This year marks the second year that I planted garlic in my backyard garden! Last year was such an amazing success, I was very happy to repeat the process.
What kind of garlic should you plant?
The most important kind of garlic to plant is the kind that you enjoy eating! We are big garlic eaters at our house, so between the garlic varieties I planted last year coupled with our membership in the Modern Heritage Farm CSA, we’ve had the opportunity to try out several – and enjoyed them all.
When is the right time to plant?
Here in Hodgenville, KY, I am situated firmly in Hardiness Zone 6. According to the Almanac, planting after the fall Equinox is best. My goal was a warm night after Halloween but before Thanksgiving. For 2021, that was tonight! The past few months I’ve been saving cloves for the express purpose of planting. The large ones in the bowl are a variety of Music garlic. It grows majestic scapes, gigantic cloves, and it was very easy to care for in the garden last year.
How exactly do you plant garlic?
This is the super easy part! I grow in a Ruth Stout style garden, so we keep the beds inundated with leaves and spent hay throughout the year. (Lucky for us, the alpacas, goats, and sheep also add bonus fertilizer!) To plant, I simply spread open the top layer of spent hay, add in some hefty handfuls of composted microgreen soil, and then I planted the garlic cloves root down/ pointy tip up about 2-3″ deep and 6″ or so apart. I mixed up the varieties when I planted, in case some of them didn’t sprout next year. Since it gets dark so early now, this isn’t the best “after” photo – but I wanted to show off the planted garlic bed. Right now, the spent hay is close to 12″ deep, and my garlic row is close to 10′ long.
Now what?
At this point, we wait for spring. The little green shoots will pop out from under their winter covers early in the season.
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