We planted a 4x8 bed full of garlic (foreground).....and it all came up....eek! We really weren't too sure what would happen here. I was less than the purist on this one, bought garlic bulbs at the grocery store for 5/$1....considerably less than the organic at $3/bulb. We'll see how they compare when we start pulling them up.
We don't do anything special with our garlic, other than amending with homemade compost. Because our winters are fairly mild (freezes occasionally, but no snow) we don't even have to cover them. Tho we did put another hefty helping of compost on top after the cloves went into the ground. The brown tubing is part of our drip irrigation system, but during the winter we don't use it at all. Even in a drought year we get just enough rain to not have to water our winter gardens except when the plants first go into the ground and maybe a little in the spring as it starts to warm up. This year we've been happily drenched by storms and tho I hesitate to say the drought is over, I'd like to think we're at least on our way! These were planted at the end of November and we hope to harvest in May, if only so the summer crops can get started :)
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I planted my garlic on October 10 with a maturity range of 90-120 days. I thought I needed to wait for the tops to start turning brown before harvesting. Is that the case? Everything is still green.
This is my 1st year growing garlic and hope for much success. I use garlic heavily in the kitchen.
I love not having to irrigate either. Please don't jinx the water gods by suggesting the drought is over. I believe where we live water will always be so precious.
Yes, they do have to die back first. We planted ours earlier last year and they still didn't get pulled up until May. This is only our 3rd year with garlic so I'm no expert, but I think they kind of go dormant in the cold and don't really 'grow' until the spring, no matter when they are planted.
And I was hesitant in saying anything about the rain, it's been such a wonderful water year!
We've even decided to start a rain barrel system. It took one day to fill a 50gal. barrel and that was with just 15 ft. of gutters feeding into it. I had no idea we could get so much water from our roofs!
Mine are still in the green cups. They are not standing up any more. I believe I will need to transplant, but hope it isn't too late. I am hardening them off this week.
That is a LOT of garlic!! I haven't grown those yet, but I want to. I'll follow your experience this year and maybe do it next year.
Yeah, it's probably more than we need, I really wasn't sure how many would actually sprout so I planted plenty (obviously:)
Remind me at the next co-op pickup and I'll bring you some when we start digging it up :)
I'm tempted to pull mine up next week. (zone 7 here in south-central north carolina). your beds look divine!
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