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Planting Question, NEW to garlic growing

16 years ago

I have some very nice bulbs that I got from the farmers market (not sure if they are locally grown or not, but they are a good size and very flavorful) so I plan to use for planting. Recently (within the past month) I laid out a lasagna bed in part of my garden spot (where tomatoes had grown previously) The reason for the lasagna was a weed problem...the soil was already pretty good.

I used newspaper layers, then grass clippings, then old rotted hay.

My question is:

When it's time to plant (October?) it's possible that the bed will have shrunk down some...do I move the lasagna material aside and plant into the soil? since I dont really know how deep the cloves need to be planted....OR should I just dig "holes" in the bed and fill it in with dirt and not disturb the lasagna layers?

It's a first to both of these ventures. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Comments (8)

pepbob1
16 years ago
Interesting questions, as i was going to try planting my garlic in a modified "Lasgna bed" this fall also. this is only my second year growing garlic so i'll be interested in hearing what folks have to say on this also. i was going to post a very similair question myself.
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lilacs_of_may
16 years ago
Another sophomore here, too. I'll be planting a lot of garlic this year. My thought was to start planting this weekend and just keep going until I'd planted it all. But am I jumping the gun? Should I wait another month? Should garlic be planted after first frost? I got my garlic orders this week. I assumed that they don't ship them until planting time.
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Ditto on the largest cloves for planting. BUT... just because you happen to have small bulbs (and/or smaller cloves) this year, doesn't mean that you won't get larger bulbs next year if you replant them. I first planted an artichoke type, "Ron's Single Center", next to my foundation (the garden was full) and it performed poorly. But the next year, I planted it in the sunnier, more fertile ground of my rural plot, and had huge bulbs. So for my 2 c's, Obrionusa, I would recommend replanting the best of your existing stock. I'll be testing that theory again this year. A combination of bad weather & extended working hours kept me out of the garden for most of May & June, and the garlic had to fend for itself, unweeded. Most of the hardnecks are much smaller than usual, but that has happened before in bad years. Given proper care, they will be normally sized next year. Worth noting was the fact that the artichoke types were least affected by the weeds, and still produced bulbs of pretty good size. They also did well one year when I did no till planting (I drilled holes in the ground with a cordless drill). If I were growing garlic for subsistence, I would choose an artichoke variety.
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That link shows exactly what i was thinking of. I don't think this is anything to worry about in most cases. That very thing happened to one of the more robust of my Japanese this year; it didn't harm the bulb size in the least. My guess is that the scape that had started to develop partially aborted resulting in the bulbil set being lower inside the stem. No scape developed to be cut off either. Of course Japanese has a bit of a weird scape anyway and is only weakly a hardneck. Not all of my Japanese even put out scapes this year, but bulb size still averaged closer to 2 1/2" than to 2". First time I ever grew Japanese, and I am impressed.
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korney19
16 years ago
Lilacs, from all the problems you've had this year, I think before planting your garlic, the first thing(s) I would do would be get rid of some shade and get a truckload of compost delivered to ammend your soil. And get a professional soil test done. They will also give you recommendations what to add based on the results.

I plant my garlic in October, anywhere between Columbus Day & Halloween should be fine.

Mark
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penguingardener
16 years ago
I echo what Mark is saying. I'm actually surprised I received my garlic order already, I got mine in October last year and I'm not ready to pull out my current plants.

What I'm thinking is after I pull out my plants, I'll dig up some of the existing soil (put it aside), then empty out my compost tumbler into the soil, wait a week or 2 then plant the garlic.

Part of this is because my tumbler just broke and I need to empty it out so my husband can work on it. I'm not too worried about unfinished compost at this point. I haven't put anything in it in a week and the last thing I put in was hay.

Anyway, based on this plan, my timing should have the garlic in sometime in October.
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lilacs_of_may
16 years ago
I looked up planting garlic online, and the advice was to plant it 4-6 weeks before the first hard freeze. Here in Colorado, that's about now. First frost can be any time soon. First hard freeze is about the middle of October. So if I start this weekend, I figure I'm doing good.
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garliclady
16 years ago
riinga Planting in Mid october till Christmas is fine where you are. Here in NC we start in Mid october and because we plant so much we hope to be finished by Thanksgiving. For other planting tips for the southeast go to the link

Here is a link that might be useful: Garlic Planting guide for the southeast
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aka_peggy
16 years ago
I didn't get around to planting some of my garlic last year till January and they did fine. So long as the ground isn't frozen it's OK to plant.

I once read somewhere that the rule of thumb in planting garlic is to plant on the winter solstice. (Dec 21) and harvest on the summer solstice. (June 21)
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rjinga
Original Author
16 years ago
Well it's done...I planted about 100 bulbs all around my flower beds, garden...anywhere I had free dirt space :) They are all the same variety, of which I have no idea...but they came from the farmers market nearby...so I can only hope that they are worthwhile...they sure tasted good to me...and the bulbs? cloves? were all very good sized.

I discovered as I was digging in one of my front flower beds plopping down cloves here there and everywhere (5-6 inches apart), it is healthier than I thought...I pulled up a plant that had a BIG OLE fat worm attached to it...it looked like a baby snake!! that is a great thing to see in your dirt....Hope it doesn't eat my garlic bulbs ;)

thanks for the responses...I'll be excited to see what comes. I'll be one of those eager posters who you will hear from again in the spring, when I have garlic growing everywhere!!!
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