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Dragonflies in the Garden

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Dragonfly

Photo by John Sanger

Dragonflies in the Garden by John Sanger, Hunt County Master Gardener

One of the most rewarding aspects of gardening is enjoying the many wild creatures that come to visit. Some of my favorite visitors are dragonflies. They are fascinating to watch and photograph.

The fossil record tells us that the ancient ancestors of dragonflies were around long before the dinosaurs, and some of these insects had wingspans of more than two feet! Fortunately today’s dragonflies are much smaller. There are more than 160 species of dragonflies found throughout Texas, and they come in an incredible variety of brilliant colors, shapes and sizes.

Dragonflies are beneficial insects that prey on other flying insects such as mosquitoes, flies, gnats and flying ants. They grasp their prey with their legs in flight and eat while airborne.

Dragonflies are amazing flyers and can hover in place, or fly forwards, backwards or straight up, much like a helicopter. They are among the fastest flying insects, and can fly for hours on end without resting. If you are lucky, you might see a dragonfly swarm – a large group of adult dragonflies feeding on a large population of gnats or other flying insects. It is quite an impressive display of aerial acrobatics!

Dragonflies spend most of their lives in and around water. The adult dragonfly lays eggs in the water or on water plants. The eggs hatch and the nymphs grow and molt for several months to several years, feeding on aquatic insects, tadpoles and even small fish.

After 9-14 molts through stages called instars, the nymph emerges from the water onto land, its exoskeleton breaks open and the adult dragonfly emerges and extends its wings. Once the wings dry and harden, the dragonfly can take flight. Adult dragonflies can live from a few weeks to one year.

The best way to attract dragonflies is to incorporate a water feature into your landscape. Ponds give dragonflies a place to lay their eggs, and submerged vegetation gives dragonfly larvae places to hide. Plants around the edges of the pond give larvae places to crawl when emerging to molt into adults. A larger pond will support a greater variety of dragonflies and will provide more hiding places for larvae – especially important if fish are present.

If you don’t already have one, consider adding a water feature to your landscape. It can attract dragonflies to your property, as well as a great variety of other wildlife. Take the time to welcome and study these amazing beneficial insects as they visit your garden. They are truly a wonder of nature.

 

Using Rose Hips

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Using Rose Hips by June Morgan, Hunt County Master Gardener.

After the wonderful aroma of roses is over in the house, the petals have done their job of being tossed in weddings, and the bare stems are bereft of their former glory, one is tempted to trim away the ugliness. But wait, there is more to come; that is making use of the rose hips, the small round seed pods left on the flower stem after the petals have dropped.

While several species of Rosaceae can be used, it is the Rosa Canina (the wild dog rose), and Rosa Rugosa that are the most popular for both foragers and cultivators. They have been used for centuries for their food and medicinal properties. The plants are prickly climbers with white or pink flowers appearing in early summer, but the hips are not to be harvested until they are ripe and have turned red-orange. If left too long after a frost, they may start to rot, so to be ahead of the game, and to mimic a frost, they should be picked when still hard and put in the freezer for 24 hours.

To prepare the fruit for eating while they are fresh, wash them, cut off the stem and blossom ends, cut the hips in half and remove the inner seeds manually (as the small hairs inside are irritating to the bowel).  After cooking in water and straining, the juice can be used for jams, jellies, syrup and in various other recipes such as wine or they can be frozen for up to a year. Drying is the easiest way to preserve them and is less labor intensive. They can be dried in the sun on newspapers, or to protect them from the birds, in the oven or food dehydrator at 110 degrees for about 5-6 hours. Then grind them in a food processor just until they are chopped into medium size bits, not so small that they will fall though a mesh strainer where it can be shaken until the hairs separate and fall away. The hips can be stored in jars or in the freezer until needed.

To use the dried hips, simply cover them in a pot with water and simmer until soft. They can be used with other fruits such as cranberries or as flavoring in cakes, etc. For tea, put 1-2 teaspoons of the dried hips into a tea pot, let it steep for 15-20 minutes and strain into a cup. The taste will resemble that of apples with the tartness of crabapples. This makes a wonderful winter-time drink and a tasty addition to your natural apothecary.

