Garlic - All I have left to plant is the elephant garlic. Last year we planted about 200 plants. This year we will plant about 1000. We lost a lot of garlic last year because we didn't mulch it properly. We had a lot of freeze/thaw cycles and many of the bulbs got heaved out of the ground and then dehydrated and frozen when the temp dropped to -15. This year we will be mulching deeper to help eliminate that problem. We are using leaves for mulch, which I have used other places with great results. Unfortunately, we don't have any trees on our property. Our neighbors, who are blessed with several rather large maples, have come through for us. They have given us all their leaves. All we had to do was go bag them and haul them home. So far we have 15 fifty gallon trash bags stomped as tightly as we could fill them. That should be a pretty good start.
This bin is 8 feet across, it holds a lot of leaves. Plus there are 6 more bags in the back of the truck.
This is the elephant garlic harvested earlier this fall. Planting picts will get posted later.
Trees - Since our property was completely treeless when we moved in we have been planting trees when ever we could. This past week we got 20 or so from M. Mostly oak and beach, with a few surprises thrown in. Eventually we will return some of our space to the forest, but it will be years before these little sticks get that big.
4 comments:
I thought it was the right time to plant garlic, but others told me to plant in the spring. I'll add that to my list.
You'll be surprised at just how quickly some of your trees will take hold and grow. Poplars (one of my favorites) consistently grow 5' a year. :) You've been busy bees at Robert's Roost!
Wow...now I feel really lazy!
That's a timely reminder for me to decide what trees I want to plant this year. I did have a 5 year planting plan but I think it's rather heavy on oak and I might be better putting in a bit more ash for firewood. I'm probably going to plant another 200 this year.
I've garlic waiting to go in too if I ever get over these colds - I can't even smell the bulbs at the moment!
Like jack-of-all-thumbs, I've been confused over planting times. As far as I can see it is dependant on your area and the variety you are planting. Here the purple variety I'm using is for planting from now until December, while the rose variety is plant December to February.
I tried planting both colours but not both the same varieties in the spring but the weather was so awful that the results were very disappointing.
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