In Search Of Community Garden and Garlic

 

If there's a community garden nearby, I will find it. The path to this one was circuitous, but I was determined. It sits between Aspen and Snowmass Village, Colorado —south of the airport on land donated by a family ranching in the area for generations. There is a sign with contact info for joining, but my survey of this territory suggests fully occupied. Above, the novel western-style gate latch. As with many community gardens, the sign says come on in, just don't touch. So I did.

Inside, a mix of well-kept plots, a few tangled messes, and way too many plastics degrading in the sun.  Funny, for gardens that are organic, only, to have so much plastic lying around.

Although I did tend a community garden plot, F12, on the ocean at Fort Tilden, Queens, years ago, I suppose 8500 feet in the Rockies ain't so bad, either. Not that this is mine, but I am looking.

The insolation up here is no joke. It's more like the equator than the 39 degrees latitude. At solar zenith on the spring equinox, the rays of sun strike this region, were it flat plain, at 51 degrees. But, as you might have guessed, the slopes of these large mountains angle upward so that on the southern exposures the angle is much more direct, closer to 90 degrees than 51. Of course, the altitude, thinner, drier air also allows much more sun rays to strike the ground. 

 

I know what this will do to my skin, but how does it affect plant growth in a short growing season? I'll have to find out. Although I do not have a place to plant anything, yet, I just bought new seed garlic for the first time since 2012 —it's 50-100% more expensive than pre-pandemic. Up to the 2024 season, I relied on my own seed stock from my Hudson Clove days, when I was growing ten thousand or so heads of 8 varieties and many more strains. That dwindled to one to two thousand in Minnesota, but I continued to rely on my many times better garlic than I've had to use since running out this past January. 

Vinca spilling out —a likely problem plant for this region if it gets out of bounds

 

 

My old sources for garlic have already sold out, unheard of before the pandemic. It used to be practice to order in April for fall delivery, but I suppose that time has past. I found one new supplier in a similarly semi-arid mountain location and had good communication with the owner, a former chef — Garlic Gods and at a fair price comparable to pre-pandemic prices. For a couple of strains I depend on, I went to Mad River Garlic Growers, who are growing in the completely different climate of Ohio, but I'll make it work. Prices are higher, but not as high as the completely sold out Filaree Garlic Farm, where I used to get my special strains long ago.

I haven't been able to locate available Creole Red from a supplier I trust, so I went with the creole from Italy's Abruzzo region. Creole are invaluable as a long term storage garlic that is truly comparable to the flavor of short storage Rocambole strains. Even grown in MN (creole are considered warm climate garlic), my 1.5" heads served me well into early spring. However, you must resist eating them until you run out of the short and mid storage varieties.