Garlic and Garden Report

Last autumn I reported the purchase of a trial pack of different garlic culivars from the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm. The crop has grown well despite being immersed in snow when the shoots were about six inches high. Not surprisingly the giant cloves have made the biggest plants followed byThermidrome, with Tuscany and Lautrec about the same. The Garlic Farm is already lifting green garlic but up here in the Pennines I'll wait another month. The Garlic Farm site is a mine of useless information on the subject. Apparently in the reign of the Pharoh Tutankhamun, fifteen pounds of garlic would buy you a healthy male slave. The corresponding weight for a female slave isn't recorded.

Elsewhere in the garden my standard Paul's Scarlet hawthorns are in impressive full flower. However planting standards wasn't such a good idea. You can see them leaning away from the prevailing and sometimes gale force westerly wind despite ever heavier staking and the problem gets worse as the tree head grows.  Solutions welcome! It is worth it for the fantastic display of blossom that creates a bridge into summer.
Two items currently sitting on the patio are also worthy of mention. An olive tree bought from Wm Morrisons and a lime tree which is already sporting an impressive crop for next winter's gin and tonics.They will spend the winter in the conservatory.

The Stuart Agenda by Alan Calder published by Willow Moon. e-Book and paperback from all Amazon sites.See reviews at http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005BJ3GNI.