I am back. Still dragging my feet, but slowly getting back to normal schedule.
Took me longer to get over that nasty cold than I liked, hopefully I built up a good amount of immunity that should last a long, long time.
Lots of catching up (reply to comments to my posts, read 2 weeks of missed blogs, prepare garden beds, transplant seedlings, sow seeds, take down and put away temporary deer fence …, the list is long), will try to get up-to-date as quickly as possible.
Despite my neglect, garlic plants are looking gorgeous. As I mentioned in my 10/15/12 post (click here and scroll down), I planted my garlic cloves closer than recommended, now I am pulling every other plant as needed for cooking.
Garlic green
Garlic green is a really special spring treat. Unfortunately the season is short. Use the whole plant (white part as well as green part) like you would scallion. It is tender and has a mild garlic flavor.
I sliced the whole garlic green on the bias, stir-fried with sliced chicken (good with pork, beef, shrimp and tofu also) and sweet potato noodles.
My window box spinach (seeds sown 3/11/13) are doing very well. The first harvest was the thinning (pulled up the whole plant, forgot to take photo). The second harvest (photo below) I cut the outer leaves from each plant leaving the remainder of the plant to continue to grow.
Spinach
Burpee’s razzle dazzle hybrid
Made a soup with tofu, poached egg, thinly sliced garlic green and the above spinach. The spinach was tender and super delicious.
Spinach appears to be a good candidate for window box planting so will experiment with planting more in the fall for winter use.
Enjoy!
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Garden to Wok 
Your spinach is my favourite my friend, it is so green and lovely 😀
And I love those flowers too!
Cheers
CCU
Hello Uru,
Thanks, spinach was harvested and eaten within hours, it was delicious.
Sorry to hear you have been so under the weather Norma, glad you are back in the swing of things.
Your spinach looks fabulous! I really should try grow some myself.
Have a super week ahead.
🙂 Mandy xo
Hello Mandy,
I too am glad to be back in the swing of things. Was surprised how well the spinach did in the window box and how little care it needed. A super week to you also.
Glad to hear you’re back on your feet again Norma. Burpee’s razzle dazzle hybrid! What a fabulous name! Your tofu and egg soup sounds lovely, and nourishing too.
Hello Saskia,
You are not going to believe this, but I bought that variety of spinach because of the name on the seed package.
I absolutely believe you Norma. How could you NOT buy it?
A soup like that should help you immunity by leaps and bounds . . . must have been a peculiar virus to have liked all the garlic in your house . . . I am ‘topping up’ all my recipes ready for our winter 🙂 !
Hello Eha,
So strange, we are just getting into spring and you are readying for winter.
Ours not as tough as yours, well, where I live anyways . . . nights down to -2 C max, days usually 14- 16 C: altho’ my heatbank has already decided to put its fans on for half the night at about 4 C !!! Spolit brats, I know!!!!
I think this coming week I’ve got spinach to pick. Yours looks so tender and nice. Glad you are feeling better.
Hello Daphne,
With the weather the way it has been this year, planting spinach in window box sure gave me a head start. What a difference compared to last winter/spring.
Nice to see you back Norma, I wish you all the health and no cold for the next years 🙂 Sometimes it’s good to get sick, just a little bit and rest, but I can imagine you missed your garden 🙂 I like the idea with a window box with spinach. I buy spinach all the time, as I love the taste. It would be a nice idea to plant it at home. The only thing is that I’ll have to keep my cat away from it.
Hello Marta,
Thanks, glad to be back. I was surprised at how easy it was to grow spinach in the window box, you could put a netting over the window box to keep your cat away.
Hi Norma, I’m new to your blog and am loving going through older posts catching up and getting to know you. It’s lovely to ‘meet’ you. I hope you’re feeling better.
Hello Lisa,
Welcome. Thanks for visiting and looking forward to your future visits.
Glad you are back in the swing of things and feeling better. Your spinach is gorgeous! Healthy bunch of onions too. Have a great week!
