Reader Dave just kicked it up notch! (see comments)
For great garlic:
Highly fertile soil, organic matter, water etc., etc. you heard it all before, but it goes double for garlic. No weeds at all: none,nada, zip, zilch. The big secret is to plant in the fall and mulch in Dec.
Bob
key idea: plant garlic in the fall, mulch in December
Today we mulched our garlic beds. The raised beds we have for vegetable production measure about 5′x9′. Five pounds of garlic bulbs plant six of these beds exactly. We used wheat straw about 6′”-8″ deep to cover these six beds. Four moderately heavy bales did the trick. By the way, these bales of straw were of the most beautiful golden wheat color I have seen in a long time. In a way it was amost a shame to use them for mulch, but that’s what they’re there for. The bright color ensures that we don’t import a new batch of weed seeds from weed stalks that could have been baled up out in the field by the farmer along with the straw. Straw that has lots of different color stems in the bale more than likely are contaminated with weeds.
If you promise not to tell anyone, I”ll let you know the secret to growing super size and delicious garlic. So just let me know if you can “keep it under your hat”, by writing me a short note in the comment section that you like garlic.
Well, now that the garlic bulbs are all tucked in their beds for the winter, I think I’m going to have lunch and take a nap. Bob
for more information search: mulching garlic, straw mulch
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