The miracle of gardening

I am never not surprised when something I put into the ground actually sprouts and matures and gives me back food. To me – a relatively new gardener – it's a miracle, plain and simple, that I can pull produce from my back yard and use it to make meals.

I've learned a lot from many mentors, one of whom is the great and powerful Anna who, with her husband, Mark, writes from southeast Virginia. A couple days ago she wrote that she should have harvested her garlic a week ago, as the bulbs had begun splitting underground. Well, I'm a little behind in my blog reading and my garlic does kind of look like her photo. Sort of. It's hard to tell, but it was enough to send me out this morning to pull one of the hardnecks as a test.

Frankly, I think this one simple garlic bulb is as beautiful as that whole landscape bed I showed you yesterday.

I haven't pulled one of the softnecks yet, but I will as soon as I back away from this computer. They look smaller and I keep thinking they need to get bigger, and the leaves need to get browner, before I harvest them. I don't have as many of them, either, and I hate-hate-hate the idea of taking one too early.

But you know what? There will always be more garlic. If I don't save enough to plant from my harvest this year, I will buy more. (Seedsavers.org is my source.)

Finally, here's what I wish my to-do list looked like:

But I'm making great progress. My brother is coming to visit next week, and I love it when to-do lists have deadlines.