Our First Garlic Bed: from Planting to Harvest.

  You may remember that back in September we planted our first ever patch of garlic. (In case ya forgot, here's the link to our post about our Stinking Experiment...Muahaha!!:  http://cappyandpegody.blogspot.com/2015/08/2015-fallwinter-garden-experiment.html )

  We planted it into one of our 4'x4' raised beds according to a grid system.

  After consulting several gardening sites online we decided to take the advice of more experienced garlic planters who recommended planting lots more than ya think you'll need. With that in mind, we put five more pods in the spaces between the original five holes in our cardboard grid then sat back and watched. They grew all winter and come Spring, they were lush and beautiful. When we left for our 5 week road trip they looked great, so we worried about them while we were gone.

 When we got home we were worried about them some more... now, because they had wilted and the tops were all laying down (we were so rushed when we got home, we forgot to take pictures of them), but we said a li'l prayer and yanked one up... and sure enough we had garlic!
   One of the online garlic growers also recommends braiding them, so this is my first attempt ever at braiding garlic.  I know this don't look professional, but to us its beautiful. 

   Since it is so incredibly hot and humid this time of year down here in South Louisiana, if we had hung them outside in our shed, they would have molded and rotted, so instead, we decided to hang our braids in a kitchen cabinet to dry.   

       I made six braids and counted 99 garlic heads; some small, some quite large. We plan on sharing some of them and enjoying them in lots of our Cajun dishes. Mmm, Mmm, Not bad for a first try. Ahhh, the sweet(??) smell of success!!!