We just put our garlic in the ground. I started two years ago with a couple bulbs - about 10 plants in total. The experiment worked quite well except I didn’t plant nearly enough! We ran out in a month. To remedy this I scaled up last year and planted about 500 cloves (1 clove planted in October = 1 plant = 1 bulb of garlic next July). The bulbs grew so well the first season I figured there wasn’t much to do except put them in the ground around Canadian Thanksgiving and take them out the following July - with perhaps a couple waterings in May and June. It turns out that if you desire a reliable crop year after year, there is a little more preparation required to ensure your success. The soil was rather poor and the net result was a a large number small plants. We still have considerably more garlic than our family needs, but overall the experiment was disappointing because organic seed garlic is pricey and we didn’t get the yield we expected.
I had an awesome afternoon playing in the garden despite the snow that blessed us all afternoon. Thanks to the help of some outstanding volunteers, the garden expansion plans have been moving right along. Matt and I got all the compost turned in so it can fester slowly for the rest of the winter and one new raised bed got filled with soil. We have almost enough garden capacity to plant the rest of our 500 garlic plants.
The folks from Rocky Mountain Flatbread came down today to help build some community compost bins. We’ve been talking about it forever and now they are well on their way to finished. We used old lumber that we scrounged from an abandoned lumber yard so no new trees were harmed! Rocky Mountain will be able to dispose of all their restaurant waste in their own neighbourhood and we will have an endless supply of organic compost! They have been actively working to reduce their carbon footprint and this will help significantly.
This project slipped a little as my MBA began fast and furious on October 1st, leaving with me struggling to keep up and balance my many other family, garden, personal, work, community and co-op responsibilities. The garlic planting was supposed to happen on Thanksgiving weekend but it got pushed out by the Final Harvest Supper where we invited friends over who share our passion for local, in-season, organic food.
This is our second year growing garlic. Last year’s mini test crop was such an overwhelming success except that it was waaaaay too small. We have scaled up considerably this year with the help of uber community gardener, Tammy Toad. She helped build a new bed in the downpour today and then we planted a couple hundred cloves which will mature into cloves by mid-July.
So far we planted:
- Red Russian
- Mountain Top
- Fish Lake #3
- Korean Purple