Well Larry, your garlic might be pitiful, but...........look at all that green grass behind them!!! WOW, we would love to have that in our pastures. As to my garlic, it's somewhere around here. I haven't even planted anything as it has been just too dry until we received the rain last week. After having to drill a new deep well (550'+) last fall, I have really been reluctant to plant anything.

Yards are dead after the drought we have been in, and I told DH that WHEN we begin to see better weather (wetter, less wind and dust storms) then we will put in new yards again using the newest Buffalo grass seed available.

Seriously, your garden looks good.

Gmatx, Thanks. The pasture does look pretty good, it was baled a few days ago, much lower yield than in the past. I was brush hogging the back side of this place yesterday cutting grass almost hood high on the tractor. Most of that area is too rough to bale, but fine to run cattle on.

We have been luckier than many on this forum. At times we are too wet or too dry, but no extremes yet.

Larry

Larry, While your garden may not look as lush and green as it normally does in May, I think it still looks really good.

My garlic looks the same as yours, or maybe even drier and a little worse than yours. In our little weekly paper than includes the rainfall total from our exact neighborhood from the local NWS cooperative weather observer, I noticed our rainfall for the year is 5.89". Normal rainfall thru the end of May would be 15.45". So, when I look at my garden and wonder why it is not as big and lush as usual, I need to remember we have almost a 10" rainfall deficit so far the year. Sometimes I forget (momentarily) how little rain there has been. I haven't watered as much as usual. It seems pointless to water too much and create oodles of foliage we don't have the rainfall to support. I'm just trying to water enough to keep things alive and to keep the tomatoes from getting BER.

Dawn

Are you digging it already, Larry? We always wait until July at least.

Larry my garlic is smaller than normal this year also. Like dawn i have only had a little over 5.50" of rainfall this year with 3" of that falling in the last 2 weeks.
Was watering it when i could but couldn't keep up. I do have several varieties that look like they are still gonna make nice bulbs but they still have a couple weeks to go.
On the bright side i ate my first tomato and new potatoes tonight, potatoes are doing great.
Gary

Dorothy, it does seem a little early but some of my plants were dead and I was afraid they would rot. I have not had time to care for the garden properly this year. There are just too many family medical issues.

Gary, the garlic you sent me is planted to the left of the row of beets. They are smaller than the others, but were also planted later and have not been fed, watered or weeded as they should have been. I will have a good harvest of onions and garlic but all will be small. I will have higher losses because of the week of wet cloudy weather.

Larry

Dorothy, My garlic is yellowing/browning earlier than usual, just like Larry's. I have tried to give it extra water to slow it down and keep it green, but it seems to believe it is through growing for the season. I guess I'll harvest it before it gets too far gone. I can leave it in the ground a while but it is so dry it might get dry rot. Everything in my garden is screaming "harvest me". If I thought that plants were capable of rational thought, I'd think they are speeding up to try to beat the heat/drought. The onions started flopping over early, and then the garlic, and now the early potato varieties look like they want to do the same---and it is too early, so they cannot possibly be done yet. They are healthy, but have that look of potatoes that are through growing and want to die back.

Since it is so hot and dry here, whenever I take out anything that is finished, I'm planting southern peas in that spot. At least they can take the heat and drought better than most anything else. I already planted far too much okra, so don't want to use that to fill in empty spots.

Gary, You have my sympathy on the lack of rainfall. Our soil is pitifully dry and there is no real relief on the horizon. We had a 60% chance of rain today and got about 8 raindrops.

Congrats on the first tomato and new potatoes. The rewards of gardening are so tasty!

Larry, I'll trade you a week of hot, sunny, windy weather for a week of wet cloudy weather.

Dawn