Garlic Harvest

My garlic patch grew quickly this year.  I think they came up some time in late February and looked beautiful and green during the cooler months of early spring.  Once the heat of summer hit they quickly started turning brown from the bottom leaves up.  The softneck varieties were the first to go and once most of them turned brown I decided that I shouldn't wait any longer to dig them up.  Meanwhile the hardneck varieties were still chugging along.  They had just begun to flower, so I harvested the unopened scapes and then dug them up as well.  This variety still had about half of their leaves green when I pulled them, so they should cure nicely.  I left them to dry in the sun for a couple of hours before I brought them in to finish curing indoors.  I counted about 80 heads of garlic in total which should keep me in garlic until next years harvest.  I will save the biggest cloves for planting in the fall.  The smallest cloves will most likely be dehydrated when I have time in the winter and be made into garlic powder as needed for the rest of the year.  There were a lot of smaller heads this year, but I think the quantity I have will make up for that.  Over all I am very pleased with this harvest.