Hello FA,
Thanks, sure am glad to be back in the swing of things. A great week to you too.
beautiful. And your recipe sounds delish too! Have not had sweet potato noodles. Can they be homemade?
Hello Shawn Ann,
I don’t know if it is possible to make sweet potato noodles at home, but then, why not? Keep me updated if you decide to give it a try.
The garlic greens look so wonderful Norma! I would love to be able to cook with them. I didn’t think about window box spinach but I suppose it grows wonderfully in a pot. I should try that this year, I always do my tomatoes and chillies in pots. Your recipes send delicious too. I hope you are feeling better.
Nazneen
Hello Nazneen,
Oh yes, spinach will definitely do well in pots. I am feeling much better, thanks.
I just harvested some baby spinach early today too.
Love your garlic plants!
Hello Angie,
Don’t you just love the delicious taste of freshly harvested baby spinach. What else do you grow? Garlic is very easy to grow.
Your green garlic is so perfect looking. My garlic always seems to get infected with something that makes it ugly, still delicious, but definitely ugly. I am impressed with all your windowbox experiments. You are such a dedicated garden, I am full of admiration. I have it so easy with my mild climate.
Hello Michelle,
Do you replant from the cloves you saved from the previous year? If yes, you may want to think about getting new garlic and perhaps that will take care of the problem for good.
Hi Norma! I am glad that you are back and feeling better. I love garlic and always have them in most of the dishes that I make. I don’t recall having garlic leaves before, so this is a must do for a new recipe. Thank you, Norma and take care of your self. 🙂
Hello Ray,
Thanks, glad to be back. I know garlic scapes are available at farmers markets and Asian food markets, not sure if garlic greens are available, if not, you will just have to grow some, you will love the flavor.
Missed you! I am glad you are feeling better. Hope to see you on Thursday at Locust Grove. We need your expertise in getting all the news print paper and mulch in the garden. Everything looks fabulous and we need to beat the weeds. I made a spinach,red onion and strawberry salad this past weekend. It was a hit!
Hello Pat,
Planning to be at LG on Thursday.
Good to hear you’re better, Norma. It does seem you were unwell for quite a while. The shallots look very good. What a shame the season is so short. Good luck with all the catching up – story of my life – always seem to be running behind xx
Hello Charlie,
It did seem like a looooong time even though I was only down for 3 weeks. Garlic scapes will follow garlic greens so I am in for another special garlic treat soon.
So glad you’re feeling better Norma. It sounds like you had a doozy of a cold! Here’s hoping your immunity is good and built up now. And don’t stress yourself catching up. I’ve been there done that and find it’s easier to just move forward. 🙂 No one will fault you for that. And your flowers are just gorgeous!
Hello Kristy,
Thanks, you are so understanding.
So happy to hear you’re finally on the mend. What a horrid bout you experienced.
Window box spinach? How cool does that sound.
Hello Maureen,
It was a horrid bout, sure hope I built up much immunity to last a long, long time.
I may get 2 more harvest from my window box spinach then I will put the window box to bed as the spinach in the garden should be ready for harvesting soon.
Good to read that you’r feeling better, Norma. How remarkable that you’re already harvesting some of your garden’s bounty. You work hard on your garden but you do get rewarded — and deservedly so. 🙂
Hello John,
Presently, I am only harvesting garlic green from my garden but hopefully with the weather finally getter warmer and I am feeling better things will get planted and growing. Hoping to get 2 more meals from my window box spinach then I will put the box to bed until the fall and focus on the garden where I spend way toooo much time.
Glad you are feeling better, those green garlic are gorgeous!
Hello Mac,
Thanks. The garlic are very happy this year.
Glad to hear you’re feeling better!
Hello YC,
Thanks.
Norma, you’re back! We missed you! The garlic greens look lovely and fresh – glad you’re getting to enjoy them now, as it will help your immune system no end! (Sigh, now I sound like my Chinese mother.. :))
Hello Celia,
Thanks. We all start to sound like our mothers as we mature.
