'German Extra Hardy' has few cloves, each very largeIN 2013, A MILLION DIFFERENT PEOPLE visited me and Jack and the frogboys here at A Way to Garden, and from the looks of things, statistics-wise, a lot of you treasure your homegrown garlic as much as I do. Yes, garlic was the top topic of the year, in which edible plants in general–from growing them from seed right through to tricks for putting up the harvest–dominated your top-50 favorite stories. See if you agree with what made the 2013 list:

the 2013 top-50

  1. the tricky matter of when to harvest garlic
  2. what to plant now for a fall vegetable garden
  3. how to freeze parsley, chives and other herbs
  4. farm-fresh peaches, frozen to perfection
  5. growing and storing a year of parsley
  6. growing potatoes organically: when and how to plant, hill and harvest
  7. what’s in pickling spice? some recipes
  8. when to start seed
  9. 10 thoughts on successful underplanting
  10. grow healthy tomatoes: staking and pruning
  11. garden prep: how to make a bed, with cardboard
  12. how to grow carrots, with dr. john navazio
  13. estimating viability: how long do seeds last?
  14. hot plant: stewartia, an ideal small tree
  15. there’s more than one way to ripen a tomato
  16. when to start what: vegetable-seed calculators
  17. why vegetable seedlings stretch and get spindly
  18. just saying no to deer, with fencing
  19. from the forums: pruning viburnums
  20. growing and storing a year of garlic
  21. fear not! how to prune clematis, with dan long
  22. dan koshansky’s refrigerator dill pickles
  23. the toughest groundcovers i rely on
  24. 7 fall-cleanup tasks you shouldn’t skip, with ken druse
  25. hugelkultur, nature’s raised garden beds
  26. cucumber-growing q&a, and the best pickles ever
  27. soil-saving tricks for planting big pots
  28. new! slideshow of my 54 top shade plants
  29. giveaway: andrew weil’s cookbook ‘true food,’ and his tuscan kale salad
  30. skins-on easy tomato sauce to freeze
  31. 6 lessons about hosta, with tony avent
  32. what weed is it? putting names to pesky plants
  33. 10 tips for growing blueberries in the backyard, with lee reich
  34. when to start seeds? some tools that can help
  35. impatiens downy mildew forecast: too soon to tell
  36. birdnote q&a: hummingbird migration, and flying in formation
  37. baked pears for breakfast, or maybe dessert
  38. garden faq’s
  39. tomato-growing faq’s
  40. radio podcasts: itunes, stream, or live
  41. roasted vegetables, a sunday tradition
  42. feed the soil: my experiment with mycorrhizae
  43. beloved conifers: weeping alaska cedar
  44. how to make compost, and use it, with lee reich
  45. caterpillar alert: who’s eating my cabbage and broccoli?
  46. say hello to my newborn book!
  47. giveaway: fighting weeds, with teri chace
  48. overwintering rosemary, indoors and out
  49. my top conifers for year-round garden beauty
  50. garlic harvest and curing: i did something right