Garlic it is probably the easiest thing to grow and one of my favorite things to eat...
If your not growing garlic it is time to start.
I like to plant garlic right after my tomato plants freeze and most of the time it is the very next day. Usually that works out to be around the first week or two of October...
I do add compost and some bone meal then I plant the cloves of my biggest and best garlic from the year before. I plant them about 2 inches deep and then I water them in.
I really don't do much else but add water when they start growing in the spring and maybe a good dusting of a compost or manure.
I harvest right around memorial day usually but this year was a week early. I do have some beds of garlic that we are still waiting on at are garden in Shumway Az it is close to 6000 ft elevation about 800 ft higher than our garden in Holbrook Az so I figure they will be ready very soon probably in a week maybe two.
I have the garlic out but now it is time to plant the Tomatoes so it is back to work busy busy....until next time later Dusty...
Fantastic looking garlic Dusty. I’ve only picked one of mine ‘in the green’ so far but the flavour was really good and strong so I’m hoping this will be a very good year for them when I harvest later in the Summer here in Wales...
ReplyDeleteI'm experimenting with garlic this year here in Edinburgh, Scotland, but read that it is supposed to go yellow before you dig it up. From what you say you don't wait for the tops to die back? (I think we get more rain than you - and less sun.)
ReplyDeleteThe garlic did start to die back starting with the bottom leaves turning yellow and dying and working up when the bottom 3 or 4 leaves are dead I usually pull one to see if it is fully formed if it is fully formed I start pulling the garlic. If you wait until the garlic falls over on its own thats ok to. But sometimes it doesn't store near as well. I have found it is best to pull them before the fall on there own they store better. When they start dying back it only takes a few days the leaves die back fairly fast just a few days.
DeleteWhen I mean pull the garlic I mean I get a pitch fork and get under the garlic and loosen it then pull it. If you just try to pull it out with out loosening the soil it dosen't work to well...lol
DeleteThanks Dusty for all your advice. I won't just tug it out of the ground, when the time comes!
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