Garlic Fest 2026

See Kathy Jentz, host of the GardenDC Podcast and editor of Washington Gardener Magazine, along with other special guests and members of the Takoma Horticultural Club at the Takoma Park Farmers Market Garlic Fest on Sunday, July 19, 2026, from 10am to12noon. We will be talking all things GARLIC--from growing tips to recipe samples!

Fenton Friday: Paltry Scapes

This might be most pathetic Garlic scape harvest ever (see pic above) -- which gives me very little hope for the actual garlic bulb harvest in a few weeks. It has been a rough winter and tough spring, so I'm not that surprised. 

This week was a rainy one! Boy, did we need it! Today is sunny and breezy. It will be blue skies with temps in the high 70s predicted for most of the next week. It should be really nice weather to tackle some of the rampant weeds brought on by the rains and to get our summer crops planted.

I have one set of Pea vines protected by a wire cage that is finally starting to climb -- I may harvest some peas yet this season!

The Romaine Lettuce and Kale are getting really large under their respective cover cloths so I will pull them soon.

The Blackberries are starting to ripen and I need to get a mesh covering over them before the birds get them all  as the few Strawberry fruits I had are already gone - perhaps to the birds or rabbits or squirrels.

The Dill is now getting way too big as is the Cilantro - but I'm letting that go to seed to collect the Coriander. The Asparagus needs tying up soon too.

In the pollinator strip, I planted three Cornflower seedlings that were given to me by the Capital Area Food Bank's urban gardener when I spoke about growing tomatoes there this past Wednesday. The flowers are really starting to pop now -- the Common Milkweed is already blooming and smells like honey, the Marigolds are filling in nicely, and the wildlower mix we planted earlier this spring has resulted in some really pretty blue flowers that I still need to ID. I'll try to share pics and names of those in next week's post. 

What are you growing and harvesting in your garden this week?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 15th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton"  into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).

Garlic Festival 2025

Join us for the annual Garlic Festival on Sunday, July 20 from 10:00am-12:00noon at the Takoma Park Farmers Market. Just harvested and cured garlic is the star of the market and is available for sale at vendor stands. It's the perfect match to all of the market's fresh seasonal produce.

The event includes special guests Tony "The Garlic Guru" Sarmiento, who is a CKC Board Member, and Kathy Jentz, GardenDC Podcast host and Washington Gardener Magazine editor. Members of the Takoma Horticultural Club will also be on hand with gardening tips for the home gardener.

Plus, Chef Sara Hayden of the Vita Cooking School will serve up some garlic-based tastes with recipes to share!

Free and open to all!

Look for the specially marked "Garlic Booths" at the market to purchase your locally-grown garlic.

Fenton Friday: Garlic Planting

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A post shared by Kathy Jentz, WG Magazine (@wdcgardener)

This week we finally got the Garlic planted (see the above link to the Instagram live we shared to watch me doing that).

It flurried today and is now pretty cold out, so I'm assuming I'll be pulling out the Cosmos and Zinnias this weekend -- plus any leftover Holy Basil or other summertime herbs that I've left in. I will then cut back the big Dahlia flower stalks and leave their tubers in the ground -- giving them a layer of straw to insulate them for winter.

The Brassicas continue to grow quite large and we saw the Broccoli heads are forming -- no sign yet of Cauliflower heads or Brussels Sprouts, but am crossing my fingers they show up soon.

What are you growing in your edible garden this week?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 13th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).

Garlic Festival

Join us for the annual Garlic Festival on Sunday, July 21 from 10:00am-12:00noon at the Takoma Park Farmers Market. Just harvested and cured garlic is the star of the market and is available for sale at vendor stands. It's the perfect match to all of the market's fresh seasonal produce.

The event includes special guests Tony "The Garlic Guru" Sarmiento, who is a CKC Board Member, and Kathy Jentz, GardenDC Podcast host and Washington Gardener Magazine editor. Members of the Takoma Horticultural Club will also be on hand with gardening tips for the home gardener.

Plus, Chef Peter Andros of Gourmet and Gourmand will serve up some garlic-based tastes with recipes to share!