Keyhole Gardens

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Keyhole Gardens by John Sanger, Hunt County Master Gardener.

The keyhole garden was developed in sub-Saharan Africa to help people grow food in hot, dry conditions – much like we have here in Texas during the Summer months. It is very efficient at holding moisture and retaining nutrients. The keyhole garden is essentially a round raised bed garden built on a compost pile with a central compost basket. The keyhole is a small aisle on one side of the circular garden that enables the gardener to reach the compost basket to add to it or turn it. It also brings the gardener closer to the center of the bed to reach plants more easily. Keyhole gardens get their name from the appearance of the garden as viewed from above.

The keyhole garden can be made of anything that can contain the soil. The ideal size for maintaining moisture is about 6 feet in diameter. I like the garden walls to be about two feet tall, as I like to tend the garden from a standing position. People use wood beams, cinder blocks, stacked stones, fencing material, even wine bottles and concrete for their garden walls.

To build the garden, lay out a 6-foot diameter circle on the ground. Keep in mind that if you plan to angle your materials inward for strength, you may want to start with a wider base to allow for that angle so that the top of your garden is about 6 feet across. The central compost basket can be a 1-foot diameter cylinder of hardware cloth that will extend about one foot above the final soil level. On my gardens, a 48” wide roll of hardware cloth was the perfect height. Secure the basket with wire and cover the exterior with weed block, burlap, or other permeable fabric. Lay out where you want your keyhole and move your garden wall materials to create an aisle that will allow you to stand near the center of the bed to reach the compost basket.

The keyhole garden should be lined with wet cardboard, and then filled with alternating layers of brown and green compost. Browns include lots more cardboard and dry leaves, and greens can include green, leafy material or manure. Alternate layers until the bed is almost full, then top with a rich planting mix. Plant the bed densely so that the canopy of foliage will shade the soil and then add several inches of mulch around plantings. Put compostable materials into the compost basket regularly. When watering the plants, also water the compost basket so that the water will leach nutrients into the surrounding soil. During the hottest months, some gardeners build a frame so that shade cloth can be hung over the garden.

If you want to maximize crop output in your vegetable garden even during the hottest and driest months, try a keyhole garden. It is a versatile and efficient design which is easy to maintain and can provide a family with a year-round abundance of vegetables.

Potatoes and Onions

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Potatoes and Onions by Karla Basallaje, Master Gardener.

As you peruse seed catalogs and start to plan your gardens for the upcoming year, remember there are some vegetables you can start planting now. Potatoes and onions are planted at about the same time in our zone with seed potatoes and onion bulbs available for planting now in January and February. Although they are not suited for companion planting they are awesome companions in the kitchen! Whether roasted, baked, sautéed or fried, potatoes and onions make spectacular partners in so many recipes.

The onion variety, short day, which includes the Yellow TX Supersweet 1015, and Red Burgundy, have an average “days to harvest” of 110 days. The conventional wisdom is that the earlier you plant them, the larger they get. The Texas 1015 was developed by Texas A&M University and derives its name for the ideal time to plant the onion seed, which is October 15th, and also for its exceptional sweet taste and its non-tearing properties due to its low pyruvate content (which is what makes you cry when you cut up an onion). However, you can still plant the bulb (small bulbs are called sets) now, January 15th through February 15th. Also in the short day variety are the Early Grano (80 days to harvest) and Crystal Wax (60 days). When planting sets or transplants, they are planted 3/4 inch deep but not more than an inch deep and 3 inches apart.

A seed potato is a potato that is planted to produce a crop. It is the manner in which farmers and growers typically plant potatoes, although it is possible to produce true potato seeds, it is not commonly done. A potato is a tuber, which is the structure the plant uses to store energy to regrow the next season. Potato tubers start to sprout new growth from points called eyes. It is not recommended to use potatoes from the supermarket as seed potatoes because they might not be the right variety for your area and they are not guaranteed virus and disease free. The potato variety best suited to our hardiness zone are the Irish potatoes which include the Yukon Gold (90 days to harvest), Red LaSoda (100 days), Norland red (80 days) and the Caribo (95 days), just to name a few. Potatoes are typically planted by either placing a smaller whole potato directly into the ground or by cutting it up into smaller chunks, making sure that there are at least two healthy “eyes” in each chunk. Soil preparation is important when planting potatoes, working the soil into trenches 10-12 inches high and 36 inches apart. Because tubers grow above the seed piece, it is necessary to add mulch as the potato plant grows to keep it protected from sunlight and to keep the tubers from turning green.

