Better Late than Never
I always count the garlic planting as my first crop of the new year.
It’s official, the 2014 garden is done. Well, except dig my dahlias…but that won’t take too long, says she of List. Too. Big. fame. Bigger things were weighing on our minds than dahlias. Namely getting the cover off the greenhouses before anymore ice came our way, and getting the garlic in.
The greenhouse covers came off without a hitch last week, so that just left the garlic. But it’s been nothing but rain, rain, rain since the thaw. I was threatening to mud the garlic in, mulch and walk away ’til spring. But today it dawned dry, with the promise of a dry window large enough to get the garlic popped, soil amended, cloves planted, and mulched.
Field boss and children
Garlic supervisor, year 13
So as the animals looked on in amusement I worked my way through the seed garlic.
Music to my ears
Some animals tried to “help”… . Nothing like a curious pup who has never seen garlic planted before.
This year I decided to only plant Music instead of messing around with the other additional varieties I grew in years past. This cook likes big cloves. I know I am probably missing out on some stupendous flavor burst without having a more diverse planting, but I tend to just leave the small cloves in favor of the larger, easier to peel cloves. It also simplifies the seed selection as most heads have about 6 to 8 large cloves and they are all good for planting.
Now at least one big project is done and I can start a new page in the garden book – 2015 here we come.
Throwback at Trapper Creek 
Your gardening is just amazing.
I do it to support my other bad habit – eating!
You were gone for a long time!! Missed your posts! Glad you’re back. Cheri in Canada
Cheri, thanks for missing me! The less you blog the less you want to it seems.
It looks wonderful.
🙂
A job well done! You are such a workhorse, I usually feel that I am way behind you. But this time I feel a bit better;-). I got about 280 cloves of garlic planted a few weeks ago, and am more than halfway through digging out more than a hundred clumps of dahlias. Some got a bit frozen in the recent cold spell, but it looks like most will be okay. How do you store yours?
Wyndson, I’ll be curious to see how mine fared, we got a skiff of ice over the soil, so we didn’t freeze too deep, greens and stuff are kind of toast except kales, but the root crops look good. I’m hoping the dahlia tubers do as well. The tubers keep the best for me in plastic burlap sacks, the old kind not the new fused ones. It keeps them just moist enough that they don’t shrivel and if they get too moist I can spritz them and tie the bag shut. They breath a little bit, and I don’t have to mess with vermiculite or sawdust, lots cleaner that way. I don’t divide until spring so they do take up some space.
I store mine in the paper feed bags, that we get our chicken feed in. I usually roll the tops closed, and then put them in the unheated garage. It seems to work well for me, very little trouble with them drying out too much.
The last couple of years I’ve been dividing in the Fall, but they still take up a lot of space:)
I don’t have near as many as you – phew. Yet…I used to have way too many. I’m trying to curtail my dahlia habit 😉
Good tip – when my plastic bags give up the ghost I can switch then 🙂
I love the big cloves too, that satisfying smash when you wack them.. c
🙂
I’m glad I got our cloves in too. I got in before more cold weather and snow. I have planted mine in the snow before now, but this year I think it would have needed a crow bar to make a hole and then mulch, if I could prise some hay away from the old bales.
I was missing your posts too