Garden Journal 10-22-10: It's Time to Plant Garlic!

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Planting garlic with Marta and Lucky Buddy Bear on 2-10-09

Realization of the Day:

I can't believe I might actually get my garlic planted on time this year.

When is the best time to plant garlic? There's no one right answer to that question, but in many areas it's October. If you live somewhere that has a real winter (as opposed to places like California and Texas and Florida), this gives the cloves enough time to sprout and get a good head start growing before the ground freezes and they go into hibernation mode. If you live where the winters are mild, you can get away with planting your garlic later. 

If you're minding the moonsigns (you can read more about how that works here), you'll want to plant your garlic on a fertile day in the third quarter, which promotes underground growth, because the waning moon is pulling things 'down.' This is also a good time to plant other root vegetables, like potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, and beets, though not onions.

For some reason onions are supposed to be planted in the first quarter, along with lettuces and other greens, beans, broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, etc. Peppers, eggplant, melons, and tomatoes are best planted in the second quarter. I don't know who decided all this stuff; I just try to follow along because I need all the gardening help I can get.

Today is the full moon (woohoo!), which means the third quarter starts tomorrow. Fertile days for October 2010 are the 23rd (tomorrow), the 28th, and the 29th.

Sunday the 24th is also a fertile day, but some people believe that all Sundays fall into that unfertile 'blackout' category, when you really shouldn't do anything in the garden except harvest, weed, mulch, and control pests. Sometimes I wish I'd never heard that rule because now I'm paranoid to plant anything on a Sunday.

Fortunately garlic is somewhat forgiving, because although I have the best intentions every year, I rarely end up planting mine on time. My 2009 crop, which should have gone into the ground in October 2008, wasn't planted until February of 2009. At least, as you can see above, I had some cute critters keeping me company while I worked. Unfortunately the resulting garlic was pretty pathetic.

Determined never to do that again, this year's garlic didn't go in the ground until March. Some progress, eh? I actually still ended up with a fairly decent harvest, although only from the garlic I'd purchased from some of our Amish neighbors and planted. The much smaller heads of garlic from my own garden (the ones planted in February 2009) didn't do very well. They started growing okay, and then the spindly plants just sort of disappeared into the weeds.

What's happening now, though, is that whatever small cloves that did form during the spring have resprouted and are growing nicely—right in the middle of the bed of Asian greens I planted in September (and which is providing delicious 'thinned' baby greens every day for salads). It'll be interesting if the plants get big enough to harvest for green garlic, which tastes divine. If not, the mildly flavored leaves will make a tasty addition to salads.

You can read more about this year's garlic harvest—and about growing and planting garlic—in my 7/27/10 post: Harvesting Really Late Planted Garlic.

This time I'll be planting some of my own garlic I harvested in July, along with several heads I purchased a few weeks ago from our Amish neighbors. This Amish garlic, which is about two-thirds the size of those nice big heads I bought from them last winter, was grown here in Missouri. The better stuff was grown last year in Minnesota. Apparently we're not in prime garlic growing country, even if you're Amish.

I'll plant the bulbs about 2 inches deep with the pointy sides up in one of my 4'x8' raised beds, spacing the rows at least 6 inches apart. If you have enough garlic to plant them 3 inches apart, you can harvest half of them as green garlic in spring. You'll find my green garlic fettuccine recipe and more about growing green garlic here.

Garlic appreciates fertile soil, so I'll probably mix some compost into the bed first (as soon as I pull out all the overgrown weeds), along with some sheep manure. If I remember, I'll also add a few handfuls each of kelp meal (which we buy in 50-pound bags and feed to the animals as a vitamin and mineral supplement) and gypsum (calcium sulfate, which is one of the things we use to organically fertilize our fields).

Garlic is defenseless against weeds, so I'll mulch the entire bed with a heavy layer of sheep manure bedding hay from the barn (you can see a photo of a half-mulched garlic bed and read more about fertilizing with sheep manure here). The mulch will also help keep the ground from heaving during winter and early spring extreme temperature fluctuations.

What's great is that the mulch gives the plants a small dose of organic fertilizer each time it rains or you water, until eventually all the manure works its way into the ground, and you're left with a hay barrier impervious to weeds. And then that eventually breaks down and helps amend the soil, too.

Depending on the weather, tiny green garlic sprouts may poke up through the mulch during the coming weeks, and then as the temperatures drop the growth will stop. Once the garlic is planted and mulched, nothing more is required of the gardener until February or March, when you then have to jump for joy at the sight of those little green shoots reaching happily towards the sun. Replenish the mulch as necessary, and pull any weeds that dare poke through.

Are you growing garlic this year? Any good tips, stories, mistakes, or recipes to share?

Previous garlic growing posts:
4/19/06: Spring Green Garlic: Growing It, Cooking with It, Loving It
9/6/06: Growing Hardneck Garlic
8/10/10: Harvesting Really Late Planted Garlic


What I like to make with fresh garlic? All kinds of things!

Quick and Easy Gazpacho (Cold Vegetable Soup)

My Favorite Lower Fat, Fuller Flavor Basil Pesto (made with almonds and fresh tomatoes)

Arugula Pesto and Arugula Pesto Pizza

Purple Basil Pesto and White Bean Pesto Dip/Spread

Linguini or Farfalle with Sun Dried Tomato and Artichoke Pesto, Cherry Tomatoes, and Fresh Basil

Linguini with Olive Oil, Garlic, Romano, and Parsley (and a wonderful book for art loving foodies)

White Bean and Artichoke Dip/Spread with Rosemary, Romano, and Kalamata Olives

Hot Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip

Low Fat, Full Flavor Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip (and factory tours)

All Natural Homemade Barbecue Sauce (and a really neat BBQ book)

Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw with High Kickin' Creamy Tomato Dressing

Garbanzo Bean Salad with Red Onion, Scallions, Cilantro, Parsley, and Feta

Caramelized Beets with Garlic (I love these)

Kohlrabi Purée (this stuff is amazingly good - really!)

Three Onion and Three Cheese Pizza (and my favorite pizza dough recipe)

Swiss Chard and Artichoke White Pizza (a great way to sneak in some greens)

SOUPS

Garlic Lover's White Bean Soup (fat free, vegan, and delicious)

Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Onions, Garlic, Garbanzos, and Artichokes (and lambing season with my mom)

Quick and Healthy Cream (or Not) of Artichoke Soup from the Pantry

Simple and Healthy Swiss Chard Artichoke Soup

Thick and Hearty Italian White Bean Soup (and a book review: Keeping the Feast)

Hearty Lentil Soup with Carrots, Tomatoes, and Smoked Sausage

Quick and Spicy Black Bean Soup/Chili

LAMB RECIPES

Grilled Lamb Burgers with Roasted Red Pepper, Parsley, and Kalamata Olive Relish (and a great farm to table cookbook)

Lamb Burgers with Garlic, Shallots, and Feta on Homemade Rosemary Focaccia

Onion and Herb Crusted Lamb Spareribs & Grilled Lamb Steaks

Slow Roasted Greek Style Leg of Lamb with Lemon, Oregano, Potatoes, and Swiss Chard

Slow Roasted Dutch Oven Lamb Shoulder Roasts or Shanks with Tomatoes, Onions, Garlic, and Rosemary

© 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the trying to be timely foodie farm blog where it's been perfect fall growing weather, except for the fact that we haven't had any rain in over a month, which means we have a lot less grass in our fields than we'd hoped. There's a chance of rain predicted for this weekend, and I'm really hoping we get some—even if it means postponing my garlic planting plans.