Farming has its elements of convenience and inconvenience. I love the convenience we have now with living right on the property that we will be farming. It is convenient to grow our own food. The inconvenience comes with weather, the timing of planting and harvesting. For the purpose of this belated Health & Garden Tuesday, I will be covering the inconvenience of planting garlic.
The inconvenience comes in the form of waiting for the first frost and getting the garlic in the ground at the right time. How do I know what the right time is? My timing in most things is not the greatest. In the case of garlic, which is usually planted in the fall for a spring harvest, it is a mixed bag. My timing for ordering our garlic was actually very good. I had fun picking out a few varieties of garlic and making my purchase, but we are just getting to tilling, planting and mulching our 7 or 8 lbs of garlic. I fear if my timing is off it will ruin the quality and quantity of garlic we harvest next year. My inexperience makes me second guess myself no matter how many times I read over the planting recommendations. I am hoping we can complete this little project this week….but at the rate we finish things….hmmm….but it has to get done soon.
Nevertheless, I am excited! I am still a little shell shocked that we are actually farming our “own” land. It still doesn’t seem real. It has been three and a half months since we moved here and the farming aspect is not being lived out in full capacity. After all, we moved at the end of the growing season here in Illinois. At least the growing season for outside. There are many farmers who have high tunnels which allows them to extend their growing season….but that is a whole other topic!
Here’s to hoping the weather stays in the 50’s so we can get our garlic into the ground!
You should still be ok…providing you get it in soon… and mulch over it so that it is safe from frost! I planted mine in October and because it was so warm here…the bulbs have already sprouted (which I have read is ok…) but still it is disconcerting… I am planning to mulch soon…Good luck! If you have any questions I found that emailing the university of Illinois horticulture department…they know our climate and are very good at responding to emails!
Thanks, Magen! I wondered how yours was doing since we ordered at the same time and I knew you’d get yours in the ground before me!
Great to know abot the extension office.
R needs to work on our mantis and then if it works I should be able to get the garlic planted on Saturday when it is suppose to be in the 60s. Today it is freezing so it had better warm up! IL weather, eh?
I know you will get a great crop!…and yes the Illinois extension is great! They also have a great resource and people to email on canning/preserving that I refer to all the time!
I love planting garlic! The first time I planted it I had a great crop. The second time, not so much! I do agree that the timing can be a little hard, plus I am definitely a novice gardener so I’m still learning the ropes!
I grew vegetables this year for the first time. My cherry tomatoes were a success. I have never though of growing garlic, but a great idea since I use it often.
Got my garlic in about three weeks ago and hoping for good results. Great idea contacting the extension office.
I don’t know what it is with me and gardening but I am horrible. My husband calls it the black thumb of death. Everything seems to die that I plant. Sigh! I would love to have a full garden and I would love to plant garlic. I love cooking with garlic!
My in-laws have tons of garlic in their garden. Which means I get a lot of fresh garlic.
I love planting garlic, I also do it right on the window sill so it pops up early spring.
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