5 things to do in the garden this week:
Plant elephant garlic and you will be gifted with corms that grow off the mother bulb. Yes, although elephant garlic presents as a gigantic bulb made up of cloves, it produces many corms, which, when planted out, grow into more garlic. Elephant garlic is a cousin to ordinary garlic, but it more closely related to leeks and has a flavor similar to them, without the pungency of regular garlic. Fall is the classic season for planting garlic of all kinds. A banana, another healthy edible, actually grows from a corm as well. Although a banana plant also has underground rhizomes that allow it to spread and survive from one year to the next, these rhizomes produce corms from which banana shoots and fruit develop.
The largest strawberry in the world, weighing more than half a pound, has been grown in Israel. It comes from the Elan variety, weighing 10 ounces and the size of a human heart. You can purchase Elan strawberry seeds at Johnny’s Selected Seeds (johnnyseeds.com). While you’re there, you may as well order some Alexandria strawberry seeds. They are a type of alpine, Mignonette, or wild strawberry (fraises des bois). Most nurseries carry seed packets of alpine strawberries, which germinate with ease. Alpine strawberries are smaller and more tart than grocery store strawberries. The advantage in growing them is that they produce fruit practically year-round, are adaptable to partial sun exposure and survive freezing weather.
Cuban oregano or Mexican mint (Plectranthus amboinicus) are misleading names for this distinctive herb since its habitat, although uncertain, is either East Africa or India. Heart-shaped leaves with gently toothed leaf margins can be eaten raw or to flavor cooked dishes. A variety with cream-colored leaf margins is also regularly seen. This is an herb that grows rapidly and can serve as a carefree ground cover.
Plant peas now. Edible peas are of three types. English peas, the ones you buy frozen in the grocery store, can be eaten raw once they plump, although their pods are not edible; they are the fastest-growing of the three types, with some varieties ready only 50 days after planting. Snow peas have flat edible pods and are harvested before the peas inside begin to swell. They are the type of peas you cook in stir fry dishes, and take twice as long as English peas to mature when planted from seed. Sugar snap peas are hybrids between the other two types and are harvested just after the peas inside the pods begin to swell. They are the sweetest of the three types and are popularly eaten out of hand, straight from the vine. They require six to eight weeks to develop from seed to harvestable crop.
Guide your peas, which are vining plants, in a vertical direction with the help of tomato cages. To confine your peas, utilize triangular, square, or circular cages, available in modular pieces through Internet vendors. These DIY cages are constructed from thick plastic or steel pieces and are as easy to snap together as tinker toys. Halatool is a brand I have used and recommend.