Tag: territorial seeds

2019 Stephi Gardens Holiday Gift Ideas

This has been a very hectic December at my house. Are you as behind in Christmas shopping and preparations as I am? Here’s some (slightly late) holiday gift giving ideas from things I love!

Friends: Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission for each sale. All reviews are my own and are not influenced by any compensation I may receive.

Gardening:

Titan A-Frame Trellis: I’ve always grown cucumbers on trellises, but this year I tried it for my summer squash and zucchini. It didn’t look like the Pinterest squash trellises, but it saved space and was super convenient. The trellis was pretty easy to put together, and Gardener’s Supply Company has a nice video to show how to assemble it. It’s made of plastic, so won’t rust but is plenty strong enough to hold zucchini and squash. It’d work great for any climbing vegetables!

Mini Greenhouse: I start a number of my vegetables inside the house in the spring, and before they can go in the ground they need to spend some time outdoors to harden off. With our unpredictable Midwestern weather, that can be tricky to do. I don’t know what I’d do without my Gardman 4-Tier Mini Greenhouse. It’s super handy to keep the most tender of vegetables and annuals safe from cool spring nights until it’s planting time. As a bonus, it’s a handy place to grow microgreens.

Gardman Mini greenhouse

Grow Bags: In addition to raised bed gardening, another way to add space and grow really healthy vegetables is in grow bags. I’ve had mine from Gardeners Supply Company for years and have grown carrots, tomatoes, peppers and potatoes in them. Their BPA-free fabric is really strong, yet allows for breathing and “root pruning”. No root bound plants in these bags! I’m adding more to my garden this year!

My grow bags full of carrots

Stratus Rain Gauge: I was forever trying to figure out how much rain we got during a storm, or how little during a drought. And not in general, like somewhere in the greater Chicago area, or at one of the airports, but in my backyard. It’s a huge help to know how much to water the garden, and to satisfy my curiosity. You can read more about my rain measuring adventures in a previous post, “How Much Rain Did We Get?“. If you want to get super nerdy, I actually found a handy plastic ruler for measuring snow in tenths of inches. Much easier than converting all the time 🙂

Stratus rain gauge

Of course, gift cards to any local garden center or catalog seed company are always appreciated! Some to consider are Burpee, Botanical Interests, and Territorial Seeds.

Reading

I love to read! This year so far I’ve read 41 books. On the right sidebar of my blog you can see the latest books I’ve read and would recommend. I do read “bad” books, but don’t worry, I leave them off.

You can also find me on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/stephigardens. Friend me, I love to see what everyone else is reading!

What were some of my favorites this year? Top spot would be Dan Egan’s The Death and Life of the Great Lakes. Anyone who grew up near the Great Lakes will appreciate this journalists very readable history of man’s influence on the Great Lakes. I spent most of the book shaking my head in disbelief over the things that we’ve done to the lakes, but remain hopeful about the amazing resiliency of the Lakes to remain viable. From the building of the canals, St. Lawrence Seaway, lampreys, salmon, zebra mussels, asian carp, water levels, it’s all there. Much food for thought!

I also throughly enjoyed reading:

What were your favorite books of the year?

Cooking

FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer: I have no idea what took me so long to get one of these amazing kitchen gadgets. My friend was telling me about hers and I knew I needed one. I’ve been vacuum sealing meat, fresh vegetables, soups, and even banana bread (ok, that took a little practice). I’m so excited to have frozen food that still tastes fresh and be freezer-burn free. Plus, everything fits better in the freezer! I bought the FoodSaver FM2435 Vacuum Sealing System & Starter Kit and I’m thrilled with it.

Souper Cubes: I make a lot of soup and broth and have all kinds of containers for the freezer. I came across these amazing silicone freezing trays that are perfect for freezing soups and broths in perfect portions. No more messy freezer bags full of broth. They also have a clear fitting lid to keep the soups fresh in the freezer and make for easy stacking. Need a new healthy soup cookbook? My latest favorite is Clean Soups: Simple, Nourishing Recipes for Health and Vitality by Rebecca Katz.

I’m really a sucker for kitchen gadgets. Who doesn’t need a…

Be sure to check out my Holiday gift ideas from 2018 for more suggestions, and my Favorite Things page.

Happy Shopping and Happy Holidays!

It’s Garlic Time!

If you’ve followed my blog at all, you know I love to grow garlic. I recently harvested this season’s crop and right now is the perfect time to order your garlic bulbs for fall planting.

While a lot of things in the garden didn’t do well this year, it was a banner year for garlic in my home garden, but unfortunately not so much in the Wisconsin garden. I grew two hardneck varieties this year, Purple Glazer and Music, both from Territorial Seeds. Before planting, I replenished the soil with some new garden soil and compost. After a while, soil in raised beds sink and new soil and nutrients need to be added.

