Sunday in the Garden

I spent a few hours in the garden yesterday morning, before the heat really set in. It was time to harvest my garlic! An incredibly satisfying task, not unlike the treasure hunt for potatoes :)

Final count was 62 heads of garlic (!!), at least half of a pretty decent (golf ball) size, the rest slightly smaller. I got to do one of my favorite gardening tasks ever, braiding garlic! My four big braids are now hung up in the shade outside the back door to cure. It takes about two weeks for garlic to cure and get all the moisture out of the skin and stem so they won't mold during storage.

The weather should be perfect for curing- highs are supposed to be between 80 and 87 F all week, and it's supposed to be good and dry.

Once I pulled out all the garlic, I was actually able to climb in behind my tomato forest, and find that the cherry tomatoes are going nuts! These are Sungolds (I found at least 15 bunches like this):

With more space open in the garden and easier access to the fence, I pulled out all the pea plants along the fence, which had given out, and weeded the whole garden. I also did some general tidying up, including binding two unruly lemon balm plants to the fence and weaving some of the tomato vines back into their cages.

I love the feeling of having a clean, tidy garden. It looks much less crowded now of course, and more open with only the passionflower vine on the fence.

I also put in a little work propping up my sweet peas on their trellises. They were in a big tangle on the ground before.

There's nothing quite like a warm summer morning in the garden, especially when I get to see the work I put in planting and mulching my garlic last fall pay off. In addition, I know that I have enough garlic to last me a long while, for a fraction of the cost of buying it, not to mention the satisfaction of growing it. My seed garlic (Chesnok Red) came from Hood River Garlic, and their website was incredibly helpful with planting and harvesting instructions and a garlic calendar for tracking the progress of my plants.