I’ll never forget the first time I tried fresh garlic.  Store bought garlic powder was my go-to whenever I needed its rich flavor while cooking.  Then someone gifted me with a garlic press and I just had to give it a try … there’s no looking back!  Fresh garlic is amazing!  My gardening heart and brain immediately thought – can I grow this?  Would I have success?  Could home grown garlic be as good as store bought?  So began my quest for many things garlic.

There are two basic types of garlic – hardneck and softneck. 

Hardneck garlic produces an edible flower stem called a “scape” that is harvested just as it begins to curl on itself.  The scape has a bulb at the end where potential seeds may develop.  Removal of the scape directs the plant to put its energy into underground clove development instead of future seeds. Scapes can be diced for use in sautés, minced for salads, frozen for soups & sauces, and thinly sliced, dehydrated and then ground for homemade garlic powder.  My favorite way to use scapes is to grind or chop the scapes into bits and mix them with softened butter.  I then freeze the “garlic butter” in blocks and use the butter for garlic bread – yummy!  Hardneck bulbs have fewer cloves but they are much bigger.

Softneck garlic does not produce a scape and is less flavorful than hardneck garlic although it does tend to store longer.  Softnecks also tend to produce smaller cloves per bulb making preparation (removal of the papery covering) more tedious.

Growing garlic is very easy.  After you purchase some bulbs in late summer or early fall, separate the bulbs into individual cloves (you can leave the papery covering intact).  I have planted garlic as early as mid-September and as late as the end of October.  Garlic is planted 3-4 inches apart and 3-4 inches deep; I usually plant 9 cloves in a square foot.  Cover the area with dead leaves, straw or even grass clippings.  Roots and shoots may begin to emerge in the fall and may even grow all winter if the weather is warm enough.  I’ve had snow on garlic multiple times with no adverse effects.  I leave the mulch in place throughout the growing season to help maintain weed pressure.  Garlic needs 1” of water per week in the growing season but stop watering about 2 weeks before harvest to give the papery coverings a chance to harden up.

In our area (Zone 5b/6a), harvest happens mid to late July.  I like to wait until half the lower leaves have turned brown.  Don’t make the mistake (like I have!) of trying to simply pull the bulbs out of the ground by hand.  The leaves will break off making it more difficult to locate the precious bulbs.  Use a carefully placed spade or pitchfork to loosen the soil around the underground bulbs, digging wide and deep to lift the treasures from the soil.  Garlic needs 2-3 weeks to cure.  I lay mine in a shady area that has gentle air flow.  This curing time allows the skins to harden.

After the garlic has cured, I remove the stems about 1” above the bulb and place them in boxes for storage in my cellar.  Many people braid the stems and hang the braids as a way of storing.  Don’t forget to save your biggest bulbs for planting that fall!

When I have an abundance of garlic I will chop them, place in ice cube trays, cover with oil (olive or coconut oil work well), freeze the cubes, and store for future use anytime I am sweating onion or frying something that I’d like to have that garlic flavor.  Garlic can also be dehydrated and made into fresh garlic powder (add a few grains of rice when storing to keep moisture away).   I am on my 3^rd year of not having to purchase garlic to grow – the last 3 autumns I planted some of what I grew the last season.  It’s a great feeling to be able to sow what you have grown yourself.  I hope you are inspired to grow this easy and tasty herb. 

What is the the IUPUI Seed Library?

In 2019, the Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Library received a three-year grant from the IUPUI Office of Sustainability to start a seed library for faculty, staff, students, and community users (University Library is an academic library that also serves Marion County residents). The IUPUI seed library is the first seed library within an Indiana academic library that is free and available to all users, and one of only seven in the entire United States.

The Seed Library is a collection of heirloom, open-pollinated, non-GMO herb seeds that any user can borrow (IUPUI faculty, IUPUI staff, IUPUI students, Marion County residents and IU affiliates) to place at home for their personal use. The idea is that users will grow their herbs, flowers, and vegetables and then save some of those seeds to return to the seed library.

The IUPUI Seed Library started with the intention to:

• Educate the IUPUI community on gardening, especially in small spaces;
• Collaborate with campus departments, student groups, and off-campus groups in creative ways;
• And involve students in programming.

Evolution of the IUPUI Seed Library:

In the first year, the Seed Library offered herb seeds, and collaborated with IUPUI Campus Gardens for a workshop on seed saving and free compost for a student planting event.

