Shadowfax
Well-known member
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- #1
In my Garden thread, I was asked how to grow Garlic. It is pretty simple but it has to be planted in the Fall, just before the frost kicks in. The clove that gets planted, is in theory, supposed to grow under the ground while the Winter goes bye and the tops of the plant are not supposed to come up until early Spring when it thaws. We have had some pretty warm Winters over the last few years so the growth at both ends leaves your harvest with smaller heads. Still just as fresh and tasty, just not as huge as what we started with.
This years may be perfect. We planted Thanksgiving weekend and had a perfect cold snowy winter and they did not pop thru until they were supposed to. Harvest will be in about 3 weeks, when the lower few leaves dry and dye off the plant.
These pics are all from last year planting but the process is always the same. My main tool used is the rounded end of an old broomstick and 1 large Tie-Wrap. You plant 4" deep and 6" apart so I placed the tie-wrap on the stick at 4 inches and cut the end of it at 6 inches from center of stick. This way I could place all the holes and spacing while standing. So 100 holes were dropped into place with correct spacing in 10 minutes without crawling around on the ground.
We bought the freshest and largest heads of Garlic from the local Wegmans and had a small Peeling Party with a few beers the night before to bust up the heads into individual cloves. Each clove is placed into the hole with the pointy end up. The holes are backfilled with compost/manure or whatever your choice of dirt is.
After the backfill, we cover the plot with freshly shredded leaves for warmth, protection, and weed control as spring arrives. They don't like a lot of water but a little every day, similar to onions. When you harvest, you gently dig them up and let the dirt dry in the sun before a rough cleaning. You then take the lower 2 leaves and peel them back right over the head leaving you with clean heads still attached to the stalks. They then get laid out in the sun for a week or two before cutting the stalks off after they have dried.
So here it is, Garlic from Soup to Nuts.
This years may be perfect. We planted Thanksgiving weekend and had a perfect cold snowy winter and they did not pop thru until they were supposed to. Harvest will be in about 3 weeks, when the lower few leaves dry and dye off the plant.
These pics are all from last year planting but the process is always the same. My main tool used is the rounded end of an old broomstick and 1 large Tie-Wrap. You plant 4" deep and 6" apart so I placed the tie-wrap on the stick at 4 inches and cut the end of it at 6 inches from center of stick. This way I could place all the holes and spacing while standing. So 100 holes were dropped into place with correct spacing in 10 minutes without crawling around on the ground.
We bought the freshest and largest heads of Garlic from the local Wegmans and had a small Peeling Party with a few beers the night before to bust up the heads into individual cloves. Each clove is placed into the hole with the pointy end up. The holes are backfilled with compost/manure or whatever your choice of dirt is.
After the backfill, we cover the plot with freshly shredded leaves for warmth, protection, and weed control as spring arrives. They don't like a lot of water but a little every day, similar to onions. When you harvest, you gently dig them up and let the dirt dry in the sun before a rough cleaning. You then take the lower 2 leaves and peel them back right over the head leaving you with clean heads still attached to the stalks. They then get laid out in the sun for a week or two before cutting the stalks off after they have dried.
So here it is, Garlic from Soup to Nuts.