Free and open to all!

Look for the specially marked "Garlic Booths" at the market to purchase your locally-grown garlic.

Garlic Plant Profile

Garlic Plant Profile

Garlic is an edible member of the onion family and one of the easiest plants to grow. Its region of origin is unclear, but it has been grown in Europe and the Mediterranean for thousands of years.

Hardneck garlic types (Allium sativum var. ophioscorodon) do best in the Mid-Atlantic where there’s a real winter and distinct four seasons. ‘Purple Stripe’, ‘German White’, and ‘Music’ are some reliable varieties.

Around the end of October, plant your seed garlic in well-draining soil in full sun. Insert the cloves root-side down (pointy-side up) about 6 inches apart on center, burying the tips about 2 inches down. Green shoots will come up in a few weeks; mulch around them with straw. Keep the bed weed-free so the garlic can develop a healthy root system.

Hardneck garlic will form curling scapes by mid-May. Cut them off and use in recipes as you would scallions or garlic. This will direct the plants energy into making a larger bulb, rather than flowering and forming seeds.

The bulbs are usually ready to harvest by the end of June when most of the lower leaves have browned. The upper ones can still look green. Be careful when harvesting garlic as those bulb heads are more delicate than they seem. Choose an overcast day when the soil is dry. Loosen the soil with a digging fork, inserting it well away from the heads, then lift them out of the ground gently and shake off any excess soil.

Let the whole plants dry in a single layer out of the sun, where it’s warm, but not too hot. When the outer skin turns papery after a couple weeks of curing, brush off as much dirt as possible and clip off the shaggy roots.

The ideal temperature for storing garlic is between 55 and 70 degrees F, with moderate humidity and good air circulation (in other words, not in plastic bags) and out of direct sunlight.

Garlic: You Can Grow That!

The video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine as part of our Plant Profile series for Mid-Atlantic USA gardeners.

Audio and text by Kathy Jentz

Video and editing by Brandie Bland

 

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Fenton Friday: Good News, Bad News

This week was hot, humid, and stormy, which means things are growing well and the weeds are rampant. We thinned out the flower and basil seedlings. We weeded a bit and started fertilizing the tomatoes and peppers.

Speaking of the tomatoes, the bad news is that we had our first sign on early blight on one of the plants. We pinched out the leaves and hope it doesn't spread too rapidly to the others.

In the good news department, we pulled out 1/3 of our garlic and they all look big and healthy. I plan to pull the other 2/3 in the next few days. In their place, I want to plant zucchini, cucumber, and/or mini pumpkins.

What are you growing and eating this week from your edible garden?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 11th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Fenton Friday: Garlic Harvest Time

This week at the community garden plot, we had some good rains and continuing nice weather with moderate temps and low humidity. 

I took advantage of a mild day and harvested the garlic. It is curing now on a rack in my sunroom.

The strawberries have petered out and I pulled out the last of the lettuce mix. In place of the lettuce, I planted a row of assorted zinnia seeds. I also put in a row of double cosmos nearby. I still need to find a spot to put down some marigolds seeds as well.

The turnips and carrots are humming along. I may try to pull one of each next week to see if they are big enough.

I planted peanuts in a container as an experiment. Those came from the ladies at Garden sPOTS and they should be a fun experiment this summer.

The little seedlings are up on the zucchini, beans, and cucumber. I already thinned the cucumbers out to just the best 3 as all 6 seeds germinated.

I am still debating on planting a melons and have to get my okra seeds started.

What is growing in your edible garden?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Savory Sunday: Easiest Garlic Bread Ever!

By Anastazja Kolodziej

This recipe, using garlic grown in our communitygarden plot, is a quick and easy variation on garlic bread. Because the recipe uses raw garlic, the garlic bread has a slightly spicy taste. This goes well as a side or as a snack! 

Ingredients:

• 1 garlic clove
• 2 slices of rustic bread
• 1 teaspoon of butter
• Oil, as needed. If you prefer a strong buttery taste, use only butter. Using a combination of butter and oil will still offer a buttery taste without making it too overwhelming.

