Garlic is the first crop to be planted for the next growing season. It benefits from establishing itself by putting down roots before the winter so it can be strong when it emerges in the Spring. The hard part is finding the right time and conditions to plant it. Plant it too early and you risk it sending up a shoot and then dying when winter comes. Planting too late means that usually the Fall rains have come and with the colder temperatures the soil stays too muddy to plant.
Yesterday was the best conditions. The soil was damp but after squeezing it together into a ball it would easily fall apart. Perfect. I prepared the beds for planting and announced to the boys at the bus stop, it was time to plant the garlic! I love how excited they are to help with this every year. After a quick snack and setting out the homework for later, we headed up. I grabbed my trowel and the boys brought up the bags of garlic bulbs.
The boys broke the bulbs up into cloves and spread them out. Meanwhile I started planting the cloves roughly 7 inches apart and deep enough to leave 2 inches of soil above the bulb.
Some of us got a little distracted by the Brussels Sprouts. Anthony especially enjoyed munching on a few of them.
After they 180-200 cloves were in the ground, all that was left was to cover them up and even out the soil. Navarre and Anthony did an awesome job helping! We will next put a cover of mulch over them to prevent any damage from frost which will break down and add nutrients to the soil.
First crop for 2016 is now in the ground!