Both vegetables grow best in full sunlight and well-drained soil and benefit from fertilizers early in their growing stage. For more details and information on growing potatoes and onions visit aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu.

Spring Planting

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Spring Planting by Wayne Bowman, Master Gardener.

“In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.” ~ Mark Twain

Aside from the effects of Brother Clement’s weather, it’s never too early to plan this year’s garden. In our part of the country, we’re somewhere around six to eight weeks from the average date of the last frost. Note, I said AVERAGE! Last frost dates jump around like a cat on a hot stove. Last frosts have occured as early as mid February or as late as April, both extremely rare, but they do happen. Best guess is to expect a frost 50% of the time after a published average date, so be careful planting tender crops such as tomatoes, beans, etc. Be prepared to cover some crops with frost cloth, etc., even if you use the following planting guide:

https://dallas-tx.tamu.edu/files/2010/06/Vegetable-Planting-Guide.pdf

The same chart I just referenced also makes note of the optimum soil tempreature for planting. If you wish, you could buy a soil thermometer, but (secret hint!) a probe type meat thermometer works well, too.

I’ve made a few quick trips through the Big Box and Ranch stores, and they’ve replenished their displays with seed marked for this coming season. Seed potatoes and onions are awaiting your purchase, too. They’ll be going into the ground shortly. Don’t try to use those potatoes sprouting in your pantry, though. Most have been treated with a chemical that retards growth.

Seeds left over from last year? Are you wondering if they’re still useable? It is easy enough to see if they’re still viable. Place a number of seeds between two pieces of damp toweling. Check every few days to see if anything is sprouting while keeping the toweling damp. A week to ten days later count the sprouting seeds and use this as a guide as to the percentage of good seed you have. Of course, most seed is rather cheap.

Ordering seeds? Time is short, although on-line ordering speeds shipment greatly. One caution should be to make sure the seed you are ordering is for something that will grow well in our climate. While our season is plenty long, some won’t do well in the heat of summer. If you are wondering, ask your local Master Gardener Vegetable Specialist. If they don’t know about a specific variety, they’ll know where to find the information.

Remember that garden plan I told you to make last fall? Now’s the time to drag it out and see what and where you wish to plant. Check your tools and sharpen your blades. In a few weeks, you’ll be wanting to test the motors on your mower, tiller and anything mechanical you might use, to see that they’re in top operating condition. New air filters and spark plugs do wonders sometimes. The busy season is just around the corner.

“Indoors or out, no one relaxes in March, that month of wind and taxes, the wind will presently disappear, the taxes last us all the year.” ~Ogden Nash

Save the Bees by Preventing Bee Swarm Infestations

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Save the Bees by Preventing Bee Swarm Infestations by De Anna Penninga, Hunt County Master Gardener.

In Spring and Summer, phones will ring for area beekeepers from homeowners with concerns about Honey Bees co-habitating in or around their homes. Michael Merchant, Ph.D., Urban Entomologist, Texas AgriLife Extension writes about Honey Bee behavior in his article “Honey Bee Swarms and their Control” and offers some good information to help homeowners. Now is the time to share some information to help homeowners “Save the Bees” and prevent swarm infestations.

First, a bit of information about bees, their behavior, and swarming. In his article, Dr. Merchant writes about honey bee behavior: “…that Honey bees are not typically aggressive, they do not seek out people or animals to attack. Honey Bees are defensive and will attack what they perceive as a threat to their hive.” Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service recommends that you contact a pest control professional to manage a swarm because there is always risk when bees are in close proximity to humans. Honey bees do not nest in the ground. So, if you roll over a hive in the ground, those aren’t honey bees. Honey Bees swarm to start a new hive. The old queen gathers a bunch of workers, they load up on honey, and they leave their old hive in search of a new location to establish a new hive.

