Whew, the Garlic's in the Ground

I've been saying for the past month and a half, "Gotta get the garlic planted, gotta get the garlic planted," and it kept not happening. Today was a gorgeous day, sunny and in the low sixties, and the first day since battling this respiratory thing that I felt up to doing anything physical. It's best to plant garlic at least a few weeks before the ground freezes so the roots can get a bit of a start--last year I planted at the end of October--but even planting this late I think they'll make it through the winter. I piled a ton of straw on top of the bed and can pile more on if we end up with a particularly cold winter.

I would have been so mad at myself if I hadn't gotten them in the ground. The bulbs I bought last year for planting were expensive and I would have had to start all over again next fall (and miss out on a whole season of garlic). Now I can keep my two varieties going.

The added benefit of getting out in the garden today was that I made a wonderful salad for my early dinner. I picked the last of the spinach and beets, plus a little bit of chard and a small rosette of red baby lettuce, then once inside made a salad of them plus some carrots, onions, sunflower seeds, hardboiled eggs, and grated cheese. All of the veggies came from the garden--pretty good for late November! Now the only things left out there are: the chard, a patch of parsley, a small mound of chives, and the frost-nipped oregano.