Trouble with Parsley and time to harvest garlic?

[wowomom]

I have a herb garden on the south facing side of a privacy fence just outside my kitchen

Comments

[angelchrome]

If the leaves have died back, the garlic is probably ready to go. Mine matured super early this year because we had an early warm spring here in 7b NC.

[wowomom]

Well then I guess I'll just have to harvest it. Break my heart. LOL! *grin*

[matrixx]

I'm in 7a and just harvested garlic yesterday.

[matrixx]

Oh, and I just braid it and hang it on a hook in the kitchen. I use it up before it starts to sprout, or if it DOES, those cloves just go back into the garden (which is a bad idea due to diseases, blah blah blah, but it's cheaper that way).

[matanai]

I was actually just going to ask how to braid garlic since I can't figure out how you'd get them to hold together and look like they always do in pictures of old European kitchens and whatnot... then I googled it

http://www.bloomingfieldsfarm.com/garbrdhow.html

Ta-da! Picture, step-by-step instructions!

I guess this is mostly posted for anyone else who wants to know

[matrixx]

Wow, neat! I do it much more half-assedly than that, but I might try doing it properly next time.

[fiatincantatum]

Parsley is a biennial plant, so the second year it will set seed and die. That's what would have happened to your first plant if it hadn't drowned. Best to buy new plants or start plants indoors from seed every year. You can also let the second year plants go to seed and self-sow in your garden, but parsley seed is notoriously slow to germinate so you're not as likely to get a usable crop.

As for the second one, check the crown and root... you may have crown/root rot, in which case they will be mushy and awful looking. See bottom paragraph for details

[fiatincantatum]

On the plus side, parsley does quite well in pots, so you can get some fresh soil to grow it in with very little trouble. Pots will drain better, too.

[wowomom]

That would be a great solution if I didn't immediately kill anything in a pot. *sigh*

Did you know that potted plants want water? It's the darnedest thing. :-/

[wowomom]

The second year it came back it didn't get anything on it that resembled flowers or seeds. It got maybe 4 inches tall and then just keeled over. *shrug* maybe it is spider mites as posted in a different comment but I haven't noticed any little mite webs nor are any of my other herbs effected.