Monday, October 26, 2009

Garlic Planting Time

This is your friendly reminder that Garlic-planting season is upon us.

So wrap that garlic garland around your neck, and after you've staked all the vampires, plant the cloves. By July you'll be feasting on fresh homegrown hardnecks.

I say hardnecks, because after my batch this past summer I've decided that the Italian Red hardneck garlic has a far superior aroma and flavor than the soft-neck garlic I normally find at the supermarket.

Happy gardening!

7 comments :

Momsie said...

I have my garlic that you gave me ready to go! Now if the weather will permit it!

Thanks for the reminder.

Unknown said...

If I were to plant the garlic in pots and then transplant them in the garde during the spring would that be alright? I have not tilled the area that our garden will be yet and will probably not get to it in time to plant the garlic. What else would you plant this time of year?

Tom

Amboy Observer said...

See as how garlic doesn't take much space, you may just want to leave them in pots all year. But, they are rather hearty plants, I suspect they could handle transplanting as long as they are well moistened afterward.

Recently, Heidi pointed out that you can plant radishes in the fall and they will mature in just 22 days! In general, mustard-family, lettuce and peas do well in cold weather. At this time of year, even they would probably require some form of greenhouse covering to reach maturity.

Unknown said...

Thanks James. I may just rent a rototiller this weekend if I have the time. I was thinking of tilling then maybe covering with a weed barrier until spring. If I till the grass under now then maybe the chopped up grass will compost and help the soil. Of course the area where the garden will be is where the former owners shoveled their horse poo so it is already fertile.

Amboy Observer said...

I've heard, but never verified, that horse manure is acidic. If so, some lime treatment would help the garden.

I've seen Heidi's aunt and uncle use lime on a horse-manured field with fantastic success.

Unknown said...

Good to know. Maybe I will bring a soil sample to our local garden center and have them test it. Better yet, I should see if there is a kit that tests soil acidity since that may come in handy at other times.

It has been quite some time since there were horses there, but I don't know how long it takes for acidity to change.

Tom

Bop-op said...

I read that everywhere in the northwest, in spite of areas with horse poo, will benefit from a treatment of lime. There were other things to add to the mixture too, but I don't remember all of it.

I used horse poo once for fertilizer and had a really nice crop of oats to show for it.

I also roto-tilled grass and ended up with a healthy mixture of more grass and weeds. The best treatment for grass is to cover it for about four months with either black plastic or a compost/mulch pile that is rotated and moved around every week.