Backyard Farmgals

I have discovered that the things I tend to plant in the garden are things that have a piece of someone attached to them.  Not literally, of course, but in the sense that there is a memory or a flavor, a smell or a shape that brings a flood of memories into my mind.  Seeing as I grew up in the garden and was raised by different people at certain moments each in their own gardens, I have hundreds of memories in the garden and with food.  Garlic is one of the most powerful memories for me.  In my mind garlic is the equivalent to Grandpa Wood. Grandpa Wood has been one of the most influential people in my life.  He was practical, knowledgeable, wise, earthy, sustaining, unafraid, dignified, and tough.  He loved to garden.  He kept a salt shaker in the garden for any of us swiping a tomato to eat on the spot.  He talked me through my first gardens, congratulated my triumphs, and taught me when I failed.  When first married, we bought th...

With the cold winter months finally here upon us, if you haven't thought about protecting all of that garlic that you planted in the fall, you might want to consider it now.  If you are in the Southern United States or in any zone above about 6, you shouldn't have to worry about this too much.  Hopefully if you are buried under a few feet of snow, you thought about it earlier!  The idea here is to protect the garlic from getting too cold, and add a few extra nutrients to the soil while you are at it.  Exposure to the cold will surely kill your garlic, and since we have had such a warm (I am using that word loosely) winter, I haven't worried too much about it.  I will tell you that I have now mulched the garlic three times.  The 103 mile-per-hour winds have blown the mulch off once, and another wind storm took off my second attempt at mulching!  You can imagine my frustration.  Third time seems to be a charm, knock on wood, so far it has stayed...