Homesteading: Raised Beds, Garlic and Aesthetics

Growing some super foods and gardening

After a long drought, we finally got rain yesterday. Of course, as is often the case after a long drought we got too much rain. Three inches to be precise. The gravel roads washed a bit, the barn suffered from dampness and mud - as a trickle of water ran down the aisle and into a stall, the horses were generally pissed off at the world and the guinea fowl looked and I am sure - felt, sad and bedraggled. But in the end, no real harm done.

Lately, I have been thinking about planting spring bulbs. I have been discouraged in years of late, because the daffodils which I love seem to last for a season or two and then peter out by the third year. I think that squirrels and bugs enjoy snacking on them too much around here. However, that pop of color in the spring is gorgeous and always brightens the landscape during that dark period before the “real” spring comes. I will often buy bulbs late in the season from a big box store at a much discounted price. They seem to do just fine planted late.

So this year, I planted my basil, tomatoes squash and eggplant in old 100-gallon stock tanks that had met their maker for that particular use. As my horses sometimes take a big old hoof and splash themselves a shower in the heat of summer. In the process, a hole occasionally gets torn in the plastic - rendering them useless for watering horses. As around here we practice - “waste not, want not”, jill repurposed the tanks for the garden.

(As an aside, Tantra -who feels a certain sense of importance does not tolerate late meals. If she feels slighted by the dinner schedule or if she is lonely, as soon as she hears us outside, she will splash and knock over the tank. Then she knows, we will have to come pay attention to her when we refill the tank. The awful truth is that this technique pretty much works every time. Don’t let anyone tell you that horses aren’t smart.)

So now, back to the winter garden. We missed the boat on getting an early winter garden in. Travel and the tyranny of the urgent took over our lives. But now the summer garden has been ripped out of the tanks, the soil rejuvenated with a fresh layer from the aged manure and Jill is soon off to Yoder’s (a local Amish grocery store) this morning to pick up some organic garlic. Although gardening books often state that the time to plant garlic is around September, we have found that mother nature is much more forgiving if the bulbs are planted late fall up until mid-winter.

Now, in Virginia we don’t get bone-freezing cold, in fact - the temperatures are moderate. Below is a chart of our average high and low temperatures for the each month. I think The upper Southeast may be the most under-rated states for quality of life - but don’t tell anyone I said that. Particularly, my physician, Dr. Brooke Miller, as he believes this part of Virginia is the best kept secret in the East.

Anyway, back to garlic. The advice in gardening catalogues is to plant the bulbs a couple of months before the ground freezes up or in early spring. But the truth is - that unless you live in an area where the ground freezes hard, planting now works fine. We even planted out garlic in a raised bed in January once and had a bumper crop.

Jill buys her bulbs from the local Amish store, if they have some that are organic and grown in the USA. The prices in a grocery are less than a a fifth of that in a nursery, so there is that. Otherwise, she will settle for organic or buy from an online nursery. Amazon also sells bulbs, but they are expensive. However, they do have lots of “heirloom” choices. Buyer beware with Amazon and bulbs and seeds. You never know quite what you will end up with.

Raised beds are always a grand way to control weeds. They also allow for easy pruning, picking and weeding -as there is less bending down or sitting on the ground.

We had three stock tanks going this summer. With squash, tomatoes, egg plant and basil.

Here is one of the same tanks, ready for garlic bulbs, spinach seeds and daffodil bulbs to be planted over Thanksgiving. I also have some parsley starts in the Aerogarden, that I will add in when the plants are bit older and hardier.

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At our last farm, Jill took an old round bale feeder - painted it black with Rust-Oleum paint and presto! Duel purpose - beauty and functionality. That turned out to be a unique piece of art in the garden. We had three feeders going like this for our veggie garden at that farm. An old, beat up round bale feeder can be had for about $100.00 on craigslist or FB with careful searching. Once painted, the dents aren’t seen and these used as raised gardens will last for years.

Here you can see early spring - garlic, parley, spinach and daffodils.

Another trick for raised gardens, is to put them near where there is a lot of foot traffic and easy access to a hose. Planting a vegetable garden in the “back-forty”, most likely will lead to neglect.

Finding old items to repurpose in the garden, particularly for raised beds is a lot of fun. From old feeders to wheelbarrow or old tubs - the creative possibilities are endless. Just stay away from anything with lead paint or other toxins. We don’t use pressure treated lumber ever for our vegetable gardens.

Spinach is a cool weather crop and seeds can tolerate a lot of variability as to when they are planted. Late fall, as well as winter is a great time to get some seeds in the ground, if your area isn’t too cold. Spinach does nicely with Garlic and daffodils and can make a stunning display.

Of course, just planting daffodil bulbs for the sake of the spring color - is worth the effort. Particularly, if you can get them to naturalize.

Harvesting garlic is pretty easy but there are certain steps. It should be harvested when the bulbs are at their biggest (about July); that is when the leaves start to die back and the nutrients have been sucked from the leaves into the bulbs. Harvest when the soil is dry, brush off as much soil as you can and then the garlic needs to be hung. Don’t rinse the bulbs - as that can lead to mold. Just use some string or baling twine to tie about 10 stalks together and hang somewhere dry until the stalks are completely withered. Jill likes to hang in the barn or a shed. She does this with oregano, sage, rosemary and thyme too. Once dry, she then she crushes them up, removes the stems and puts the herbs into jars.

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Why plant and eat garlic?

About half of the garlic in the USA is imported. This means that the pesticides, herbicides and processing methods are unknown when using imported garlic.

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Here is a bit longer video on how to chose garlic from the grocery store and why this is important (bottom line, learn to distinguish between garlic grown in the USA and elsewhere, particularly China).

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If you eat a lot of garlic, it is cost effective to grow your own and then you know the quality of the product. By producing your own compost or manure, you can also be assured that the soil has a lot of nutrients to produce a food that also has lots of micronutrients.

Garlic has health benefits that are almost unparalleled. It has been shown to have some protection against the common cold (which probably also means against COVID) and there is evidence that has the ability to help lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Most of garlic’s health benefits are due to the formation of sulfur compounds when it is chop or crushed. Compounds in garlic that have health benefits are allicin, found in fresh garlic as well as Diallyl Disulfide and s-allyl cysteine. These all appear to have strong biological effects on the body.

Gardening has been linked to longevity and building anti-fragility. It is a great way to spend time outside, whatever time of year!

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Pictured below is some of our daffodils and forsythia a few springs ago.