Every Dish Needs Garlic, A Lot Of Garlic!
So you are almost ready to plant garlic after you prep the ground for planting. First, choose a site where garlic or onions have not grown for at least 3 years. After selecting the site, you need to decide. Do you want beds or just rows? I like raised beds because I can grow three rows on a 32 inch wide bed. This system saves space. The soil warms up earlier in the springtime. Compost is concentrated on the beds. If tillage is your method of prepping, then till after you spread on a 3 to 4 inches of compost. If you are not tilling, there are many ways to prep your beds. Broadforking the area is excellent. It aerates the soil. It also loosens up any weeds that need to be removed. Spread on compost a week or two before planting and remove weeds again at planting time. You can do this prep even earlier. Lay on a tarp or cardboard. This will smother weeds that will try to germinate. Remove the covering and plant the garlic right away. There are many ways to build fertility in your soil. You can try cover cropping or green manure. Relay cropping is also effective. Whichever way you choose, the micro-organisms in the soil will benefit.
Garlic is planted in early October, 4 to 6 weeks before the ground freezes. The cloves should have enough time to develop good roots before the winter sets in. However, planting too early may encourage shoots to grow out of the soil. This is a potential for frost damage.
Separate the cloves of each bulb. Set each one with the pointed end up. Place them 10-15 cm (4-6″) apart in a row. Make sure the tip of the clove is 2-5 cm (2″) deep in rich, well-drained soil. Be careful not to scrape the clove on small stones and hard debris! Use a dibble to make the holes prior to planting. Dig deeper planting holes if it rains excessively. This is also important if there is a potential of frost heaving that may expose the cloves during the winter. Consider this approach when no mulch will be placed on top of garlic. Garlic can be planted a bit shallower when using mulch or planting into heavy soil. Once the ground is frozen, sometime in November, apply mulch. Use a weed-free loose mulch like straw, chopped leaves, grass clippings, or shredded paper. You can plant your garlic into garden mats that have pre-made holes or use fabric or plastic landscape cloth. Here at RCF, we just use straw. It adds more organic matter to the soil. This is a gain for the cover crops that will follow the harvest. Once springtime rolls around, remove the straw from the garlic beds if it’s too thick. The garlic tips can not push their way through.
Garlic is a heavy feeder, it uses up nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. a shot of nitrogen in the spring will help boost the plant. Some options are alfalfa cubes broken up and worked into soil early in the spring. (these cubes are fed to horses, but are a great way to slow release nitrogen). Sprinkle on blood meal and work it into soil. Be careful, as some blood meal will blow away in the wind. To prevent this, mix it with dry sand. Even fresh grass clippings will contribute a small amount of nitrogen. side dress with well decomposed livestock manure.
Once the garlic is harvested, quickly cover the area with a new crop. This new crop is often called a catch cover crop. It will use the remaining nutrients and recycle them back into the soil with the help of microbes. I use buckwheat as soon as the garlic is out. I then broadcast fall rye into the standing crop of buckwheat in September. A week later I mow the buckwheat high. Alternatively, I use a weed eater to knock it down. This allows the rye seeds to grow through the buckwheat stalks. If equipment is limited, I suggest that you grow a cover crop. It should winter kill but will still hold the soil from rain and wind erosion during the winter. The best and cheapest choice would be oats.
