Grocery Store Experiments
Thursday, August 07, 2008 Posted In garden Edit This 0 Comments »
As if I haven't experimented and botched the garden enough this summer, I thought I'd try yet another experiment: garlic and onions from the grocery store.
I read (in my post planting research) that garlic should be planted in the fall for a better harvest in the spring time. But they advised not planting bulbs from the grocery store since they may have been sprayed to prevent sprouting (which sort of grosses me out). Not wanting to spend money, I considered asking my friend for a couple bulbs from her homegrown garlic. She gave me some last year, but we ate it, even though she told me to shove it into the ground pointy side up (but it was delicious). Then I'm doing my grocery shopping and what do I see? Garlic sprouting in the produce section! All proud of myself I come home and Google how deep to plant these things and how far apart they are supposed to be. I'm learning--I'm researching before I put something into the ground.
And then it occurs to me...apparently I forgot it's not fall...It's August.
So I planted them anyway. The sprouts are too big to ignore. I can't just eat them without painstakingly plucking the sprout out of each clove. And let's face it, that's probably not going to happen. So this morning Maggie yanked the onions out of their little dirt homes. This evening the garlic went in its place.
In the same trip to the store as the Great Garlic Purchase, I bought some green onions. Those onions I bought at the nursery earlier this year looked an awful lot like the green onions hanging out at the grocery store. I took them home and stuck them in a jar filled with water for a couple of days until the roots grew a bit longer. I was about to call myself foolish and throw them out when I noticed today that the green part was starting to have some new growth. So right before I planted the garlic I plunked them into the ground where the spinach didn't come up for the third time. I figured it was time to let go - I'm not getting spinach. But why not use the space for some experimental onions?
I read (in my post planting research) that garlic should be planted in the fall for a better harvest in the spring time. But they advised not planting bulbs from the grocery store since they may have been sprayed to prevent sprouting (which sort of grosses me out). Not wanting to spend money, I considered asking my friend for a couple bulbs from her homegrown garlic. She gave me some last year, but we ate it, even though she told me to shove it into the ground pointy side up (but it was delicious). Then I'm doing my grocery shopping and what do I see? Garlic sprouting in the produce section! All proud of myself I come home and Google how deep to plant these things and how far apart they are supposed to be. I'm learning--I'm researching before I put something into the ground.
And then it occurs to me...apparently I forgot it's not fall...It's August.
So I planted them anyway. The sprouts are too big to ignore. I can't just eat them without painstakingly plucking the sprout out of each clove. And let's face it, that's probably not going to happen. So this morning Maggie yanked the onions out of their little dirt homes. This evening the garlic went in its place.
In the same trip to the store as the Great Garlic Purchase, I bought some green onions. Those onions I bought at the nursery earlier this year looked an awful lot like the green onions hanging out at the grocery store. I took them home and stuck them in a jar filled with water for a couple of days until the roots grew a bit longer. I was about to call myself foolish and throw them out when I noticed today that the green part was starting to have some new growth. So right before I planted the garlic I plunked them into the ground where the spinach didn't come up for the third time. I figured it was time to let go - I'm not getting spinach. But why not use the space for some experimental onions?
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