Planting garlic

I haven't been doing many gardening posts, as I haven't been doing much gardening, aside from harvesting lots of elderberries, chokecherries, apples, plums, and pears.  I made an elderberry pear crisp today, planning on that being my last elderberry harvest.  There are still LOTS of fruits, but I've harvested enough now.

I don't seem to have made a post about elderberries, but our two shrubs have fruited prolifically this year and I've made lots of low-sugar jam with them.  Processing the fruits is more tedious than I'd like, but they are delicious.

Garlic is what I'm currently planting.  It's become a popular crop in this part of Quebec in recent years and I've seen quite a bit in the local farmer's market.  A gardening friend here harvested my crop of two summers ago and it was fun to see the result, although the cloves were small, they were tasty.  Her own garlic, which she shared, was even better and the large heads available at the farmer's market had large cloves, perfect to plant now for next summer harvest.

My gardening companion, who has so enjoyed gardening this summer, prepared a plot for the garlic next to the asparagus, along with cleaning and preparing my vegetable gardening area for next summer.

I'd love to be able to do the preparation myself.  I always loved digging and turning the soil, but my hands require rest time, spreading their work over fruit harvesting, preparing vegetables to cook, writing (by hand), and painting, not to mention biking and Nordic walking and cross-country skiing to come. 

Six years ago, I could barely write or type after a very long apple paring and coring session with a friend involving bushels of apples that we harvested!  It was not fun. But my hands are fine if not overly stressed, thankfully.