The Stinking Rose: A Gardener’s Favorite, Part I — ohiovalley.ediblefeast.com

Those papery white bulbs at the grocery seem exotic to many home cooks, grown only by gurus in faraway, subtropical lands. Inspecting the bulb — free of dirt, blemish, and leaf — gives no real clue as to how it got here. So, the suggestion to grow garlic in one’s backyard, in our temperate Zone 6, seems ridiculous, a practical joke. Folks often think “tomatoes” when planning their first garden, but along with the glamour of tomatoes — big, sprawling, in-your-face plants decked out like Christmas trees — comes the drama of growing them (disease, pests, and the throngs of furry woodland creatures who are just fine with the underripe tomatoes that humans naively leave on the vine for just one more day).

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