In the second year, the library was expanded to offer beneficial flowers and vegetables, in addition to herbs. We collaborated with IUPUI Student Affairs to offer dormitory residents a chance to plant seeds for their residence hall windowsills, and the Hancock County Master Gardener Association to offer a workshop on container gardening.

Article Courtesy of Alicia S. Añino, Master Gardener Intern (Hancock County)

In mid-December, my wife Jean started an indoor flat of Butter Crunch lettuce from seed. We used screened potting mix for our growing medium in standard 1-inch,4-packs placed in a shallow tray for bottom watering. We are using our recently purchased Light Emitting Diode (LED) grow lights manufactured with 4-LED colors to closely simulate the sunlight spectrum and we continue to experiment with the level of brightness and distance from the plants to maximize growth. We also have our grow lights connected to a timer adjusted for 8 hours of darkness and 16 hours of light. It is amazing at how quickly the plants have developed in 24 days. Photos demonstrate the surprisingly bright LED light even though they are only adjusted to 50% of their full brightness. We harvested our first lettuce leaves yesterday to add to our salads, and will plant successive crops to enjoy fresh lettuce thru the winter.

Join us to beat the Covid-19 blues, as well as the winter doldrums, and start growing your own greens and herbs indoors this winter

Click here for a short guide from the University of Illinois Extension to help you get started.

This is an interesting post about forage crops including a short video demonstrating a creative way one Tennessean farmer uses to monitor the harvest of a corn forage crop using an overhead drone.  Corn silage is a high-quality forage crop that is used on many dairy farms and on some beef cattle farms in Tennessee. …  The object of silage making is to preserve the harvested crop by anaerobic (without oxygen) fermentation.  Silage is usually made from grass crops, including maize, sorghum or other cereals, using the entire green plant (not just the grain). View video here  Do Indiana farmers use drones to assist in farming? If you have any thoughts, please post a comment. And if you would like to receive an occasional educational and informative post, please sign up for our Backyard Botanist Blog.

If you have missed the thunderstorms and showers  in central Indiana, here is a good rule of thumb to follow when garden soil drys up. Most flower and vegetable gardens perform best when they
receive 1 to 1-1/2 inch of water per week. Supplemental watering is best done in the morning and delivered directly to the soil surrounding the plants. Soil type does not affect the amount of total water needed but does dictate frequency of water application. Lighter soils need more frequent water applications, but less water applied per application. Good luck and good gardening and may mother nature take care of all of your watering needs..

Hancock County Master Gardeners.

Is It time? ————Yes, it is! — and if you start vegetables and flower  seed indoors in late March and early April and give the seedlings some TLC you will have a jump start with home grown transplants to move to your garden after the last spring frost. Cold weather crop seeds like Broccoli and Greens can even be started indoors as early as February. By starting your seeds indoors and taking tender care of the plants you will have strong healthy transplants which will flower and bear sooner allowing an earlier harvest than plants started directly outdoors. Growing from seed allows you to buy seeds for many more plant varieties than you will find for sale in the plant supply store and gives you the opportunity to experiment with unusual flavors, shapes, and colors of plants. Have fun by trying an heirloom tomato variety like Brandywine or a Crested or Plume Celosia flower which may be difficult to find as a transplant at your plant store. Another advantage worth mentioning is by staggering the start date of seeds you can spread your harvest over a longer period and avoid having all the fruits mature at the same time. Gather your seeds and supplies and if you love to watch plants grow, jump in and start your seeds now. To help you get started, here are links to two publications from the Purdue Horticultural experts which you can download and print…… Good Luck and enjoy.

https://www.purdue.edu/hla/sites/yardandgarden/ardeners-start-your-seeds/

https://ag.purdue.edu/hla/pubs/HO/HO-14.pdf

I found this just on the verge of blooming on March 2 in our Woodland garden at the Hancock County Purdue Extension office grounds.   It’s common name is Lenten Rose, a member of the Hellabore family.  These plants bloom very early in the season, hence the common name.  The flowers come in a variety of colors (white, pink, lavender, green, and various combinations of those colors).  The ones in my home garden hold their flowers until mid summer.  Another interesting aspect of this plant is the leaves are evergreen.  The leaves from the previous season stay green until new growth appears in late winter.  When new flowers bloom, the old leaves whither and new leaves unfold.  If the old leaves are unappealing, you can prune them.  Otherwise, these plants are essentially care-free.  They are shade lovers but can tolerate a little bit of sun and the clay soils of Central Indiana do not seem to bother them either.   Thet typical height of the plant is 12-18 inches and they can have width of 2-3 feet.  This a plant that provides interest in the garden nearly year round.

