Monday, November 11, 2013

PLANTING GARLIC AND SHALLOTS IN A RAISED BED


Last week I blogged HERE about cleaning out the raised bed garden area.  I knew I wanted to get something into the ground and decided to do garlic and shallots, two of our favorite ingredients to cook with.  This is the time of year to plant them (I'm a couple weeks late but our weather allows that, ha).
They take about five to six months to mature.

4x4 raised bed
So I turned the soil again and got the bed ready for planting.  I had already added some organic compost last weekend.  This is also a well draining bed, which is good, because neither vegetable likes "wet feet". 

Seed shallots
I got our seed shallots and seed garlic a couple weekends ago at a local feed store.  I bought one variety of shallots and three varieties of garlic.  

You should never use garlic and/or shallots you buy at the grocery because A) you never really know what variety they are, B) they could introduce pathogens into your soil that you don't want in your soil, and C) they are probably chemically treated to prevent sprouting while in the store.  You sure don't want any of that happening in your garden.

Seed garlic
Remember, they will usually come as whole heads of garlic, so break them up into individual cloves, that is what you will plant.  Same with shallots, though sometimes they are just one large bulb with nothing to divide, that's OK just plant that one whole.  You don't need to peel off the paper husk, just plant them as they are after you separate them.

Planting shallots in raised bed
Then I dug some holes in the soil, and since I utilize the square foot gardening method as a guideline for our raised beds, the suggested spacing is four per square.  I actually planted the garlic a little closer together than the shallots, so we'll see how it all comes out next Spring.
Plant them 'root side down' and about 3 inches deep.

Raised bed garden ready to mulch
Lastly, I just covered it all up with soil, and watered it down well.  2nd Family is going to bring some hay down and put over the top as mulch for us so we should be good to go for the Winter to see what happens.  We've been getting rain about once a week, so that should keep them watered.

Fingers crossed that about six months from now we'll be rolling in garlic and shallots.  If it works, this bed will be our dedicated garlic and shallot raised bed each season.  Baby steps!

12 comments:

  1. Looking good, 1st Man! Garlic is pretty easy to grow. Just keep the bed weeded and add a little organic fertilizer in the spring to keep them going. I can't wait to see how your garlic grows in your new raised beds. Your soil looks beautiful.

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    1. It's a first for us so fingers are crossed. DEFINITELY keeping it weeded. No repeat of summer, ha. Thank you for the encouragement. :-)

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  2. This is one of the best and easiest things to grow. You will love your garlic.

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    1. Yay, hoping we get something out of it. It's definitely easy!

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  3. I have fallen madly in love with growing my own garlic! I planted next years bed a few weeks ago and have a bowl of fat purple-y cloves on the counter.

    I'll be interested to see the differences in how it grows for you and I.

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    1. Definitely! I hope the shallots come out of course but hey, if we could have tons of garlic, I'm happy with that! Isn't it a wonderful thing?

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  4. 1st Man,

    I'm happy to hear you were able to get your shallots and garlic planted.
    Enjoy your week, and don't work to hard.

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    1. Thank you, you too!!! I'm jealous you got some zen time, ha. It was still too muddy at the farm. There was another 1 1/2 inches last week I didn't know about.

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  5. Your "Italian" bed is looking good :)

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    1. Italian bed, I like that. Should I add some basil, Ha!!! Thanks!

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  6. The raised beds look immaculate

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    1. Immaculate? You are too kind. Let's see what it looks like next Spring, ha. Remind me of this moment. ;-)

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