Hahahaha, Doris, I'm sure I'll be cussing it too when it comes back. I know after digging it out for an hour, I didn't get it all. Oh man. The root was HUGE. About 7 inches in diameter... it had a nice fresh fragrance.. I debated dragging into the kitchen for a gourmet experiment but the coin toss got it into the compost bin or next to it at least... I'm glad I didn't try cooking it after reading your post, Jayco! Bluesunflower, lol i know! I swear it was growing 3 inches a day... btw I saw your pics on the May flowers thread. You are an amazing photographer and your garden is just gorgeous! Woweeee... Goodhors and blueberrier, thanks for the home remedy suggestions... I'll definitely need them for some large thistles.

No it isn't a cast iron plant. Yes it stays green all winter. It does have a small greenish white pine cone shaped (but not the same texture, soft not woody) bloom. It is very short and almost hidden in the leaves. Sorry, no bloom right now. there isn't anything showy or flashy about this plant but it is a fantastic standard. It keeps the water from washing everything away and it seems to love the shade. As idig said on an earlier post, when I dropped them up in the sun they didn't grow well. they even lost the deep green color to a wash out green.

Can't really tell from your pic, but I doubt it's anything serious. Just check to make sure it's not plastic bits (common from drilling holes into bins), or some type of little bug.

My garden has had a LOT of rain this year (2" or more most weeks since April, a couple of weeks with 4") with no rain the first two weeks of June (and I watered them a couple of times with the soaker hoses I have in the beds then). The unusually warm February and cold March didn't help in terms of the brown tips. My soil is high organic matter due to using large quantities of "horse manure" which is mostly the bedding, and I dig raised beds each year. So it is very well drained. I pulled all of my Inchelium (softneck variety) and have started pulling some others. in the last day there has been another 2.2" of rain, which seems like exactly the wrong time for rain. I don't want to sound picky, but I really don't like small divided bulbs. I grow several times the amount of garlic I need for myself, so I probably won't use the small bulbs, and I doubt if the customers of the food pantry I give produce to even know what to do with good garlic bulbs. I have of course been expanding my inventory of Music because the large cloves are so easy to use. It is good to know that they might do better with greater spacing, and I had not thought of using different spacing for different varieties. I have grown small rounds into big rounds with other varieties by growing them with close spacing, but it didn't work with Music this year. I have plenty of decent sized bulbs though to save all the good cloves that I need for next year. I am thinking about cleaning the small garlic heads while they are green and, without taking the papers off of each clove, grinding them up in the Cuisinart. This might make a paste like material to sheet freeze in a thin layer and them maybe I could use it in stir fries that way. Does this sound to you like it would work? I am one of those people who cannot seem to get a garlic press to work. Thank you for your ideas and thoughts.