Garlic cloves in the ground. Finally. I had separated some bulbs weeks ago to save some nice big cloves to plant, as I have read that the bigger cloves make bigger bulbs next year. So some of the bigger beauties need to go in the ground rather than in my tummy. These cloves are the first to be planted, and were among my larger bulbs. Please notice the quarter for an indication of size.
One of the reasons it took me this long to plant is that I had not figured out where to put them. The pepper plants are not doing much at this time, so yesterday I cleared out a section of this bed:
 |
| Clean up time, October 24th, 2012 |
I made furrows about six inches apart from each other, then put in cloves about six inches apart in each furrow. A mistake I made last year was planting some cloves directly in a thick layer of pure mushroom soil. That did not provide enough structure for the roots, and many of the plants fell over in the summer. So these cloves were planted straight in the beds, and mushroom soil or leaf mold will be used for mulch as the garlic gets established.
 |
| New garlic planting, October 24th, 2012 |
I smoothed the soil over the rows, and hope for a great harvest next year. For some reason, the wrappers around the bulbs this year were very thin and most have broken. It is reported that thin and breaking wrappers will reduce the storage potential for the bulbs. Sixty seven cloves were planted, leaving many, many more to go.
 |
| Cayenne peppers pulled from bed |
The upside to this planting was the nice harvest of cayenne peppers from the bed. The pretty ones will go to a jar for display and consumption. The less than perfect ones will be kept to grind for that bug and bunny repellent that I always hope to make.
No comments:
Post a Comment