Warm spring months, April and May, are prime times for Honey Bees to swarm. People will see a mass of bees hanging on trees, on fences, and other places out in the open and the calls to beekeepers roll in. People need to understand that this bee cluster, out in the open, is just the bees’ staging mode. Most of the bees are resting while scouts are out finding a safe suitable spot for their new hive to move. Once that place is selected, usually within 24 to 48 hours, the bees move on.

Where bees choose to live is generally out of your control. Unfortunately for humans, there are numerous areas around our homes and gardens that offer the perfect conditions for a new honey bee hive to move. Honey Bee scouts are looking for nooks, cavities or voids in trees, sheds, garden walls and the inside of walls in your home. South or east facing sides of a home allow the hive to take advantage of the sun’s warmth. Eaves and soffits offer easy access to the inside of your home. A hole, crack or gap as small as one eighth of an inch is all bees need to move in to your home. Honey bees that have moved into a structure should be removed or destroyed as quickly as possible. The longer you wait, the more difficult and costly their removal will be. That is because a single hive can grow quickly a population of 40,000 bees or more. Once established, bees will fill the cavity with honeycombs, honey, and hive waste until the cavity is full. Don’t try to use honey or wax removed from a treated hive because those are often contaminated with dust, insulation or insecticides and are unsuitable for human use.

The next round of calls come in the summer when homeowners finally become aware that a honey bee hive has taken up residence in an unwanted location in or near their home. Many homeowners have heard the plight of the honeybee and are adamant beekeepers try to “save the bees!” Most often, that is just not cost effective. Removing a honey bee hive can easily cost hundreds of dollars causing extensive damage, so prevention is the best solution. Homeowners can assume that if a bee hive has been in a home before, then that home is more prone to a future unwanted honey bee hive, so be sure to take annual preventative measures to keep bee problems from returning.

Prevention is the most important thing to “save the bees” and prevent honey bees from infesting undesirable locations and creating substantial financial impacts. Fall and Winter are great times of year for eliminating possible points of entry by bees into buildings. Removing other potential nest sites is the best way to prevent serious problems with bees around structures. All holes in bricks, cracks in wood and brick joint holes, holes where pipes and wiring enter, cracks in window framing, knot holes in wood siding, need to be filled. Most of these holes can be filled with caulk, but air flow holes should be blocked with wire screen with less than 1 /8 inch mesh. Chimneys should be properly capped.

Texas Beekeepers Association has an interactive map that lists professionals who do bee removals by county for Texas. http://texasbeekeepers.org/swarms

Source: Michael Merchant, Ph.D., Urban Entomologist, Texas AgriLife Extension Honey Bee Swarms and their Control

Christmas Cactus

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Christmas Cactus by Byron Chitwood, Master Gardener.

Guess what? Christmas cactus are named because they tend to bloom about Christmas time. However, they are also called Thanksgiving Cactus, Crab Cactus and Holiday Cactus. When I was a kid, we called them “live forevers”. Live forevers will be described later in this article.

The Christmas cactus is a native of southeast Brazil and primarily grows at an altitude of 2-7 thousand feet in mountainous areas. In Brazil, they are called “Flor de Maio” because they bloom in early summer. Christmas cactus are one of the cacti families. However, their growing conditions are similar to that of Orchids. They grow on the moss of trees and rocky environments where the humidity is relatively high. The flowers of the Christmas can range from white to red to purple with pink, yellow, and orange filling in the blanks.

Christmas cactus make an excellent house plant with minimum care required. They can grow in a shallow bowl filled with a soil consisting of a mixture of potting soil and coarse sand. They do require attention to their water needs. They do best if the soil is kept slightly moist. Too much or too little water can be detrimental to their overall health. Too much water can kill the plants and if left in a dry condition can do the same. To feed them, add a small amount of well composted vegetation to the top of the soil that they are planted in. The plants do not need a whole lot of sunlight so keep them in an area with a north window during the winter and a south window in the summer.

The plants can be made to bloom at the appropriate time such as Thanksgiving or Christmas. Cover the plants with a dark cloth or place them in a dark closet for at least 16 hours per day. The ideal temperature for this process is 61 degrees Fahrenheit. Start this dark treatment about 2 weeks before you would like the plants to bloom. After eight days of the darkness treatment, move the plant to its normal position in the house and the blooms that have set in the darkness will mature.

