How and When to Plant Garlic

 Garlic among the gourds

Waiting to be planted

When we were at Seedsavers in Decorah, Iowa with friends a couple weeks ago (future post), besides purchasing packets of seeds for next spring, I picked up an instructional sheet for planting garlic. I've always meant to plant garlic, but it's supposed to be planted in October, and since everything else I plant gets planted in May or June, I never seem to remember the garlic until it's too late.

This year, however, I actually marked it on my calendar in big letters on the October page: PLANT GARLIC. The biggest cloves will produce the best bulbs, so I looked for garlic bulbs that had bulging huge cloves. As you can see in the photo, they were starting to sprout before I got around to planting them.

 The good man, working the soil

Grass clippings nearby and leaves (not so nearby) were mixed to make a nice mulch for the garlic after it was planted. I didn't want to put it on so heavily that it would smother or kill them, but enough so that it would help protect them.

 Potting soil and lime worked into the otherwise quite bland, sandy soil

 Garlic cloves, laid in the trench, root end down, tip side up

6-8 inches apart, with skins still on (do not remove the paper-like skin)

Cover with 2 inches of soil and mulch with a mixture of grass clippings and leaves.  (We did this on a rainy day, which I think was probably good.)

Right about here should be the photo of the planted and mulched garlic. I don't know how I managed to miss that photo op, but I suppose it was because I was busy getting Bridger's pic. He was lying nearby, watching the procedure.

In the spring, when the garlic begins to come up, and before May 15, it's a good idea to fertilize the garlic once or twice.
Do not fertilize after May 15.
Garlic needs 1" water per week during the growing season.
Do not water garlic after June 1.
Keep weeds under control. (The mulch you laid down when you plant the garlic will help with this.)
Harvest after the leaves die back and there are still five green leaves remaining on the plant. This will be in June or July.

Everything in the garlic planting guide indicated that garlic needs to be handled carefully so that it does not bruise and deteriorate. When harvested, tie 6-8 garlic bulbs in a bundle and hang in a shed or garage that is dry and well-ventilated until they're dried for about 6 weeks.

I have a friend who used to raise garlic and braid them to hang on her kitchen wall. It was beautiful!

This photo and a great tutorial on harvesting garlic are found

at Thy Hand Hath Provided

Check it out. Jane has several good tutorials.

In NW Wisconsin in July, it's pretty humid. I'm thinking that our shop/garage will not be a good place to dry the garlic. Maybe upstairs in the house where it's dryer would be better.

After that drying period, you can trim the stalks and roots and store the bulbs in old onion sacks or netting.

Optimum setting for storage: 45-55% humidity and a temp of 50-70 degrees F. Do not refrigerate.

The Supervisor

Now that you're armed with all that great information, be sure to go out and buy some nice big garlic bulbs and plant the cloves for next year's crop. I can hardly wait for the winter to be over* to harvest our garlic crop in June or July of next year!  I can't wait to try my hand at braiding the garlic.

* I know that winter hasn't even begun, but it's always this time of year during the waning hours of daylight that we get this sinking feeling...The Big W. is just around the corner!

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Garden Fashion, Carpet Mulch, & the Grandsons

I have three 'good' pairs of jeans and I refuse to wear them to the garden. When I looked in my husband's closet, however, I saw stacks (yes, plural!) of old jeans that he's worn on construction jobs, which invariably results in giving them grease, grime, and permanent stains.

With a little help from a Sharpie, I think I've pretty much ensured that he won't be wanting to wear these particular jeans to work again. What do you think? :-)

If I were younger, it could be a little depressing that I can wear my husband's jeans.  As it is, I'm just glad I could find a pair of jeans and successfully liberate them from his closet. Although they're full of mastic stains, the plants won't care. And what I care about is that they don't have holes in the knees. They're perfect!

These crazy things are parsnips. They're volunteers from parsnips that went to seed last fall. I'll have to see if they actually amount to anything under the ground. We love parsnips, so it would be nice if they did.

I can't wait to be picking berries and making strawberry shortcake! I think I'll cover the rows with a netting, for this year I have no desire to share them with the robins.

My carpeted garden. Not everything is in yet, so not all the carpet is laid down between the rows. All the green stuff to the right is another thick row of parsnips. By the way, have you tried using carpet scraps between rows? I really like it, for when I have to kneel down to weed between plants, the carpet is soft on the knees. And it dries quickly after a rain. It makes a very effective 'mulch.'

2010, mid July

in the carpet garden

Summer is short, and we have to make the most of it. Around here, gardening has begun in earnest.

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Over Memorial Day weekend, our oldest son and the little grandsons were here with us. It is always fun to spend time with them. I have so many Soren-isms (from our 4 year old grandson) I'd like to share with you, but here are just a few, when he went for a walk with Kevin and me.

Upon seeing a butterfly on the driveway:

A buddo-fwy! It is full of buddo and it fwies. I wonder if there's a peanut-buddo-fwy.

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After we showed him an 'Indian Paintbrush' plant growing in the ditch, we told him we should take it back to the house and see if his daddy knew (remembered) what it was:


My daddy was in the owmie (Army).
But I don't know if he was in the Indian owmie.

***

That kid just keeps me smiling. And I won't even relate the discussion between the boys while we were having lunch at the picnic table.  It was hilarious. I'm sure that if I were a really good grandma, I wouldn't laugh at the 'mean' things they say to each other, but sometimes they just crack me up! And they're very creative, even when they're insulting one another. :-)

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The following two photos are the four year old and the eight year old, with the photos they specifically wanted posted on my blog:

 This is the 2 year old, who has already learned amazing survival skills.

Remember, he's got two older brothers!

Glenn, fishing in the garden pond while

Grandpa keeps a watchful eye.

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