Leaves

It's time to plant our garlic again. Bed prep is proceeding at a good pace. The seed garlic is waiting. We have some Korean Red, Ukrainian Red, and Elephant garlic going in this fall. Last year we had a lot of problem with mulch. Some beds didn't get any and we had a lot of loss due to frost heave. Other beds were mulched with straw. It didn't breakdown over the winter and was quite a mess to work through or remove in the spring. This year the plan is to use leaves. I've used them before and there great. But, we don't have any trees, so we have to go begging for leaves. A few neighbors have offered to give us all theirs if we will come get them when ever they have them raked up. Otherwise they will burn them. The past few days folks have been showing up at odd times to inform us that their leaves are ready if we would like to come get them. The pile of 50 gallon trash bags stuffed with leaves is getting quite large. They will make great mulch, and a nice addition to our garden soil. It does feel a bit strange to be excited about hauling someone else's leaves home, but we are. Next years garlic seems destine for greatness with all this community input.