Kitchen Garden Forum

sorry if the subject has been discussed but i can not find it , i am quite new to gardening (i have an allotment), anyway regarding garlic i planted mine last october the other day i uncovered one to see how they were going to my surprise it was like a giant spring onion. My question is why did this happen? and can i still eat them,hope someone can help. thanks jeff

Funnily enough it has and recently, see this topic forum.kitchengarden.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13965

Hi jeff64! Welcome to the forum! (I know you've been here a while but do post)!

If it is a veg than eat it, we get wonky stuff, not as planned stuff, garlic that doesn't split into cloves but you can get food out of them, onions that decide to bolt is another classic. They won't store but take the stalk out of the onion & use the rest, grate /chop the whole garlic bulb into food or just roast it whole. If your cabbages go to flower use the leaves like you'd do the head. Waste not want not - will look the same when cooked. But will take a bit to get your head around the fact it doesn't look like the supermarket stuff!

Heartily agree with Westi's comment. We've become so used to seeing perfect supermarket produce that we forget about the acres of wonky carrots or twisted cucumbers that are simply so wastefully ploughed back into the fields or fed to the pigs. Virtually all the produce we harvest on our own plots can still be used and eaten, even if it,a not in perfect shape. As long as it,s not rotten or diseased home grown produce is always eaten in this house.
Garlic is suppose to like a peolonged period of cold to encourage the bulbs to split and I don,t think last winter that necessarily happened everywhere so perhaps that,s why your bulb didn,t break down into individual cloves but it,s still perfectly Ok to eat. I,m shortly planning to dig up my elephant garlic and expect to find the same thing has happened with these larger bulbs too and that they haven,t split but they will still be fine to roast or cook with.

I stopped planting garlic in the autumn because I felt wet rotbwas more likely than in springbsown garlic. I have had less wet rot but I have yet to have cloves that haven't split into more cloves because of a lack of cold. Nature is in charge Eh ?

thanks for the replies people, will take it onboard and not have the biggest compost heap this year. Westi,my computer skills are far worse than my gardening skills and they are next to nil but i will try and post more, anyway thanks again to all of you. jeff

Jeff64 welcome ,if you are new to gardening this is the forum for you ,all the advice you will need is waiting for you to ask the question , I hope you will stay and enjoy if it's only for the humour on here

Hi Richard!

You are so right - nature is in charge indeed, & evolving quicker then we are so best everyone adapts quickly! That 'we' is us & we have to make the general public realise fruit & veg you grow does't always look like the supermarket's - but taste a hell of a lot better!

Westi, I was picking strawberries daily as they ripen. In fact picking before they had the usual overal sign of ripe because whilst I don't mind sharing a few with whatever feeds on them it's only the overal red-ripe that get pecked. The half red and wonky ones tasted very good.

Each day I get a handful, my oldest plants are in their second season so still young and I'm committed to a strawberry patch just because I saw one of the many baby blue tits scurrying about amongst the berries perhaps looking for insects rather than bothering the strawberries.

Garlic seems slow this year, maybe because I'm feeding with growmore type nutrient and I'm nervous about over feeding after a few seasons of killing plants with either over feeding or overwatering. Watering is much easier for us with a plot close to our home, respect to you Lotty owners.

Onions are also slow and my French climbing beans seem to be behaving like bush beans with a tendency to climb.

I still have two raised beds full of weeds and enough excuses not to get stuck in and clear them for late carrots, you've heard all the excuses so I won't bore you.

How about, it's too hot to work.

Yep! Too hot Richard, you'll be fine with little & often to get it cleared & some salad or stuff in those beds!

Hoping the rain comes tonight as promised on the news as my berries need some moisture as they are amazing this year. If not will be watering tomorrow night & harvesting another few punnets no doubt! I've currently got lots of friends for some reason!