Monday 18 October 2010

overwintering garlic


Now is the time to plant overwintering garlic.


The big cloves we use are thermidrome - the ones from the supermarkets rarely work well- and these are broken into their individual bulblets.

Joy Larkcom tells us to plant our cloves 5 or 6 inches deep on sandy soils*. Here you can see the job almost completed. A good trowel does the job digging out the deep holes and then being used to space the bulblets in staggered rows.

I raked and firmed the ground gently.

And now wait for the little bulbs to enjoy the last of the warm soil and begin to establish a good root system before filling the plot with broad, aromatic leaves in the spring.

*Oops - see comment from Lisa...

3 comments:

Lisa said...

Rob,
I just planted two large beds of garlic last weekend (for the first time with my own garlic), but I usually just plant them about 4 inches deep.

I'm sure Joy Larkcom knows what's best for you folks in the UK, but I'll be planting more beds next weekend, too -- maybe I'll go a bit deeper, too.

Cheers,
Lisa

Rob said...

Oops - Larkcom tells us to plant 4 inches deep on sandy soils. Mine have not been planted but buried!!
Thanks for your vigiilance Lisa!
Rob - the garlic undertaker

Lisa said...

And, some of the smaller cloves, I just sort of shoved down about 3 inches, too! But we have very heavy clay soils, even when amended.

LW