A few weeks ago, I moved the raised bed in the corner of the farmer’s field further to the west so as to waste less of the space available to me. I intend to add more raised beds in the remaining space in the spring.

The field slopes quite a bit more at that point, so the soil in the box needed topping up, which I did yesterday afternoon with the tractor.

Today, I planted the garlic in four north/south columns, beginning from the west side and leaving a 2″ margin before the first column. Cloves are spaced 5″ apart within a column with a 2.5″ margin at the top and bottom.

This allows for 24 rows, which I planted as follows, beginning at the south end and working my way towards the driveway:

  1. Leningrad, 3 rows
  2. Metechi, 2 rows
  3. Portugal #1, 2 rows
  4. Portugal #2, 2 rows
  5. Irkutsk, 2 rows
  6. Leningrad, 3 rows
  7. Metechi, 2 rows
  8. Portugal #1, 3 rows
  9. Portugal #2, 1 row
  10. Irkutsk, 1 row
  11. Leningrad, 3 rows.

The types are interspersed so that in the event of a problem in one part of the bed, the entire harvest for that type is less likely to fail.