Norma, please stop, you’re scaring me.. 😉
Hello Celia,
It’s a good thing. We are who we are because of our wise mothers and we are passing on their wisdom to others.
I am glad Norma you are on recovery. These nasty flu bugs have been very virulent and last a long time. Take care of yourself. Your beautiful garlic greens will be perfect in soups as you recover.
Hello Bam,
Thanks. Can you purchase garlic green in the Hong Kong wet market?
Dear Norma,
Glad to hear you are on the mend. I think we call the green garlic shallots here and spring onions in Asia? Whatever the name, they look really fresh and I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful meal with them.
Hello Chopin,
Thanks, no fun being sick. Interesting how the same produce is known by different name in different part of the world.
The short window of garlic greens is actually something daddy was commenting on recently…love your abundance, each and every time I visit, Norma! What a grand green thumb you have, for sure!
Hello SM,
Guessing your Daddy has a veggie garden, well, garlic scape will be on the menu soon, this should make your Daddy happy.
nothing better that feshly picked spinach, lovely!
i had several in my garden too, they are the wild vierity, green and red leaves..
can wait to the harvest time…
Hello Dedy,
Agree, nothing better than freshly picked vegetables. I am not familiar with wild spinach, are you by any chance be referring to amaranth?
Hi Norma… very impressive looking garlic you have there…
I would like to seek some advice from you with regards to WordPress…
Tried to look for your email address in your blog but could not find it.
So, please excuse my using this space to talk about something unrelated to your post.
I had some problems with Blogger (their Google +1 thing was very difficult to understand) and decided to change to WordPress.
If possible, can you please spare some time to coach me on how to post multiple photos amongst text as you do with your blog?
As it is, I find that I could only post one single photo at a time, each time with its own caption.
I have tried searching for information on how to do so but could not find what I am looking for as yet.
Would appreciate very much any advice from you (such as a link for further information).
My email address is LRONGLIM (at)GMAIL.COM
Thank you in advance…
Lrong
Hello Lrong,
No need to apologize. I use Picasa to post multiple photos. Are you familiar with Picasa? I will send you an e-mail.
Hi Norma, I’m so happy you are feeling better. 🙂 I must have had the same thing for the last several weeks…still seeing the doctor for more tests. Your spinach looks beautiful…we are all learning from your experiments in gardening.
Hello Karen,
Sorry to hear you have not been well also, hope the doctor is able to determine what the problem is from the tests and you are back to feeling great again, take care.
So happy to hear you are feeling better Norma. Your spinach and flowers are beautiful!
Hello Anne,
Thanks.
Hi Norma, Happy Mother’s Day! Every Monday I water my few plants on a balcony I think of your Harvest Monday. Your spinach and garlic looks beautiful! Flowers do too. 🙂
Hello Marina,
What are you growing on your balcony? Hope you are able to take them with you when you move.
I’m intrigued by the sounds of your spinach and tofu soup Norma. The girls love miso soup with seaweed and tofu, so why not spinach and tofu? Glad to hear that you are feeling better. I’ve had to put blogging on the back burner for the past few weeks too…but for me it was because of work. I worked so much that I couldn’t stay up at night anymore and had to go to bed right after we put the girls to bed.
Hello Barb,
I did add a bit of miso to my soup but forgot to mention. Adding seaweed to the soup would be a good idea too, will do so when I make the soup again.
I don’t know how you manage to work full time, take care of the girls and the household and find time to blog.
I just planted my garlic pieces yesterday for growing garlic greens. I love to use them a lot in my cooking & I haven’t been doing that since last year. I had a lot of success with it too! Your garlic greens look just wonderful & the rest of your garden is thriving too! Beautiful! Home grown spinach is the best, istn’t it?
Hello Sophie,
Do you let some of your garlic form heads or you grow them strictly for garlic greens?
I grow them strictly for the greens! 🙂 x