Garlic, Squash and the Taste of Pickles

I finally got around to following Shirley's advice.  The delay had nothing to with the advice, but rather otherwise ordered priorities.  I had weeds to pull.  Finally completing my sojourn around the trenches, and weeds momentarily in a modicum of retreat, I could indeed turn my attentions to the garlic.

The garlic had been a gift from brother-in-law Steve last fall out of his personal stock saved out of last year's harvest.  It was, I think, his small act of encouragement to this naive beginner who had by that time just about allowed the window of opportunity to close on garlic planting for this season.  His little bag of prodding got me moving -- digging a sowing trench almost before I had outlined the future garden. 

Now over seven months later, scapes long since harvested and the leaves beginning to wilt, I knew I shouldn't delay much longer.  After mowing the pathways between the trenches, trimming a little along the edges, and watering the whole of it, I palmed the hand trowel and went to work. 

They aren't perfect of course.  Some heads are small, while others are quite large.  But I find them quite beautiful, thank you very much.  With a purplish tint and well-developed cloves, they are aromatic and, I think, quite stylish.  After a period set aside for curing, they will be ready to go.

Beyond garlic, the closer inspection afforded by the hand weeding revealed progress on the cucumber and squash front as well -- an area of concern that had been nagging at me for some time.  I had seen blossoms but nothing more.  But, as it turns out, the little green fingers are there and beginning to swell.  Just in time for the cucumbers, the dill and peppers are beginning to come into their own, anticipating a marriage made in...a pickling jar.