Balcony Food: Garlic and herbs

Fresh from the soil

I LOVE having a balcony. It's even south-facing *gush* I have been experimenting with what I can grow. Garlic turns out to be one of those things - Hurrah!

Cleaned up and eaten sliced thin in a salad the same day it was pulled out of the soil! Soft skin and all. Delicate.

I have also been rather successful with sage (some leaves pictured with garlic above), thyme, mint, rosemary and strawberries. On the flower front, I enjoy having some geraniums around, as well as lavender for when I hear the south calling...

What I did: 

• I found out by accident that December is the time to plant the cloves. It happened to be December, so I went to the kitchen and grabbed a few cloves from a shop bought fist of garlic. Then I shoved them a few centimetres (couple of inches) deep into the soil in a big herb planter, making sure to leave some growing space between them and that they were pointy end up. 
• I watered them and waited.
• I watched the leaves carefully and pulled them up mid-June.
• I ate some straightaway, we couldn't resist!
• I cured the rest by leaving them out of the sun in a well ventilated dry spot.
• They are quite small, only an inch or so wide (a couple of cm) but good things come in small packages.

Brush off excess soil and leave somewhere dry out of the sun to cure.

I still have a couple of little heads left that have cured nicely. I'm looking forward to tasting them!


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