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Saturday 31 December 2011 People keep telling me that it's possible to grow garlic in Alaska. Whether or not it's possible in this part of Alaska remains an open question. I'll keep trying, at least for a while. Summer 2011 While digging the soil in the raised beds, I found three garlics starting to sprout! So I quickly made some room for them, and they grew merrily until the fall. I wish that I knew the variety - they were real successful. Maybe I should write to Filaree Farms and ask them. I planted out equal-sized rows (about four feet, up in the raised beds) of the following varieties around the first week of September: Siberian, Khabar, Pskem, Choparsky, Ferganskij, and Red Rezan. I figured that Central Asia has some of the same winter problems as we do. After letting the garlics soak up the rains in the fall for about two weeks, I covered it all with a triple layer of insulation board, put up the windows, covered the top with the veneer, and let the snow fall. There's about four feet surrounding the raised beds. Hopefully, in the spring, I can uncover them and they'll spring up. The test is today - it was -48.6 at its coldest this morning. Summer 2010 I started off the year with some garlic stored in the root cellar from Filaree Farms purchased during the previous fall. Some of the garlic looked a little moldy, but I planted them anyway. Only three came up, and those were weak and unproductive. Our friend Tim had some fresh garlic mailed to him in August, and we received a bag. I believe these were the Siberian variety. In any case, those were planted in the raised beds in late August, covered up, and they're out there right now. We'll see what happens in the spring. |
Horray! The first three garlics grown in Galena, Alaska. Isa roasted them and we ate them. They were good. |