I spent most of this first beautiful weekend of Fall outside. Lots of little projects we'll share in the coming days but one thing I was running out of time on doing was getting garlic in the ground before it was too late.
Oh how we love garlic.
No vampires around here!
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| Lorz Italian seed garlic |
This box came in the mail last week. It's organic "seed garlic". Now you grow garlic from bulbs, not seeds of course. This is just what the planting cloves are called. Probably because people hear "garlic" and think food, not planting. "Seed garlic" sounds better and more like what you'd need to grow more. We did some research and purchased this variety, as it's best suited for Southern climates like ours.
It's called LORZ Italian.
UPDATE: We bought ours HERE at Sustainable Seed Company.
It's called LORZ Italian.
UPDATE: We bought ours HERE at Sustainable Seed Company.
I pulled back the covering on an unused raised bed and the soil was good. The top layer was dry but underneath was nice and dark.
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| 4x4 raised bed |
I added a bag of compost and a bag of raised bed soil blend and then used the shovel to mix it all up. I watered it and made it ready for the planting.
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| Seed garlic |
While I got the garlic a couple of weeks ago, it was too hot to plant last weekend so I left the bag in the refrigerator just like you would for a flower bulb. It needs to think it's cool weather even if it's not.
We took it out this weekend, it was time! Yay!
We took it out this weekend, it was time! Yay!
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| Planting garlic in a 4x4 raised bed |
I used my finger to poke around in the soil and made the holes. In this 4x4 bed, I planted 36 cloves. You always pick the largest you can get in each head of seed garlic. I discarded a few smaller ones so we could have the biggest possible to grow. After the sorting, I was ready to plant.
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| How to plant garlic |
It really couldn't be easier...you just put them in the holes, root end down, pointy end up. This variety goes 1-2 inches deep (because of our climate).
Not much to see here now, it looks like it did when I started, ha.
I covered it back up and watered it down again. I'm not putting a watering system in this bed because we'll be out there weekly and at this stage, as cooler weather sets in anyway, that's about all the watering they need now. It should be mulched of course and I will put some straw over it, if I can ever find that great straw I found this past Spring for the Summer garden. Tractor Supply was where I got the last bale and they don't have them this time of year (odd since so many people put in Fall gardens and/or plant trees and such).
Anyone else plant garlic?
I did. They grew and then something happened. One day, I looked and there were no plants. Someone said if they die, they will come back. I don't know.
ReplyDeletepparsimony
They will grow and send out green shoots but then those will eventually die off (or look dead) and that's when you pull up the garlic. In theory of course, ha.
DeleteI planted ours just like you did. My raised bed was in a couple of old tyres. We've had two days of sunshine and two nights of rain. Perfect growing weather. Garlic usually pops up quite easily. I love it. We eat the green part.
ReplyDeleteHello and thanks for stopping by! And yep, that's great growing weather. I like the tires idea. Thank you. I can't wait for the green parts, we love them too. Now we'll have our own (we've bought them before, ha).
DeleteGarlic was one of the first crops I grew successfully way back when and it's so much fun! I just prepped the garlic bed yesterday and will be sowing my cloves this week. Funny that this is the case with our completely different climates, although no pre-chilling required here...our winter will more than take care of that!
ReplyDeleteEveryone says it's pretty easy and we've tried before but other things happened and we didn't see them through to completion. Now we're going to make it happen. :-)
DeleteI bet Winter will keep them from needing chill for sure, ha.
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ReplyDeletei always plant garlic but for some reason, my heads were small this year. i think it's because we got so little rain.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's too bad. I hope we get a decent crop. I guess it's wait and see now, huh?
DeleteRemoved and now re-written, I'm awake now!!
ReplyDeleteLove my garlic crop. I plant around 250 bulbs every year. This gives me enough to have a fresh crop all year as well as enough to dry (I made a solar dryer) with 250 bulbs left over for planting the following year. I throw the fresh stuff, broken up into cloves with the skin still on, directly into the freezer in a large ziplock bag. I use to peel and crush it into ice cube trays until I discovered that it worked without all the extra labour. Just LOVE my garlic.
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY? Wow!!!!! That's impressive. We'll see how this goes and then expend next Fall. Love how you put it all up for saving. Isn't garlic wonderful?
DeleteThis is something I've been wanting to try. Would you might sharing from where you ordered your garlic?
ReplyDeleteSent you an email but also updated the post to include it, thanks for the reminder. It's hard to find this time of year, most places are sold out but this place still has them, for now, ha.
DeleteMmmmm garlic.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, we grow it. Never enough of it though.
Can't wait to have our own. We LOVE garlic too. Such a great veggie.
DeleteI too just planted Music garlic in our raised beds this past weekend. It is one of the easiest things that I grow.
ReplyDeleteThat's great, looks like this is garlic planting season, ha. I hope ours is easy too. Thanks!!!
DeletePlanting my garlic this week, actually!! It is one of my favorite crops, and we do 150 - 250 a year. The garlic bed is part of our front yard garden. This year, I dried a bunch and then ground it up so I can use powdered garlic all year. Doing the same with onions.
ReplyDeleteAnother one with up to 250. Wow. You all inspire us, ha. We'll see how these go and then we'll expand, hopefully, next season. Now we wait!!!
DeleteI have never planted it before and say I am going to every year. This hopefully will inspire me.
ReplyDeleteYay, we hope you try it, it truly is an easy thing, so far anyway.
DeleteI always think about doing so, but that is as far as it goes. Just one of them things that I put off doing; guess because I don't use that much garlic. Something that hubby just doesn't care for
ReplyDeleteWhat? He doesn't like garlic? Ha, we understand, it's a bit much for some. We love it in all forms and ways. Fingers crossed!!!
DeleteSomeone told us to go to Whole Foods, buy organic garlic and plant that. We did. We'll see how it works ...
ReplyDeleteI've heard that too. I hope it works for you. Keep us posted.
DeleteOur son in law has planted organic garlic and has grown like gang busters.
ReplyDeleteHe's the type of person that will eat the cloves raw right from the head.
He pops them in like he was eating a handful of jarred peanuts