Garlic and Arugula... Or Is It?

          The first few vegetables that we grew in our garden was not, in fact a seed. We were handed these by a fellow gardener, one of the head ones I believe. One was a couple of garlic plants which were doing well. The other, however, was a few dying sprigs of a leafy green. They were no bigger than a tiny basil leaf. We were told that it was arugula, and planted it, thinking of it's pitiful state. To the right you can see the green plant and to the left is the garlic.

          Surprisingly, this John Doe vegetable seemed to do better than the garlic. It grew and became huge leaves stretching towards the sky. The garlic stems became green and lush, and we were very pleased that our start at gardening had worked out so well.

          Now let me tell you something about garlic. There are two ways to harvest it. The first way, is the one that is know by many, waiting until the bulb has grown. You will know that a bulb has grown because the stems will brown and wither. Be careful however, for your garlic could start rotting if you wait too long. If you want you can pull them out a little early the first year and from there you can decide for yourself. The second way you can harvest garlic is by cutting off the fronds like a leafy green and using that as a herb. This is a good idea while you are waiting for your bulb to grow or if you plant the garlic too close. Planting too close and not thinning would result in bulbs not being able to grow, so you would get more green but no root. When you cut a stalk off, leave some fronds so that photosynthesis can occur to regrow the garlic.
          Anyhow, back to the arugula. When I first ate this, I was shocked not to find the bitter taste, that arugula gives. My parents were also surprised, and speculated that this was due to the cooking of it. We also noticed though, that the leaves were not spiky like the arugula plant.
         We finally were enlightened a week or so later, when a gardener saw our plant and said that it was not arugula, but romaine lettuce. That explained it. Sadly, as I will tell later, the slugs and pests ate at it, but this romaine lasted until the end of spring, and is one of the hardiest plants I've ever seen to make such an amazing comeback.