Or you could have a neighborhood festival where everyone agrees to smell like garlic for a few days! ;)

This past fall I planted 8 cloves each of 8 different kinds that I got at the local farmers' market. I also planted 16 elephant garlic cloves from a supermarket purchase. I used a tomato cage, the kind that flattens and is made of squares, as a grid. Each type got 2 squares, 4 cloves per square. Then I marked them. Everybody's looking good so far. By the way, the person I bought the farmers' market garlic from, told me that the biggest cloves don't necessarily produce the biggest bulbs. My kids are awaiting the results. Happy spring!

Hi lilacs!

What are you growing that's new this year? I wound up putting a short hoop over my garlic from mid-March to mid-April, that seems to have helped make them a little happy:

{{gwi:361228}}

I cut back on garlic this year, 65 bulbs vs 81 the year before. Most are new varieties, mostly hardnecks. About 20% are seeded from last year's harvest.

For some reason, I ordered mostly hardnecks this year: Persian Star, Carpathian, Spanish Roja, Polish Hardneck, Chesnok Red, Blossom, Lotus, Killarney Red, Oregon Blue, and Ontario Giant. I think most of those are hardnecks. There were others, too, that I can't remember offhand. I also kept back some Transylvanian and Lorz Italian from last year to plant. They're doing well.

I'll have plenty of scapes for stir fry this year. I love watching the sprouts pop up. Some of them look a bit chewed, though. I think the squirrels have been chowing down on them. I know that they stole several cloves, and they keep digging holes in my garden patch. I hate squirrels.

Those squirrels would make a wonderful stir fry with all that garlic.

if they're the eatin' kind anyway...