The garlic is officially in the ground....a day before the snow flies!!!

in #homesteading7 years ago (edited)

Some of last spring's garlic haul!
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We started with just over 8lbs of seed garlic and got about 35lbs of garlic out of the planting
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This year almost didn't happen between the rain and flooding. We have already had frost and it is going to snow tomorrow, so we are cutting it really close.

Frost this morning....we were out tilling by 5am since we needed every last second to try to dry the soil. We were hoping not to till, but the rains compacted the wet soil to much, so we did one pass at a 3" till.
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This years garlic seed, cracked and whole.
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After cracking all the bulbs to seperate the cloves we lost a lot of skins. To offer the garlic cloves a boost rooting and coping without the skin for nutrients I soaked the Red Stripe Garlic in a mixture of 3ml organic seaweed fertilizer per 1L of water for 20 minutes.

Garlic having a quick soak before planting
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My fab ladies came out to help me again today, so planting was faster and much more fun.
We marked a row with string and sticks. Then with two of us at each end, with one making holes (we used rebar) and the other planting the garlic seed we worked until we met in the middle. Repeat for next row.

I was on team Janelle doing the planting while she did the holes. I'm taking the pictures tho ;) This is row one
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Hole making
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Always plant the garlic root down and tip up.
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After several rows!
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That is pretty much it! Garlic is an easy crop to grow, the toughest part is the timing with the weather. Too early and they will sprout before frost, too late and they won't root before winter. Our temps look good for a few weeks, so I think we are in the safe zone.

Finishing off with a good mulching with straw. I only had one bale in the barn, so i am off this afternoon to pick up more and mulch the garlic entirely for the winter
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See you in 6-7 months baby garlics!!!
Cheers and have the best day!

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Awesome! Garlic is my all time favorite ingredient. And fresh garden garlic is in beatable. your plants look so healthy, nice job! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you! That was my first year growing it, I hope this years is as nice! And you are sooo right, no beating fresh garlic!!

Does it help or not to put the lost skins in the hole as feed? Or would it just get moldy?
Great job! I can't believe that massive harvest photo!

Thats a good question!!! I wonder...I am going to do some reasearch and see if anyone has written anything on it. I do have 9 more bulbs I could crack and plant like that to experiment??

Great job Karen and Ladies. I'm so happy you had all that help again, it looked like a cold day, so good to make fast work of it. So...was there festivities afterwards? heheeeee <3

Coffees, lunch and lots of laughs after.....lots of laughs the whole time actually haha!! I totally love these ladies. So glad we met <3 And ya, it was soooo wet and chilly today. I'm glad its done!!

I will totally be putting in garlic next year!

For sure! It is pretty easy and lots of garlic to store all year :) I am loving it!

I am giddy with excitement for you and your tremendous garlic haul!
EVERYTHING tastes better with a touch of garlic! One of my favorite herbs and seasonings!

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