Cabbage Heads, Spinach Seeds, Garlic, and Potatoes

Five of the six cabbages, I got from my neighbor that started them from seed, are doing great.

Here are two of them.  I planted onions around them, but that isn't keeping the cabbage loopers away.  You can see all the holes in the leaves.  I have been going to put tule around them for 2 weeks and still haven't done it.  Tule is like netting, but has smaller holes, is softer, and used for bridal wear.

For now it just came into my brain that I could cover them with the window screens.  I don't care if the onion tops are bent over.  I hate onions!

Here is the spinach that has gone to seed.  I think it is ready to have a paper bag placed over the seeds to save them.  The lettuce behind it will be going to seed soon.  I am out of seeds from both of these plants, so I let a lot of them go to seed.

The garlic is dying without going to flower.  I noted before that it was going great in the winter and then when we got the hot winter spell it started dying.  The ones I have dug are double bulbs/cloves.  You can see them HERE.  I think I will pull these up and plant lettuce and spinach here.  I will have to go buy some seeds this time.

Here is a garlic from last year that must not have grown and came up this year instead.  Can you see the bulge near the top of the plant?  That is the flower developing.  After it comes out and starts to open I will break it off, so that it puts the energy into the garlic bulb and not the flower.  If it is broken off too soon it will come back.

             

This years garlic is weird.  The red spot in the center of the left picture is something popping out of the stock.  The picture on the right has a bulge at the base of the stock.

Two plants going to seed and how to make onions grow bigger

This is one of the broccoli plants I saved to go to seed.  The yellow flowers are starting to die off and soon there will be little pods that will have the seeds in them.

Here is a spinach plant that will soon start developing seeds.  I will put a paper bag over it and bend the plant over carefully so I don't break the plant and let the seeds fall into the bag.  I will post pictures when it is time to start collecting the seeds.  This is the same plant that was in the last post.  It is bigger now.

Here is one of the onion flowers just about ready to open.  If you look closely you can see how the skin is rippled and holding the petals inside.  Now is the time to cut if off.

 I took scissors and cut the flower off close to the bottom of the bloom stock.

Here you can see how I have started bending the tops of the onions over.  Just break/crack the tops enough to keep them from standing back up.  Now the plant will put its energy back into the onion and not the leaves or flower.