I had a chance to check the garlic beds yesterday.
If you remember my post a while back about growing garlic, I mentioned that the beds were mulched with straw. Spring is here so now’s the time to peak under their blankets of mulch:
Can you see what I found? Wonderfully, healthy garlic bulbs poking up through completely frozen garden soil:
Frozen soil is a good thing this time of year. Alternating freezing and thawing (which would happen if the beds were not mulched) will “heave” the plants out of the ground and damage their roots. This way, a nice slow thaw can happen without any damage to the garlic. We mulch strawberry plants in the fall for the same reason.
What we can’t see in the photos, are the roots that the garlic put down while under the straw. Encouraging root growth is one of the most important things to do if you want to harvest those nice big cloves we all love.
Happy first full day of Spring to you!!:D
Bob
oh, i would love to grow fresh garlic. i did not know that it should be grown in raised beds. how do you know when garlic is ready to be harvested?
Comment by vanessa — March 25, 2007 @ 1:05 am
Vanessa, galic is a lot of fun. You don’t necessarily have to grow them in raised beds, they will do fine in any fertile garden soil. We just happen to have a lot of raised beds to use. Remember, they should be planted in the fall to get the best results. Garlic planted in the spring will have smaller cloves. Toward the middle of summer, the garlic leaves will start to die back, that is when you know they are almost ready to harvest. When that happens, bend the remaining stalks over to the ground and let them dry out a little bit. Don’t leave them in the garden that way for more than a few days or the skins may become discolored. It won’t hurt the quality of the bulb, however. See my post of December 9th for a little more information. Have fun!
Comment by Bob — March 25, 2007 @ 8:14 am
thanks for the info, definitely going to try it!
Comment by vanessa — March 31, 2007 @ 9:07 pm
just to let you know, i couldn’t wait till fall to try the garlic, i’m going to try some this spring and then again in the fall…the husband is going to have a lot of fun rototilling a larger garden for me this year with my new experiments, but i really appreciate all the information and advice on your blog. thanks so much.
Comment by vanessa — April 11, 2007 @ 6:54 pm
Sure! Why not? Fall is just the best time for planting it , not the only time. Who knows, with the right growing conditions this season, you may be pleasantly suprised.
By the way, as of today, our garlic beds are still covered with that mulch.
Comment by Bob — April 13, 2007 @ 3:39 pm