Steps:

• Melt butter on a pan. Fry bread, flipping it so both sides are golden. You may need to add oil to the pan to get the bread fully fried. 
• Rub a clove of garlic on both sides of each slice, and serve immediately. 

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"Savory Sunday" is a weekly summer blog series with seasonal recipes from the garden.

About the Author:

 Anastazja Kolodziej is a rising senior at the University of Maryland, double majoring in multiplatform journalism and the classics (Ancient Greek and Latin). On campus, she serves as an assistant managing editor at The Diamondback.

Savory Sunday: Garlic Chickpeas

By Anastazja Kolodziej

To celebrate the (virtual) garlic festival being held today by the Takoma Horticultural Club, I have a tasty and quick recipe for garlic chickpeas using garlic we grew in our community garden plot and had just finished curing. 

Ingredients:

·        2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

·        4-5 cloves of garlic, crushed

·        ⅓ cup olive oil

·        Salt

·        Pepper

·        Lemon pepper

Steps:

1        Heat two tbsp olive oil on a pan. Add crushed garlic. I used only three cloves because the ones we had grown were huge, but four or five regular-sized cloves should work.

2        Once the garlic is fragrant, add chickpeas. Pour the rest of olive oil on top and season with salt, pepper, and lemon pepper to taste.

3        Cook chickpeas for about 15 minutes, or until they have browned and absorbed the garlicky flavor.

This recipe makes four servings. I served the chickpeas as part of a dinner bowl that included millet, lettuce greens, chopped cucumber, avocado, feta cheese, and a quick tahini-maple sauce!

PIN THIS FOR LATER!

"Savory Sunday" is a weekly summer blog series with seasonal recipes from the garden.

About the Author:

 Anastazja Kolodziej is a rising senior at the University of Maryland, double majoring in multiplatform journalism and the classics (Ancient Greek and Latin). On campus, she serves as an assistant managing editor at The Diamondback.

GardenDC Podcast Episode 16: Garlic, Lavender, and No-stress Gardening

This episode, we talk with Tony Sarmiento about all things Garlic. The plant profile is on Lavender and I share my lessons in No-stress Gardening.

BTW, YOU can become  a listener supporter for as little as $0.99 per month!See how at: https://anchor.fm/kathy-jentz/support. 

The episode is posted at: 

https://anchor.fm/kathy-jentz/episodes/June-20--2020---Garlic--Lavender--and-No-stress-Gardening-efmefo

It is also available on -

• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gardendc/id1502631179

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5AsWArNpQo8OlzHoMDMSI8

• RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/gardendc-G2ql5V

• Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/gardendc

• PocketCasts: https://pca.st/9phvd8bk

• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1502631179/gardendc

• Google Podcasts at this link, either now or soon (note that currently, this link will only work on Android devices)

We welcome your questions and comments!

You can leave a voice mail message for us at: https://anchor.fm/kathy-jentz/message Note that we may use these messages on a future episode.

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Fenton Friday: They're Ba-ack!

Look closely at the photo above and you will see a young rabbit trying desperately to blend in with the surrounding herbs in my neighbor's plot. This little jerk (or his relatives) chewed by Sweet Potato slips that had just started to leaf out! We also suspect he was the culprit that absconded with our missing Cucumber seedlings - when we had blamed the birds or slugs!

I put little wire frames around the other Cucumber seedlings and replanted the missing ones. I also sprinkled used kitty litter around the  Sweet Potato slips, but I may have to resort to more dire methods soon.

In the rest of the plot, we dug up all the Carrots - not a huge crop - but a pretty one. I especially like the 'Purple Sun' ones.

I also dug up the Garlic and laid it out to cure on a rack in my sun-room. Two of the garlic heads were already starting to rot and the cloves slid right out of their peels with a few starting to grow green tips! I thought I was catching them on time, but I guess our long, cool and wet spring got to those. The rest of the bulbs were just fine though.

I planted a few 'Candle Fire' Okra seeds among the strawberries and we re-planted the Basil and Marigold seeds as the first sets never came up.

Next, I plan to finally pull the peas and plant some beans.

