Garlic Planting: 2016
Another year, another garlic plan! Last year I got the worst chest cold just after Halloween, which is when I wanted to plant garlic. This year, I thought I would get ahead on things, but then I got a cold before Halloween! Thankfully it has not been that cold, with most days in the 50-60 degree range with very few nights below freezing. The ground was still good to till and plant garlic thank goodness! The garlic needs to go through a few freezes before it settles in for the winter, so we made it! (Success!)
I broke down all the heads of garlic, and my youngest counted out all the cloves of garlic to make sure we had the right amounts. This is a perfect kid sized activity, including the actual planting itself. (Expect a few “oops” moments with upside down or missing cloves.)
Garlic Plan for 2016
In May, we had a few heads of garlic go bad, but really even in the best storage conditions hardneck varieties can stay in storage for 7-9 months. We still used our 48 heads of garlic sparingly, and gave very few away (babysitting bribes), which is why we seriously upped the amount this year. Now Dave can go ahead and make a 40 clove chicken recipe he’s been eyeing up forever!
In reviewing the recommended spacing for garlic cloves, I ran across a helpful tip. The tip suggested staggering the cloves to give the heads more space as they grow.
(Some child took a quick intermission from riding her bike to plant some garlic. Bike helmets and safety gear are not required for planting though.)
Past:
- In 2013/2014 we planted: 15 German White cloves, 25 Romanian Red cloves = 40 heads total
- In 2014/2015 we planted: 24 German White cloves, 24 Romanian Red cloves = 48 heads total (Passed on 4 heads (2 of each to a co-worker of Dave’s whom has passed along plants to us. Planted about 6 heads of each variety)
Future
- In 2015/2016 we planted: 36 German White cloves, 36 Romanian Red cloves = 72 heads total
I have to say 72 will probably be the max we will plant so we still have room to plant tomatoes. Also there’s the matter of drying 72 garlic plants! Twelve heads will be set aside in the summer for planting again, which means we can use at least one head of garlic a week for a year and have a few leftovers.
Now all the beds are put to sleep for next year! I threw some hay/straw and newspaper down in the tomato row this year because it got very weedy. We’ll see how that goes. The bales were $8 from Best Feeds Garden center, and I learned they sell them year round for various activities! I bought three, but only needed two.
