Garlic

Garlic Bed

With the snow gone, I've finally gotten a look at the garlic lurking in the garden!  I'm so excited, this is my first time growing garlic.  Nearly all of the bulbs I planted seem to have made it through the winter unscathed.  They are a little hard to make out under all the straw and leaf mulch, but it helps keep them protected from freeze/thaw cycles during the winter.  Everything in this bed came from local farmers markets, and is a mix of German Red and German Extra Hardy, with a handful of shallots thrown in to see how they do.

Yumm!

I planted this around Columbus day, and it involved separating the bulbs into individual cloves, then picking the largest cloves to plant and cooking the rest!  I've read that the larger the clove, the larger the bulb the following year.  Since the planting, I've heard that it's a good idea to soak them in a water/baking soda solution to ensure that it kills any lurking diseases, guess I will try that next year.

I'll be watching this garlic experiment closely, but if it works out as well as I hope, this may just be the easiest thing I grow all year!