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| We hoped to harvest with the tractor, but it only lasted a half day before rain stopped us |
Garlic harvest was the hardest ever in 19 years of
growing because of the hail and 5" rain we got on June 4th, and the
rains that came as harvest started. The June hail pounded the soil for
an hour and compacted it so there was an inch and half of hard-packed
clay on top. Underneath was still pretty wet. The tractor harvester
didn't work well, but then I modified it so it looked like it would be
OK. We harvested half a row before the unexpected rains came and turned
everything to mud. No more tractor harvesting! It dried out with a few
days of hot sun, to the point the mud hardened and was extremely
difficult to get off of each head. This made harvest take 4 times
longer, and now the bulbs are decaying quickly in the ground. We are
getting showers every afternoon now. Today- we went crazy digging it out
of the ground and "whapping" the mud off and made a lot of progress on
the last few rows. Thanks to Jock, Ryan, Caley and Sam for your help!
Some
of the garlic looks OK, some very tiny, some with weird shapes, some
decayed on the outside but OK on the inside. What a year!
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| Right before the rain. (Bootsie walking the rows) |
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| The very muddy, hail damaged garlic- not as pretty as usual |
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| A few slimy days of harvest |
The good news is I haven't found the "White Rot" disease so far!
As they say there's no better garden than next years' garden!
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| Jock helping with the extra-strenuous digging |
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| Big mud balls were extremely hard to remove |
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| Happy to have a harvest in spite of everything |
