The Beautiful Colour Green

 I love this time of year - when you see something green and gloriously growing, it's such a fresh new sight that you might actually take the time to marvel at it, and give it the attention that it deserves.
 The garlic of course has been up for a while, but it's finally attaining a handsome green, whereas it looked a little frosted and uncertain before. There is a really good stand this year!- I don't know how other growers made out with winterkill this year, but it's virtually non-existent here.
  I've had a few more questions than usual about spring garlic seed this spring, so I thought it'd be fun to show the difference of Spring, versus fall planted garlic:

On the left is Red Russian (a Marbled Purple Stripe) and the rest of the fall planted main crop. Center is Ail Rose de Lautrec ( a Creole) And to the right is Aglio Rosso (also Creole). Both Creoles were put in our vegetable cold storage in mid February, then planted one of the first days of April. 

This is not a perfect comparison - they are different varieties, and the Creoles were significantly smaller in bulb and clove size than the Marbled Purple Stripes to start. But, it gives you an idea of the advantages of planting in the fall.
  And, just to clarify, I don't sell Spring garlic seed. Bulbils and Creole and Silverskins are the only kinds of garlic I recommend planting in spring. The creoles and Silverskins seem to do better because their tender constitutions do not have to bear the brunt of our cold winters, whereas other, "more native" varieties of garlic, thrive in our wintry latitude. Bulbils do well either fall or spring planted, or so I've found. I wish I could plant Turbans in the spring, but keeping them dormant and in good quality is really not that easy. It's the quickest growing - fastest spoiling of any garlic. It's always sprouting by the new year. Not something you want to take a chance on for spring planting, especially since a seed slowly uses up it's energy reserves, and has less vigour in the spring. The effect is mitigated in Creoles and silverskins, because they keep the best. In the words of Bob Wildfong, Director of Seeds of Diversity Canada, "a seed is a baby plant, it needs food." When it's stored correctly, it uses up less food,but it still needs something. A dormant seed uses the food stored in it's body, which is why old seed sprouts and often grows slower, if it sprouts at all. Sometimes seeds die. (I'm talking about garden seeds now, lettuce, kale, peas, and whatever other kind of seed you can think of.) Fresh seed is always ideal.

I'm excited to see what kind of innovation will appear in gardening techniques this year. I never used to think wecould grow basil on our clay-loam soil here, but it turns out we can, if we hill it up and mix compost and a bit of sand in the soil directly around and under the basil plug. A lot is possible these days that once wasn't. We have a lot more tools,and ideas about how to use those tools. I haven't heard about a run on chicken wire and pest protection yet, but I'm sure it will hit in due course. There's a sort of irony in that farmers have felt criticized for years about how we deal with small, furry opportunists. And they say there is more wildlife in the city than there is in the country, (population by square meters, I'm thinking, which would make sense, since the  same is true of the number of people in a city).  I guess I will find out, with my city garden this year. The house I bought in Stratford was built in 1899. It's amazing to think how people lived 120 years ago. I have such gratitude for the foundation of knowledge they have built for us to stand on.
  Julie