What are you harvesting this week in your edible garden? 

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Fenton Friday: Garlic Harvest

I dug up the Garlic bulbs today. They are the biggest I have ever grown. Waiting two weeks past my usual time helped! I believe they are all 'German White' (aka 'Music' or 'Porcelain' ) except for one with a bit of purple in it that I may have been given at an autumn harvest event and snuck in the ground later next to the others. The heads are on my laundry drying rack in the sunroom and Santino (pictured) couldn't resist inspect the robust harvest. He declared it "respectable."

Elsewhere in the plot, the 'Dragon's Tongue' bean seeds are growing fast and the 'Red Swan' beans have germinated and made a slow appearance. The 'Red Burgundy' okra seeds are still tiny, but the 'Rainbow' Swiss Chard is growing by leaps and bounds. More 'Sun Gold' tomatoes were ripe as well as some 'Sun Sugar' ones. The Basil varieties are holding steady -- not much new growth. I have let the lettuces bolt (go to flower and seed), in hopes of collecting some for next year's Seed Exchanges.

I think I will cut the heads on my cauliflower soon as we are experiencing several days of 90+ degree heat and even with a cover cloth I don't see them hanging on too much longer.

What is growing in your edible garden this week?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Fenton Friday: Strawberry Season

The strawberry season has arrived. I have far fewer plants than in previous years, so my harvest is vastly smaller, but still those berries eaten right in the garden plot are a billion times more flavorful than any others I've had.

Also in the plot, the hardneck garlic has formed scapes and I am cutting them now to send energy to form a bigger bulb, rather than flowering and setting seed. I will share the scapes with others and use them in a green garlic pesto.

Elsewhere in the plot the peas and lettuce are still going. The summer-like weather has come in though, so I think this week or next will be the last of them.

Next week I am aiming to get all my summer edibles in - tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, okra, etc, It will be a busy week in the garden plot!

What is growing in your edible garden this week?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the FentonStreet Community Garden just across the street from my house. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 7th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Fenton Friday: Garlic Planted

Elephant Garlic and "regular" garlic

Thanks to Tony Sarmiento's talk to the Silver Spring Garden Club on Monday, I had the inspiration to get my garlic in this week. Tony showed several kinds of garlic (see pic at left) and shared many planting tips.

One thing Tony advised was to not wash the garlic right after harvesting, but to just brush off the soil. This year, the soil was so wet it was caked on the garlic, so I felt I had to give it a good scrub anyway before hanging them to cure.

The other tip that was new to me was so dip the cloves in a solution of 10% bleach (1 part bleach to 9 parts water) and then plant them immediately (do not dry them off in-between). I have never done that and didn't this year either.

Both of these tips are to guard against fungal and diseases issues, which I have been lucky enough not to be bothered by -- so far.

We cleared out a section of the plot - mercilessly ripping out the last of the tomatoes and some herbs.

We planted three heads of 'Music' (aka 'Porcelain' or 'German White') Garlic, which yielded 16 cloves. One clove was about half the bulb size - very strange, but we planted it anyway.

What is growing in your edible garden this week?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 7th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

Fall-blooming Japanese Anemone, Growing Garlic, Gardening for Wildlife, and much more in the September 2018 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine

The September 2018 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine is now out.

You can view it online at:

https://issuu.com/washingtongardener/docs/washingtongardenersept18

Inside this issue:

~ Fall-blooming Japanese Anemone

~ 11 Tips to Help Birds in Your Backyard

~ Turtles in the Garden: Native Chelone Species

~ Quick Pointers for Growing Great Garlic

~ Rooftop to Glass at Firefly

~ Autumn Spider Webs

~ Heirloom Herb Horehound

~ How to Hold More Carbon in Your Soil

~ Local Gardening 101

And much more…

Note that any submissions, event listings, and advertisements for the October 2018 issue are due by October 1.
 

Subscribe to Washington Gardener Magazine today to have the monthly publication sent to your inbox as a PDF several days before it is available online. You can use the PayPal (credit card) online order form here: http://www.washingtongardener.com/index_files/subscribe.htm