Young Christmas cactus plants can be purchased at your favorite nursery or gardening center. However, if you have a friend that grows them maybe if you talk real nice to him or her that person will give you a few leaves which are actually the stems of the plants. Plant each of the leaves in a potting soil made up of 1/3 each of coarse sand, and well composted leaves or other organic plant matter and native soil. Plant the each of the leaves to a depth of about 1/4 of its length in the potting soil. Keep the soil moist, but not wet, and within about two weeks the leaf will develop roots. Transfer to a larger pot and it will grow.

As I mentioned before, Christmas cactus were sometimes referred to as “live forevers” because you could start with one leaf or segment of the plant and over the years, harvest some of the leaves and repot them for gifts or to perpetuate your own plant virtually forever.

Cover Crop

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Cover Crop by Wayne Bowman, Master Gardener.

In an earlier column, I wrote about putting the garden to rest for the season using compost and mulch. An alternative to that method is the use of a winter cover crop. Many of you might consider cover crops to be something only used in commercial fields after the harvest of the cash crop, but there are benefits to be had for the smaller garden, too. After your harvest, cover crops can nourish your garden, protect it against erosion and weeds, and loosen the soil.

Cover crops can be listed in two categories, Legumes and Non-Legumes. All, however, provide the previous benefits, but in varying degrees.

Legumes, red clover, hairy vetch, field peas, and others are great for fixing atmospheric nitrogen for use by subsequent crops. Lower carbon and higher nitrogen in cover crops promote a faster breakdown in the soil. While they release the needed nitrogen faster, legumes provide less weed control and add less organic matter to the soil.

Non-Legumes– rye grass, winter rye (which is actually a grain), wheat, and oats all produce significant biomass, soil conditioning, and excellent weed and erosion control. Due to their higher carbon residue, they do take longer to break down in the soil, so nutrients that they scavenge from the soil will not be available to your next crop as quickly. The advantage of the slower decomposition comes in the form of the increase in soil organic matter.

A good cover crop sends roots deep into the soil. After the plant decomposes, this loosens the soil, providing pathways for moisture and air to your plantings. The dense top growth crowds out weeds, and in the case of non-legumes, competes with the weeds for nutrients. Some of the non-legumes also produce allelochemicals, which are natural herbicides. While these don’t affect all plants, it’s best to allow the roots of them to decay for a couple of weeks before planting.

Green Manure isn’t what you’ll find in the bottom of an alien spacecraft, rather it’s the term for a cover crop used to further nourish the soil. Used in various ways, the crop may be cut down while green and tilled in, cut and left to lay as mulch, or allowed to die and decompose in place. A drawback to allowing it a natural death is that plants will normally seed before the end of their life cycle. This gives it the potential to become a weed instead of a benefit to your garden. For this reason, most cover crops are cut before they mature.

Leaving the dead stubble and top growth in place allows no-till gardeners to plant directly into the covered areas by opening planting holes in which to place transplants. A small trench dug through the cover accommodates row crops.

Better moisture and heat control, decreased compaction and increased nutrients are all benefits and reasons why the next time your harvest is complete, you should try a cover crop.

Winterizing Your Garden

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Winterizing Your Garden by Wayne Bowman, Master Gardener.

Thalassa Cruso reminds us that “Fall is not the end of the gardening year; it is the start of next year’s growing season.” By the time you read this, it’s likely that we’ve already experienced our first frost in North Texas. Time to turn out the lights in the garden; summer’s party is over. You’ve coaxed the final tomato from the vine and your neighbors and relatives no longer smile when you say the word “squash”. An excellent time to get ready for next year.

Unless you’ve a perfect memory (and I don’t), it’s a good time to make a simple diagram of what you planted where this year. Doing so will simplify planning nest year’s layout of the garden and allow you to do some crop rotation. Changing the layout of your plantings helps avoid disease in your plants, balances soil nutrients, and decreases insect pests.

Garden cleanup is pretty simple – pull all the dead and dying plants, throw them into the compost pile, and go watch the Cowboys win another game, right? WHOA, partner! You might be heaping this year’s problems on next year’s plants. Fungus, disease, and insects that can winter over might be holding on to those dead plants. While a hot compost pile will kill off some fungus spores, disease viruses, and insect eggs, not all compost piles heat up enough to do the trick – so next season you might be enjoying the same issues you fought this year. Those few plants you pulled won’t fill the compost bin, so it’s better to send them to the burn pile, or off to the landfill.