Garlic comes in two types, hardneck and softneck. Hardneck varieties require some time in frozen ground, so are not recommended for warmer climates. In the spring, they produce a tall edible stem called a “scape” and are generally known for their stronger taste. Softneck varieties tend to grow in a wider variety of climates, last longer in storage and are good for braiding. They also tend to be a little milder in taste. For whatever reason, I’ve had much better luck with hardneck varieties in my northern Zone 5b garden.

Late spring, the garlic scapes appeared.

Garlic scapes are the garlic flower stalks that twist and turn when young, and end with a terminal pod containing garlic bulbils. It’s these young, tender, twisting and turning scapes that are a delicacy to eat. Removing them also tells the garlic to put its energy into making the garlic bulb and not producing new seeds.

Mid summer, when the lower leaves are starting to turn brown, but the upper level are still green, the garlic is ready to harvest. Harvesting the garlic is easy, but you need to be gentle.  Unlike onions, you can’t just yank it out of the ground.  Too easy to damage the head or accidentally tear off the leaves.  Garlic also cures better when the leaves are still on.

So grab a trowel and dig gently around the bulbs to loosen the soil.  Be careful not to hit the heads and damage the tight cluster of cloves.

Then it’s time to find a spot to cure the garlic so that it’ll be ready to store for the winter.  Garlic should be cured in a protected area, like a garage or porch, out of direct sunlight and where there is reasonable air circulation.  It should be hung with the leaves and roots still attached. Even some dirt is fine.  I hung mine in the screen porch.  On particularly hot days, I turn on the overhead fan to keep the air circulating. After 3-4 weeks, I’ll trim the leaves and roots, and gently clean off the remaining dirt. Then I’ll store it in a cool, dry spot to use all winter.

Now that I’ve harvested this year’s crop, time to plan for next year. I’ve already placed my order for Music and Duganski garlic from Territorial Seeds.

I’ve had really good luck with Music, which is a mid-season porcelain type. It’s one of the larger garlics I’ve grown, has creamy white cloves, a medium hot, true garlic flavor and has a long shelf life. Duganski is similar to the Purple Glazer I grew this year, both being mid-season purple stripe types, but is a bit stronger flavored. I love the beautiful purple cloves that purple stripe types have, but thought I’d try something little different this year.

Garlic doesn’t ship until late September or early October depending on your location, so I have a little bit to wait until they arrive. Good thing because its spot is currently growing a second season of beets and swiss chard.

Want to grow garlic this year? I’d recommend ordering soon for best selection. I’ve had good experiences with garlic from Territorial Seeds, Botanical Interests, and Burpee. Just don’t plant the garlic you buy in the grocery store!

Want more information in growing garlic? Check out some of my other garlic posts or get tips from:

Me checking out the early garlic!

Another Fall Garlic Crop In The Ground

Last year, I successfully planted my first crop of garlic.

garlic

You can read about it in “Planting Garlic” and “Warding Off The Vampires“.  I love reaching in the cupboard and pulling out some home-grown, delicious tasting garlic.  I even have a little terra cotta garlic keeper handy right next to the stove.

terra cotta garlic keeper

This past fall I planted another, bigger, crop.  I was a little late in ordering, but was able to get Music, Purple Glazer and Susanville garlic from Territorial Seed Company, as well as French Shallots.

Territorial seed garlic

Next to garlic, I love cooking with shallots!  I’m still using some of last year’s harvest and looking forward to more.

growing shallots

Music and Purple Glazer are hard-necked varieties and Susanville a soft-necked variety.

Planting season is 6-8 weeks before the likely hard frost date for your area, so I planted mine in mid-October, although this winter that was too early.  Can’t plan for crazy weather though.

Last year, I planted in two different locations in the yard, and one was definitely more successful than the other.  Not sure why the difference, but this year I stuck to the raised beds in the backyard where I had success last year.

IMG_3036

I also planted a bunch more in our new property in Door County, WI.  Lucky me–it came with a great raised bed all ready for planting!  I’ll talk more about that another time, but I’m excited to have another place to garden and explore.

stephi gardens

Before the cold and snow came, I was not surprised that I had green shoots coming up from the softneck Susanville garlic.

fall sprouting garlic

Not too worried, the same thing happened last year after planting.   I just covered them with a nice layer of mulch and they should be fine.

Can’t wait for the early spring garlic scapes to appear from the hard-necked varieties.

garlic

I wasn’t sure what to do with them last year, so they went to waste.  Not this year, I’m going have fun experimenting 🙂  In the meantime, I’ll just keep enjoying my harvest from last year.  So far, all the stored garlic is just fine!

Are you still using any of your stored garlic?  Or trying to grow it for the first time?

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