.  The plants look good, just not much fruit.

Crimson Carmello is coming in now to and is loaded with fruit.  German Queen and Gold Medal will be a little later, but have a nice amount of fruit.

I planted 3 more San Marzano plants today, and another Cherokee Purple.  I had the plants and couldn't bring myself to tossing them. I still have more plants and if I can find space I will plant them.  I think we will have a long summer this season.  The plants I have in now will be ripening very soon so these will be my backups for September harvesting.

I also planted a few pepper plants I had , a Mexico Chili and a Sweet Pimento pepper.  These I planted in bed 4 after I removed the onions.

This is an 8 foot table.  Small ones on this end and the larger ones on the far end. I was up until 9:30 last night cleaning and removing the greens.  I let them dry a few days in the ground first, and now they will dry and cure a few more weeks. I will be putting them on drying racks today so the air will circulate under them.

 I grew all of these from seeds that we started last fall. We pulled a lot for spring onions, then left the rest to grow to full size. I do have a lot that are small and may plant these again later on in the fall, they were crowded.  I need to leave more space for them next year.  I am pretty proud of these because onions do take a long time to grow to full size and you must fertilize often as they are high feeders. And keep the weeds out too, I have found that they don't like weeds!

Tons of summer squash this year.  This is just a sampling of what we have picked, I generally get 10-20 every couple of days and have been picking since June.  The Scallop squash has been incredibly prolific this year.  I have been cutting them in half and roasting on a sheet pan at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. This gives them a nice caramel color and are so yummy, then I put 4 or 5 in bags and freeze them.  I think I have about 20 bags in the freezer already, just of the patty pan!

I grate the zucchini and freeze it raw, this works fine for muffins and breads when the winter months come around and I want zucchini bread. I also grate the other squash when I find the ones that have grown too large for cooking.

My new idea:  When the tomato plants get so big and spread over the cages I have a hard time getting to the tag that I have in the ground.  This year I decided to make some tags that I could staple to the racks, up high so I can read them.  This is working out nice and I will do this again next year.  I don't have a laminator so I used packing/mailing tape to double wrap the label, so far it is holding up.

You can see here just how big the tomatoes are this year.  This is Ponderosa at around 8 feet, there is no way I can find the marker at the bottom of the plant, but with my new tags I can see it easily.  Of course if my memory was what it used to be I wouldn't need tags at all.

My garlic did pretty well, but I have a lot of small ones that I think I will replant in the fall.

Shallots did not do well at all.  I will plant these again in the fall.

On the other hand the Grapefruit are huge this year!

When the heat like a mist veil floats,
And poppies flame in the rye,
And the silver note in the streamlet’s throat
Has softened almost to a sigh.
It is July.

 –Susan Hartley Swett (1860–1907)

Winter Veggie Bed Update

I took a few pictures of the raised beds today to keep my blog up to date on the growth.  The rain this week and last has really helped in watering.  Normally at this time of year our weather is hot and dry.  I am so grateful to mother nature for providing us with this rain. 


All of these beds were planted on September 11th and 12th.  In less than a month we are almost ready to pick some of the lettuces and green onions, too.

Onion and Shallot sets, a few Garlic sets, Sorrel, Mesclun, Arugula, and Mache

Onion Sets, Swiss Chard, Kale, Radicchio, Spinach, Watercress

Beets, Kale, Cilantro, Radish and more Swiss Chard

I still need to find a place to plant my pea pods.