Tomato towers, stakes you’ll use next year, and trellis material will need to be removed, cleaned and stored. If you did have disease issues with some of the plants that used these structures, a little spritz of bleach water while cleaning them off should prevent a repeat performance of the problem. Sometimes a little work at prevention pays great benefits.

The lawn’s still growing some, so you’ll still need to mow a time or two – but those leaves on the grass will need to go. Left on the lawn, they’ll encourage disease and give insects a place to hide from the cold. Resist the urge to sack them up and send them to the dump. Use a bagging mower or a good rake and you’ll have the material for a nice blanket for your garden’s winter nap.

To till or not to till, that is the question. If you’re practicing no-till gardening, then it’s an excellent time to apply a thick layer of mulch and compost. If you’re a tiller like me, it’s time to till and then apply that thick layer of mulch and compost. Over the resting season (I hate to say winter), the organic material will decompose and filter down into the soil. This will also give the organics a chance to “marry,” or activate in the soil– something that takes time. Those leaves I mentioned earlier can now be spread out on the garden as well, helping to amend the clay. In either case, till or no till, the mulch/compost will add nutrients to the soil, making it easier to work in the spring. An alternative to some of these preparations is to plant a cover crop, which will be discussed in a future article.

A few hours on a Saturday spent putting your garden into a proper seasonal rest will pay huge benefits come next spring. Increased soil nutrients, better friability, and moisture content all set the stage for another great year in the garden. Plus, the game’s not on until Sunday.

Winter Planting of Onions, Garlic and Leeks

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Winter Planting of Onions, Garlic and Leeks by Byron Chitwood, Master Gardener

Although onions, garlic and leeks have been around for a long time, it is not really known where they originated. Archaeologists have found evidence that they have been used as a food source through cultivation for at least 7,000 years. No doubt, the early hunter-gatherers foraged for them in the wild along with anything else growing wild that could be eaten. The earliest evidence of domestication and cultivation has been found in China, Asia and Persia.

The first European settlers to the Americas brought seeds with them. However, they found that the Native Americans were already using them as a food source. They probably cooked or ate them raw with the vegetables they were already cultivating such as corn, beans, squash, tomatoes and potatoes.

For the home gardener, there are many varieties of onions available for cultivation in their garden plot. Onions come in three basic colors: white, red and yellow or brown. They can readily be cultivated from seeds, transplanted using “sets” or from small bulbs that are grown for the specific purpose of gardening.

If you are going to start onions from seeds, now is the time to plant them for a spring garden they will overwinter just fine. They will get an early start towards forming bulbs. Onions need to be planted in a fertile and well drained area with as much full sunshine as possible. Rather than starting onions from seeds, most home gardeners buy small plants or sets that come in bundles of fifty to one hundred individual sets. Since there are many varieties available, choose several different ones to diversify your garden and tastes. White and yellow varieties seem to do the best in our area. As the sets take root and begin to grow, a few can be eaten as “green” onions or scallions. As the days grow longer, the onion sets will begin to form bulbs and immature bulbs can be some of the best eating. Onions are ready to harvest when the green tops begin to fall over. They should be harvested and stored in a cool and dry area. Some varieties keep better than others.

Garlic and Leeks should be planted in October for harvest in mid June. Garlic can be purchased from any major seed and garden supplier. Garlic comes in bulbs made up of from 9 to twenty cloves. Carefully separate the cloves from the bulbs and plant these individual cloves about 4-6 inches apart. They should be planted with the root end down and the sharp end up. Like onions, garlic is ready to harvest when the tops begin to turn yellow and topple over.

The worldwide production of onions is about 100 million tons with china producing about 25% of the total and India not far behind. By comparison, U.S. production is about 3 million tons. If my arithmetic is right, that is about 20 pounds of onions per year for every man, woman and child in the U.S. The Chinese eat about 33 pounds per person. Can one suppose that the demand for breath fresheners will grow at the same rate as the consumption of onions and garlic?