This week brought out a number of projects around the Farm from moving freshly picked Jujube fruit (Chinese dates) out to some of our customers in the area to helping to clear lumber from the Pinkerton avocado orchard. But most important was the work that needed to be done in the garden such as, irrigating crops, weeding, and playing Keystone Cops with the critters that seem to feed very well in the garden. Then I got to the fun part, harvesting veggies like eggplant, tomato, okra, zucchini, yellow crookneck, butternut, Hakiado winter squashes, melons and peppers. Within a few hours a good 200 lbs of veggies were picked and taken in to the kitchen and storage.
The most important new project was the preparation of raised beds for garlic planting. This year I'm using Peaceful Valley's Early California White Garlic.http://www.groworganic.com/item_FP556_Garlic__California_Early_White_O.html
It was not necessary to spend an obscene amount of my budget on a fancy or better tasting garlic that could cost any where from 12-18 bucks per lb. For the kitchen a simple, plain garlic is needed and the price was within my budget. In the past I grew 12-14 different, amazing garlic varieties in the garden, but in the end, when all was harvested and cured they were all used the same. Until a chef who knows his garlics appears, I'm keeping it simple.
I did plant some heirloom garlic varieties last year and those were saved, but I'm using those in a different area of the garden. From what is planted this year much will be saved and used again next year. Hopefully enough will be saved so I never have to buy seed garlic ever again and I'll be adding to my growing seed bank, giving myself a safe and secure seed source to choose from for the coming years.
By 6am I tilled an area that had been fallow for most of this year. A few weeks before, compost and manure had already been spread over this area. Once tilled in, I marked off an area with wood stakes and string line 40 inches wide by 57 ft long. Then I used a flat ended shovel to create my raised beds. I give 20 inches between beds leaving enough space to work and walk through with my size 13s. Once the soil has been raised between the marked off area, compost and manure was added again. This was mixed into the first few inches of the bed giving the garlic a better medium to root into. The soil in the this section of garden had been hard as a rock two years ago. In the middle of the raised beds there once sat a fire pit. Where the tomato plants are in the background had been a road . Cover cropping and constant working of the soil for two years loosened up plenty of small stones and large rocks but revealed descent virgin soil where I planted a very successful salad garden last year. However here the soil still tends to dry out quickly wanting to go back to what it used to be, so to prepare for fall planting more and more compost will be used. Before next summer cover crops will be planted.
Once the beds were ready I set up 2 lines of T-tape irrigation, each 4 inches from the center. 
I separated the garlic using only the biggest cloves for these beds. The smaller cloves will later be planted along with other crops .
