Garlic Planted, Bulbs In

It was a sunny weekend at Steepmeadow, and there was a lot of action.

On Saturday, Kirstin used her new garden tool to plant daffodils, tulips, & crocus. She very nearly took us on a visit to Woodwinds Emergency Room after cutting herself on the new tool and filling her gardening gloves with blood.

Today, Sunday, I planted as much garlic as I could in the bed that I'd prepared yesterday by removing the failed cauliflower and the last pumpkins (which will be carved at Halloween). I used our very own Steepmeadow compost to lay down a nice couple-inch thick layer of good, fertile soil, and then used the dibber to drop in garlic.

It seems to be a matter of some debate how deeply to plant and how to space the garlic. I used the instructions from Seedsavers Exchange, because those worked last year, and aimed to separate the cloves by about 6 inches and plant them about 4 inches deep. 

Our Seed Savers cloves were compromised and we were refunded the money. Still, many of them seemed healthy - they're a Chesnok Red - and I planted them in short rows. The long-row (8') double-lines are also a Chesnok Red, but from CroyalFarms Garlic in Hamilton, NY. I did make an attempt to vary some of the depths, just in case one of those places that said to plant them 12" deep or 2" deep turned out to be right.

We shall see. They sleep tonight mostly at 4" underground, and under a nice blanket of ground up leaves and clover mulch, ~ 4" deep as well. And there they shall stay over the long winter.