A Perennial That Blooms All Summer

The Popsicle Kniphofia (Poker plant) rewards its owner with blooms from May through September.  Choose a full sun location and watch the flower spikes grow up to 30 inches tall.  Once the bloom is spent, clip the flower spike to promote repeat blooming.  Colors available include Banana, Creamsicle, Lemon, Mango, Orange Vanilla, Pineapple, Red Hot and Papaya. Papaya is shown in the picture.  The grass like foliage attains a height of 18 inches which will grow into a clump from 12 -18 inches wide.  For maximum bloomage, plant in full sun, water regularly until established, and fertilize in early spring.  Look for the Popsicle variety of the Poker plant.  It is the only rebloomer in the Kniphofia family.

Other long blooming perennials include:

• Garden Phlox
• Stella de Oro Daylily
• Shasta Daisy
• Perennial Salvia
• Russian Sage
• Yarrow
• Lavender
• Ice Plant
• Coneflower
• Moon Beam Coreopsis

Questions? The Master Gardeners of Hancock County are here to answer your gardening questions.

Article submitted by Bruce Matter.

While this article doesn’t deal specifically with garden tips, if you’d like to know more about plants that live in wet areas, please read Joe Whitfield’s article on wetland plants.  You might be able to identify some of these plants when you are out in nature.

 

One question that gets asked is “How do I know I’m in a wetland area?”  The easy answer is to just keep walking until the water leaks into you shoes.  However,  since no one wants to walk around in soggy shoes, an easy way is to observe the plants growing nearby.

There are two types of wetland plants:  Obligate plants; these are plants that almost always grow in a wetland area, and Facultative plants; these are the plants that usually grow in wetland areas.

One of the easiest plants to spot and to remember is Cattails.  These plants can grow up to seven feet tall.  The seed head is the most recognizable part of the plant.  It is a large, sausage-shaped seed head that turns brown when it matures.  The leaves are flat and have no midrib.   When young it can be confused for Irises or Sweetflag.

While the Cattail is an important plant for water birds,  amphibians, fish and mammals, they will get out of hand of not controlled.   Cattails can spread by both windborne seeds and rhizomes (underground roots).  If you know what you are doing, quite a bit of the plant can be used for food.

Arrowhead is another common plant in wetlands.  It has triangular arrow-like leaves; the flower has three petals and is white.  This plant can get almost five feet tall.   Arrowheads are a perennial plant with about 20 species native to the eastern U.S.  These plants colonize well and will fill in shallow ponds and such; you can even grow them in a container of mud or wet kitty litter.  Just remember to water it very well.  It is also known called Duck Potato because the tubers are edible for muskrat, porcupines, and people (if you really have to).  The seeds are eaten by waterfowl.

Yellow Marsh Marigold is misnamed; they are a member of the Buttercup family,  not the Marigold family.   The flowers of this plant look similar to other Buttercup plants, having five-petaled yellow flowers with large, very smooth and round leaves.   This is one of the earliest wildflowers to bloom.  The bright yellow color is a welcome sight on wet, rainy days.  It will get up to 18 inches tall and the leaves are heart-shaped.  After it quits blooming the leaves can get up to 8 inches across.  Look for Skunk Cabbage; where you find one, you’ll find the other.

Jewel Weed  (also known as Touch-me-not) has two types of flowers.  One is orange-spotted; the other one has pale yellow flowers.  These plants get to about 5 feet tall.  They are found usually in wetland areas but can be found other places.  Once the seeds are ripe, if the flowers are touched, the seeds shoot out.  If you ever get caught in Stinging nettles or Poison ivy, look around for one these plants.  The crushed leaves and juice from the stem are a well-known remedy to ease the itching.

The Swamp Milkweed grows to a height of 5 feet and there are two types.  One of them has small pink-purple flowers that you find in bogs and marshes.  The other has white flowers and prefers shady wetlands.  Butterflies and hummingbirds really love this plant.

The Cardinal Flower is one of the prettiest plants you’ll find growing in the wetlands.   It also gets up to 5 feet tall and has bright red flowers.  It can grow either in the sun or the shade and hummingbirds are highly attracted to this plant.  There has been an occasional attempt to get this flower named as the State flower.  If you have a rain garden,  this is a very showy flower to grow.

