Garlic and Shallots

February is the right time to order new varieties of garlic. As of 2013, I have the following:

California Early

Chopaka Mountain

German Extra Hearty

German Red

Inchelium Red

Japanese Porcelain

Musik

Red Grain

Romanian Red

Siberian

Silver Rose

I'm up to 11 different garlic varieties as of this season and will expand to 21 in 2014. Growing garlic takes a bit of optimism; you have to envision the future. The garlic I order in February, 2013 won't be delivered until early October, 2013 for the fall planting. These new varieties will sprout in early April, 2014.

My favorite place to order garlic is Filaree Garlic Farm located in Okanogan, Washington. This year I have 10 more varieties ordered:

Ajo Rojo

Asian Tempest

Bogatyr

Chinese Purple

Creole Red

Korean Mountain

Lithuanian Purple

Oregon Blue

Skuri

Xian

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February is also a great time to order shallots. I decided to go with Gurney's Seed & Nursery this season and ordered 2 pints (approximately 140). Each individual shallot that I plant will yield 3 to 6 more in late summer; so if I get a conservative average yield of 4 x 140 = 560! 

I also ordered Gurney's Whopper Strawberry plants (50) and will dedicate one of the mesa gardens to be exclusively for these berries. It should prove to be an interesting experiment.

For some strange reason, my Amaryllis loves to bloom in late February - and this year, it has a triple flower stalk which should be full of many blooms into the first couple of weeks in March.

:)