Garlic flowers to melt your heart

Dried garlic flower picked from my garden last summer

It snowed all day today. Snowflakes flurried and came to rest on the freezing earth. I brought my young topiary bay tree inside to protect it from the cold and spent the morning talking to a group of Ilkley gardeners about growing vegetables in small spaces. They wanted some horticultural inspiration and to pick my brains on how I grow vegetables and herbs in my small front garden which I have laid out as a potager. They were a friendly and welcoming group. 

I am not an expert gardener and bumble through the seasons, planting a few things here and there usually in rows but sometimes in squares. I am keen on experimenting with what I think might work in my small sunny spot. There is a plan and order to things, as there has to be in any garden, but it is an organic creation based on what I have learned works and what catches my eye. 

As the summer progresses and the garden puts on its growth spurt in July and August my attempts to keep crops in order are spurned and I let the garden have its head and romp away. It becomes more colourful and interesting and takes on a tangled look. I simply love planting and watching everything come to fruition. In summer I love to come home to pick what is in season and make supper. 

I have five small beds set out in a 20 foot square plot. Here is a quick list of what I cram in: crimson broad beans, purple mangetout, borlotti beans, yellow courgettes, asparagus peas, courgette, tromboncino, Florence fennel, purple Brussel sprouts, rocket, cavalo nero, redbor kale, chard and so the list goes on. I grow things which are difficult to find in the shops. 

How to grow garlic.....

One plant I am compelled to grow is garlic and it's easy. I buy a bulb of seed garlic from the Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight and divide it up into cloves and sink them 10cm apart into the ground in late autumn. I do nothing else until it is time to harvest in mid June. I then dig up the new season garlic, plait the withered leaves and hang up in the warm, dry kitchen. 

Garlic cloves are planted in the autumn because they need a period of cold weather to break their dormancy and divide to make a bulb. 

Last year I left the garlic in the garden a little too long and it went to seed. Beautiful buds appeared in the shape of  a crane's bill. At this point I harvested them and the heads dried to a pretty intricate flowers with mauve and purple seeds forming between the petals. I couldn't bear to throw them away. The cloves were still good though.

Today I looked at last summer's flowers in the soft snowy light and they possessed such beauty I had to grab my camera and take some shots. 

The flowers are not edible but the garlic is good to eat throughout the winter if you keep it warm and dry. It is the cold that prompts the growth spurt that ruins garlic's flavour. 

Garlic might not be quite the thing to eat on the eve of Valentine's day but today it certainly stole my heart as I studied and documented its beautiful papery flower. 

Last summer's garlic flower

Garlic flower buds in my front garden