Garlic topset shoots

Every winter for the last 10 years I’ve been sprouting the bulbils of the Scandinavian heirloom garlic Aleksandra. I sow them in soil and cut down about 3 times over a couple of months giving me garlic sprouts most days for my lunch.

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Today’s garlic sprout photo shoot in the snowy garden :)
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A picture from 2005 showing the diversity of hard neck garlic topsets. Aleksandra (2nd from left at the top) has medium size bulbils and each plant produces maybe 30-40.

 

Bay Hablitzia

I have two large pot grown bay trees (Laurus nobilis) which are moved into my porch for the winter. In the summer, they are outside quite near to my oldest Hablitzia. A couple of seeds found their way into the pot a couple of years ago and the resultant plants seem quite happy there, clearly not bothered by not experiencing sub-zero tempreatures (it’s mostly between +5C and +10C) where it’s growing with little light. Last summer it climbed into the Bay in the spring, but died back earlier than my other plants presumably due to the drier conditions in competition with the Bay! Time for a snack soon!!

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