Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Garlic is planted.

Dibber and garlic
Sunday was Canadian Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. What have I got to be thankful for...everything. Family, friends, cats, my garden and yard, a cute house, my store and I get to live on Vancouver Island in Sidney. I am so grateful for my life.
Better safe than sorry

 It was really hot. Really hot. I got out my trusty garden fork and stirred six bags of chicken manure into the garden where the garlic was going in. A lot of work but worth it. I had to move the kale and Brussels Sprouts out of that bed into the lasagna garden. I used a measuring tape to line the garlic up beautifully and evenly six inches apart, and used a dibber for the first time in my life. How on earth does anyone get garlic planted without one? It is now one of my favorite tools. There are ridges cut into the dibber to measure inches. I made the holes two inches deep. Some of the cloves were so huge that I needed to make them about an inch deeper and wider. Some were truly huge. I carefully labeled the rows this year. Last year I didn't keep track at all. I just threw the two or three types that Jim gave me in willy nilly. So while I think what I planted yesterday was Music and Red Russian, I may have two or three types from last year and not just Red Russian. Oh well, as long as it's garlic and grows well, I am truly happy with that.
Finished garlic planting
My first batch of turkey soup. It is more delicious than
it looks in this picture. 

7 comments:

Gardeningbren said...

All the little baby garlic bubels that fell from the scapes are up about six inches. Using those as garlic greens in salads. I figure, taking a cue from mother nature, it is time to plant garlic!! Timely post Erin..reminds me to get a move on.

Erin said...

I love how your mind works Brenda. It felt amazing to get it planted. I was really meticulous with it. Six inches apart and I used a tape measure. I just wanted to be precise. It felt good. I'm not usually really picky about things like that....but this time it really worked for me. Have I mentioned how much I love gardening.

I spent some time today shopping for natural healthy GMO free products. It isn't easy really. It is a lot of work...but I have time. :-)

Sarah Shoesmith said...

Let's hope that by planting huge cloves, you'll get a massive crop of garlic.

I prefer to measure between the cloves. It helps me to find the bulbs if the leaves have completely died off by the time I harvest the garlic. You are not being picky - just planning ahead for harvest time.

Mark Willis said...

Very scientific planting, Erin. I like some ORDER in the garden!

Erin said...

Thank you Mark. I am coming around to see that order is important. Also, I just love the way your garden looks. So beautiful.

Diana Studer said...

bit nervous. Your handwritten label says - music garlic, DON'T eat!

Erin said...

I just got up and saw this and thought, oh no, something is wrong with Music Garlic!!?? (we are in the middle of a huge food recall in canada) Then I had a sip of coffee...and realized you meant the note. Bwahahaha. I honestly should have my own tv show.
I had the garlic harvest in dishes on the counter, then there were the big ones I picked out and had separate, and finally in a dish by itself, were the new Music Garlic I purchased. My husband does a lot of the cooking...tada, note to prevent us eating of mixing up the precious Music.