What's wrong with my garlic?

My first time of growing garlic here. Yes, it was store bought garlic, and I planted it in December, may be too late,

The plants were pretty happy before and now the stacks are thin and laying on the ground, some leaves are yellow, but there is no sign of big disease. I checked the bulbs, they are deep, small but look good.
My be it was not the right garlic to plant?
There is no scapes, I know not every garlic develop scapes.
There was a lot of rain this month.....
Any suggestions? Thank you!

And there is other news from my garden

Today our turtle was coming to visit - she is coming every year to lay eggs on my front yard!
It is very funny, first my husband took her back to the forest and it is about 50 yards!

 And she came back the next day, probably was going the whole night. Than we left her alone and she was trying to lay eggs every year. Last fall I even found a little one in a leaf pile!

My cat is looking at her.

 Roses!

 Bees are coming too, not only turtles.

 Hydrangea flowers are small now,  but the whole bush will be very big this year. I guess I need to add more sulfur.

Good Luck to You and Your gardens!

Bee Balm Tea

Today I was harvesting bee balm leaves. Bee Balm has many different names - Bergamot, Wild Oswego Tea, Horsemint, Monard. 

It is very nice when blooming, but as I have seen last years, the leaves are developing some king of fungi disease very soon. 

So I decided to get some leaves and dry them to enjoy bee balm tea in winter.

The fresh or dried leaves can be brewed into a refreshing aromatic and medicinal tea. Bergamot tea is improving general digestion, easing flatulence, improving appetite, relieving colic, reducing bloating, alleviating menstrual cramping, and reducing nausea and vomiting.

And more! 

I am reading and reading and wanted I have more Bergamot plants! 

Join Robin over at The Gardener of Eden for more garden preserving and cooking.

Frozen Parsley - Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard 5/24

I know I am not new with this recipe, I just have a lot of parsley and cilantro and I decided to freeze some.

 It was two big bunches of plain parsley,

 I blended it with some water, 1 tbsp olive oil and 5 gloves garlic

I believe those cubes will be very good in winter soups.



Please look at Robin's blog The Gardener of Eden for the rest of the Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard posts.



This little one was enjoying sun on my deck today!  Do you know the name of this snake?

Harvest Monday - May 21 2012

Not so big, my I am happy!

Some bolting tatsoy, I will start again in fall. 

 First OKRA, still growing.

 First sugar peas, waiting for my daughter coming from collage this week,

And first strawberry!
Some bugs are eating them too, small black bugs with hard covers. How to get rid of them?


See what others have harvested at Daphne's Dandelions. 

Flowers in a garden

It is May, nice cool morning after the night rain,
everything is wet.... I  said bye to a school bus, and made my usual morning walk in a garden.
It seems that all plants are blooming!

Squashes - double flower

Blackberry
















chives

 Just flowers, I do not know the name, from wildflower mix,
just for bees.

 Broccoli

 Strawberry

 Flowering Chervil

Some of the greens, may be arugula....

 Green Bell pepper

 Beefsteak tomatoes

 Marigolds next to tomatoes

 Cayenne pepper

 Okra, just blooming

 Sugar peas

Kentucky purple beans










And some flower from office side bed - Iris, begonia and geranium.

Harvest Monday - May 14 2012

I know I am late!!!!
I have greens for salads and stir-fry everyday.
Today I harvest my kale first time  - this is red russian kale, very big and crunchy leaves.

I also have some stated to bolt tatsoy.




See what others have harvested at Daphne's Dandelions.

Garden, Rain and Slugs....

It is a beautiful rainy morning, everything in garden in wet and growing.
Actually I did not write a long time, more than 2 weeks, there is nothing special, we are eating greens each day, I even give some green to my neighbors.
So it may be my garden updates -

Garden in the rain

 Some of the tomatoes were little damaged by frost.

 Green bed - komatsuna, onion, arugula, chicory.

 Strawberry is starting to change color.

 Chives, garlic, cilantro, chocory.

 Kale - red russian

 Tomatoes bed again

 And some of may tomatoes are on the deck in containers. Small containers in front are with peppers and eggplants.

 First buds!

 Pepper have some flowers too.

 Okras

 Can you see a bud?












Greens, greens more greens - lettuces, chard, komatsuna - I just love the leaves! Bok choi,

 Rain, and that silly squash is flowering! Where are the bees?

 Lemon verbena, for tea.

And in this nice and wet morning I found  ----

SLUGS :(

About 15 if them,
I put them in a salty water, how salty it should be?
They want to get out!!!!