Garden Report: Garlic Planting Day

Wow. Here it is, officially past the middle of October, and normal people are starting to think about Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the upcoming Winter holidays, and I am thinking about Spring. If I want to have garlic scapes and garlic bulbs to pull from the garden next Summer, then I need to get my garlic bulbs in the ground now, a few weeks before the ground begins freeze.

If I wasn't so lazy, and didn't use my phone to take the picture, you'd know I planted Red German  hardneck garlic that I bought from Territorial Seed Company at the end of the Summer. Put 80 cloves into the ground and with much hope, luck...and some weeding and fertilizer, I should have 80 nice, fat garlic bulbs next year. Has worked every year for the past 10. Some types of garlic need to be chilled in order to produce a bulb. Learned THAT lesson the hard way.

I planted using the square foot method, used my trusty dibble to make holes about 3" deep and dropped a clove (root end down) into each hole spaced about 5" apart. Covered the holes with soil, watered well, and when we get close to a frost (usually around Halloween), I'll mulch the garlic bed with a few inches of straw in case we have a really harsh winter here in the Philly 'burbs.

It does seem a little funny planting for Spring, since my peppers, chard and tomatoes are still producing, but I know in a couple of weeks, I'll have yanked out all the dead plants and will be dreaming again of Spring. After all, it's only 155 days away.

Garlic, ready to plant for Summer 2014!