Garlic Harvest

Today I harvested the garlic, about 45 heads from a 3 x 3 foot spot in one of the raised beds. Only one head looked a little past it's prime, so I think I caught them at just the right moment. Here are some photos of my lovelies.

Harvesting root vegetables is so much more exciting that plucking something off a vine or shrub, something you have watched form and grow. Although that certainly has its charms.

But harvesting something that has been growing underground, shrouded in mystery until that moment you coax it from it's hiding place into the sunlight, has a special thrill. I don't know, it just feels like a magic trick, like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. But then, most every aspect of gardening feels like magic or conjuring.

Forgive my obsession with the garlic photos, but the colors just strike me as something so beautiful. I am sure I have drooled over skeins of yarn with these same color ways, greens, ecru, pinks and lavenders.

And now I have some more room for fall/winter crops. I don't have nearly enough onions in the ground, so that will be on my list.