Thursday, October 27, 2011

Planting Garlic

Tuesday I got my garlic planted. I like to plant it in the last week of October, which is usually about the time of our first frost. Most years I plan ahead and prepare the garlic cloves, but this year I just picked the largest bulbs, took them apart and used them as is. I'm being such a lazy gardener this fall.

I like to plant my garlic six inches apart in a grid. I plant them four inches deep, then mulch with an inch of compost. In past years I've mulched deeper, but our city climate seems pretty mild. I think that will be sufficient.

16 comments:

  1. It's time to get ours planted too. The beds are prepared, now I'm just hoping for a nice day to do it.

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  2. yea! another garlic lover!

    i plant mine in early october on my birthday every year. it is a wee bit early, but it makes for a happy birthday.

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  3. Hope you can stop the cats digging them up! :)

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  4. Mine are planted. I hope they do well this year.

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  5. thanks for the reminder I need to get mine planted today too!

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  6. I know you have great success with garlic. I'm glad to hear you planted this time of year. I think we're in the same zone, and we planted garlic for our first time ever last Saturday. We planted 5 rows, 8 inches apart. The cloves are 6 inches apart in the row and 3 inches deep, and we gave them an inch of straw and black plastic cover. Does that sound like it will work?

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  7. Jody, it sounds just fine. You don't need plastic in our zone though. They grow very well here. In fact some varieties grow better here in the cold than they do in warmer climates.

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  8. You have some nice sized garlic heads. I still need to plant my garlic. I've been waiting for a dry weekend.

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  9. Planted mine this year for the first time ever. I am excited to see how it performs. Remember, above all, garden is suppose to be fun :)

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  10. I keep forgetting to plant mine :( Hopefully I'll remember tomorrow!

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  11. Got my garlic in about a week ago. I have never done anything more than separate the bulb into individual cloves and then plant them and have always had very good results. I always appreciate seeing the garlic coming up in the wee early phases of spring when nothing else is stirring in the garden.

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  12. I planted my garlic and onions last week. I hope I planted mine deep enough...

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  13. I would like to try garlic, but I wonder if I should plant in the Fall or in the Spring. Will it survive temps of -40* and come up in the Spring? I guess I have some research to do, but for this coming summer I am going to have to do a Spring planting as my ground is already frozen solid.

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  14. Gayle, yes garlic can grow in zone 3 just fine. Not all varieties will grow there. Hardnecks are probably safer than softnecks. But September is your best bet for planting. Plant around your first frost. Only long growing season areas can plant in the spring and get really good cloves. But you can probably get some nice green garlic by planting in the spring. It might have really small cloves if you pick it at the normal time.

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  15. We got our first frost last night so I should be planting them this week.

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  16. Thanks for the tip. Now I have some thing to do today.

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