It was a nice day to day, and I was able to take a bit of time out from my teaching and marking schedule, so I made a start on the garlic planting. I had originally planned to do it during Reading Week (the week of Thanksgiving), but I had so much marking to catch up on that it just didn’t happen.

My harvest this year was pitiful, so I bought new starter bulbs from Golden Acres garlic farm. I spent a half or so going through the bags and breaking up some bulbs into cloves to come up with a preliminary plan. I have some bulbs left of each variety if I decide to plant more.

So today, I decided to start with the Leningrad variety and set aside 30 cloves. I planted it in two places (just like with stocks, it’s a good idea to diversify!):

  • behind the house, in a patch which I started this year for tomatoes and lettuce, I planted two rows from east to west of 9 cloves each spaced 6″ apart and with 16″ between the rows to allow for the mini-tiller to pass through, and
  • in the triangular area south of our driveway kindly on loan to me by our neighbours, I planted the remaining 12 cloves south of and parallel to the parsnips which I planted there earlier this year (which I am leaving to overwinter as it improves the flavour tremendously). The spacing between cloves was also 6″, and this was new ‘garlic territory’.

Depending on weather and time, I’ll continue with the remaining varieties, which should fit in the southern tip of the triangle, again in a spot I’ve never planted garlic before.

In the past, when I had more space at my disposal, I practiced crop rotation fairly diligently, but I haven’t the last few years, and it shows: the cloves have been infested. I don’t use any kinds of repellents, so this is to be expected to some extent; but I’m hoping to have some decent return next summer.