It’s a good time to plant garlic. I’m trying something new this year.

I think it’s good to try new approaches – break out of our flower pots, if you will. I know what you’re saying: “Alan, This will never work.” And you’re right. It won’t. But the journey is what’s important in the garden. Not what works or doesn’t work. “Yeh, but you won’t grow any garlic this way.” I totally see the point you are trying to make. You want me to be successful. Thanks, I appreciate it, but we all have different definitions of success. “And your definition of success is to fail miserably?” No! Of course not. I’m just saying we need not concern ourselves all the time with all the rules. Some of the time, sure, but garlic doesn’t like rules. Garlic likes to go dancing. Next year, I think I’ll take my garlic out clubbing before I plant it.

Planting greens and other cool weather crops into the hoop house has been on the list of things to do for a couple of weeks now. Now we have six bags of spinach, radish and butterhead lettuce seeded. We’re guessing the bag planting will be fine for these shallow root crops. I did over-plant each bag so heavy thinning will be in order, but the seeds are older and germination might be less than optimal in these cooler conditions. Although it wasn’t cool in the hoop house at all when I was planting. The sun was shining and with only a light wind – probably over 80 degrees. It’s all a big experiment — later we will share some wildly anecdotal conclusions based on our initial results and experiences.

I managed to soak the new asparagus for a few hours this morning. Then I got digging again. I’m a little tired of digging. Nah, I love digging!! Planted two varieties of asparagus, one’s purple and the other is green. I could look up the actual variety names, but I’m feeling a little lazy, so let’s just leave it at purple and green.

While I was busy with asparagus, Anne finished planting the grapevines. We came up a little shy of our 100 ordered, but we can probably fill in with cuttings we made as they were planted. I didn’t hear Anne complain she didn’t have another couple vines to plant.

Other plantings that occurred today: Potatoes, Shallots, Leeks, a few Kohlrabi, Day Lilies, a few Peas, and several other items Anne relocated.

I didn’t take any pictures of the planting today, but I did take a picture of what I believe is an owl pellet (the white bits are bones of mice and such). Anne and Jake found it on a little walk in the woods next to our property. We had been hearing all sorts of hoo-hooing earlier this Spring. Never caught sight of the owl though.

We are sore. Wow. Achy. But look at all that was accomplished. It’s outstanding. We are awesome. First I marked off the spacing for the vines, sinking a bamboo stick in every seven feet. Then crossing slits were cut in the landscape fabric and 99 little holes were augered – that was an extreme workout. Some of the holes proved to be a little too damp to use, but they might dry out in time.

Anne was busy following my hole digging with planting. She finished all but three rows today. Each of our rows has nine vines. There is a ton of invasive grass on this hillside — we are hoping the fabric and mulch will take care of that. Anne carefully extracted all the little roots from the holes as she planted.

Next step is to install the grow tubes – they are tubes that help grapes grow

The grapevines have arrived! Who’s excited?! We would be if it didn’t mean we need to prep more rows and auger 100 little holes and then plant 100 of these twiggy little plants. Ouch, that’s going to be painful. But it’s a good kind of pain — like popping a zit or riding a bike up a mountain. It will be nasty (the zit) and fulfilling (the bike ride). The trick is to keep your mind’s eye on the prize. These little twiggy vines don’t look like much now, but give them time and a little thing called love and we should see at least a couple of leaves.

The variety is a red French-American hybrid, Marechal Foch. They come from Penoach Nursery/Vineyard/Winery in Adel, Iowa.