October 15
Today, I planted the following garlic, from south to north, and where there are multiple varieties in a row, from west to east:
- Persian Star (GA1), 40 bulbs in 4 rows (east/west) of 10 cloves
- In 4 rows of 18 cloves
- Choparsky, 24 cloves over the first 6 of each row
- Irkutsk, 24 cloves over the middle 6 of each row
- Siberian, 24 cloves over the last 6 of each row
- In 4 rows of 18 cloves
- Portugal #1 (Azores; GA1), 24 cloves over the first 6 of each row
- Duganski, 24 cloves over the middle 6 of each row
- Portugal #2 (GA1), 24 cloves over the last 6 of each row
- Leningrad (GA1), 52 cloves in 4 rows of 13 cloves.
‘GA1’ means ‘Golden Acres first generation’ meaning that I bought them from the farm and am planting them for the first time. The other garlic is either GA2 or from my friend Bob Litke. I’ll have to check my records to see which is which.
Tomorrow I have to be at work, and it is supposed to rain through the weekend. I’m at the office Monday, and in Chicago at a conference from Tuesday through the following Sunday, so anything more will unfortunately have to wait. Let’s hope the weather holds. But at least I’ve got the most important items planted! That’s 236 garlic plants so far 🙂
October 17th
I was away in town on the 16th, and it rained last night. It was supposed to rain today but so far it has not–so although the ground is quite wet, it’s good planting weather. Cool but not cold.
So today, I’ve planted a column to the east of the main block 4 cloves wide[1. Edit 8 May 2015: somehow it appears that the blocks are in fact 6 cloves wide, for groups of 36. Just as well, since the survival rate in light of frequent weather changes and water on the garden was not that good.] in groups of 24 (so 6 mini-rows per group). From north to south, these are:
- No Name Beauty (meaning that Bob Litke, who gave them to me, had lost track of their origin; but in a good season, they give huge bulbs which taste great)
- Carpathian
- Brussels (these were in a bad spot, so I harvested just enough to plant this group)
- Korean Red
- Killarney Red
- Brown Tempest.
This takes me to the border zone, so I’m going to leave a big gap as per the plan for the spring and plant what I have left in another column on the right (east) edge of my garden.
Then I planted another column at the eastmost edge of the planting area organized similarly to the first.[2. Edit 8 May 2015: this column seems to indeed have been 4 cloves wide, as stated.] I had the following varieties:
- Leningrad
- Portugal #1
- Portugal #2
- Thai Turban
- Duganski
- Asian Tempest.
All of today’s plantings were from this year’s harvest, 288 plants.
Summary
Altogether, this makes 524 plants 🙂
I dispensed with Belarus since it wasn’t overly productive. Let’s see how next year’s harvest fares. I’ll have to remember to harvest more quickly so that the bulbs don’t start to crack!