Spring can't be far behind!!

Oh my, it is that time of year.  It is cold outside, the ground is moist from all the rain, and it is time to plant next season's garlic.

Garlic is one of the bulbs that is best planted in the winter, usually during the coldest weather.  This year the planting area for the garlic was covered with at least sixty year old manure.  How does one know the manure is that old, well since there have not been any livestock on the farm for that long one have to say it is true.

This is my wife at the start of the row of garlic.  This year the crop will "MUSIC" garlic obtained from an organic farm in Vermont.  The other row was purchased from our local Kroger store and was listed as heirloom garlic from California.  It is going to be interesting to see which produces the best garlic.  The organic produced garlic is supposedly a little hotter garlic.  Take the garlic bulbs and break them apart so you have the cloves.  Take each clove and plant the pointed side up.  Each clove will produce one bulb of garlic.  If you look hard enough, you will see several wire cages in the background behind my wife.  This will be several American Hybrid Chestnut trees being grown from nuts.  More about that in another posting.

When covering the cloves, cover about 2 to 4 inches deep and then cover with hay or straw to keep the moisture in during the winter.  Garlic is a hearty plant and survives the cold weather extremely well. 

Deer do not like garlic or for that matter onions.  Last year a couple of the garlic shoots were bitten off by the deer and one could see the bite off shoot laying next to the row.  Must have been too bitter for the creatures.  They eat enough of the other vegetables grown in the garden so a fence will be built around the perimeter this year to keep them out.