Queen-of-the-Prairie is a rather large plant; the rose-pink flower clusters can get up to 10 inches across and almost 12 inches long.  The entire plant will get up to 6 feet tall.  It grows in boggy areas and moist meadows.  Once planted it will take over due to its creeping rhizomes.

These are just a few of the wetland plants that can be found in the wild, or you can grow on your own.

In this season of colds and flu (some of us have not escaped), this article seems appropriate reading for both gardeners and historians.  It was researched and written by my husband,  Joe Whitfield, and has appeared in print in a local newspaper.  Some of the plants mentioned may already be a part of your garden but please read the disclaimer.   This article is for your wintertime enjoyment during these long, dark nights.

DISCLAIMER:  Don’t try this at home folks; it’s probably one reason they didn’t live long back in those days. 

Back in the days when there wasn’t a drugstore on every corner or doctors handy, pioneers tried a little bit of everything when they got sick.  There was a notion called the Doctrine of Signatures.  In this theory, the shape, color or order of a plant was said to be an indication of its medical use.

An example of this would be ginseng; in Chinese it’s Jin-Chen (man-like).  In Indiana this is a multi-million dollar business.   Which, by the way, there is a season for hunting it and you need a license to collect ginseng.

No only did they use native plants for themselves but for their animals.  For instance:

Sow Thistles – This was used for high blood pressure in animals.  Sows and nursing mother’s were given this to up the production of milk.  It was also used for wheezing and shortness of breath.

Mullein – Leaves were used for green dyes, tea for headaches, burned near animals that were wheezing,  and also as rouge for cheeks (it was also called Quaker Rouge).

Solomon’s Seal – Not only used when dried to repel spider and snakes but in a tea for a contraceptive. 

Rattlesnake Master – This plant was thought to cure bites by rattlesnakes (it doesn’t work).  We have this plant growing in the Prairie section at Beckenholdt (Editor’s note.  That would be a park in the Greenfield Parks and Recreation system).

Basil – Not only was this used for flavoring but also for indigestion and skin conditions and as a relief from diarrhea and coughs.

Bee Balm – Used for colic, stomach aches and intestinal worms. 

Black-eyed Susan – With a tea made from the roots, you could expel worms and treat a cold.  The juice from the roots was used for earache.

Catalpa Tree – It’s leaves were used as a poultice for wounds.  A tea from the seeds was used for bronchitis and asthma.   From the bark, they made a tea to make an antiseptic and a laxative and sedative, and for intestinal worms and snake bite.

False Solomon Seal – The roots of this plant were burned to cure insanity and to quiet a crying child.  Take the dry powdered roots and you could stop external bleeding, plus rashes and itch.  The fruits of this plant were eaten to prevent scurvy.

Catnip – A weak tea was made for a colicky baby.

Jewel Weed -Also known as Touch-Me Not, the leaves were used to relieve itching (this one will work).  Editor’s note:  I have used this after brushing against Stinging nettles.  In the natural world, these two plants grow near each other.  How fortunate for those of us who are clumsy.

Blazing Stars – A tea from the roots was used to cure dysentery.   The corms taste like carrots in the early spring.

Butterfly weed – The taproot was used for pleurisy and asthma.

Fleabanes – This plant was used as a cure for diarrhea, kidney stones,  diabetes and a host of other ailments.

Wild Bergamot – A tea made from the leaves was used for colic, flatulence, colds, fever and nosebleeds.

If you were lucky enough to live close to a wetland area, this gave you an opportunity to use some of these plants.

Cardinal Flower – A tea from the root or leaves was used as remedies for stomach ache, fever, headache and colds.  It was also used to expel worms, soothe the nerve, to cure syphilis and typhoid fever.   At times it was also mixed in a love potion.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit – The corm of this plant is poisonous, however,  when dried, it can be eaten and used to treat colds and bronchial ailments.

Joe-Pye-Weed – Used to induce sweating in Typhus fever.  This plant was also used for urinary ailments.

Lady’s Slippers  – The roots of this plant have a sedative property and teas were made to calm the nerves, ease insomnia, depression, menstrual disorders, and treat epilepsy. 

Skunk Cabbage – This was made into a salve for rheumatism, treatment of lock jaw (tetanus), epilepsy  and seizures.   Also used for headaches and made into a tea for use as a contraceptive.

I could keeping going for a couple more pages but I won’t.   As you can see, the pioneers used just about everything that grew to some use- most of it wrong- but to some use.  As I said in the beginning:  Don’t try this at home.