Garlics are a disaster this year.
They started well enough at first. I planted the cloves at the end of January with fleece over them to keep the worst of the weather off, and green shoots duly started poking up. By the end of May, the garlic bed was full of promise of a good harvest.
Then rust started setting in. That happened last year too and I still got reasonable harvest (of admittedly rather small bulbs), so I decided it was still okay.
Then some of the plants started rotting at the bottom. There was no way of saving them – you give them a tug, and the above-ground part of the yellowing plants come away. No signs of any bulb underneath. All in all, I probably lost more than half.
Last week I dug out the remaining garlic plants to dry off. Some of the bulbs were obviously rotten and had to be discarded, but I reckon there are maybe around a dozen bulbs that are small but look usable. Not all is lost. I think.
Andy, the long-time keeper of the plot next to mine, tells me that his garlics have also failed. It’s good to know (kind of) that it’s not just me – looks like the weather has been unkind to everyone.
There are plenty wins though – berries are phenomenal this year, for example. I’ve had bumper crops of strawberries, gooseberries and maybe-Jostaberries (berries of a large thornless bush I inherited with the plot that produces fruits that look like halfway between gooseberries and blackcurrants), plenty of summer raspberries are still on the canes, and blackberries are starting to ripen.
Cut-and-come lettuces are coming so fast I can’t keep up with the cutting and eating duties. The spring onions are completely oblivious to the plight of the neighbouring garlics.
Kalettes are looking like another win. The last two years I grew them from plug plants (fantastic success in year 1, pretty disappointing last year), but this time I’ve opted for seeds. The first batch of sowing in my makeshift cold frame was chewed up by an intruder (a rodent rather than slugs, I think), but the second sowing was more successful, and the plants are already taller than the ultimate height they got to last year and looking very healthy. I dream of a Christmas harvest, cooked with roasted chestnuts and a couple of cloves of the surviving garlic – if there’s any still left so late in the year.