Planting Garlic

After a few weeks of hemming and hawing over whether or not to order garlic bulbs online, I took the plunge and ordered some White Sicilian softneck garlic bulbs from Seeds of Change on Tuesday.  I thought about planting garlic from bulbs picked up at the farmer's market, but I wanted to know exactly what I was planting.  I am thinking about getting some from the market anyway and using them for companion planting around the garden in case the other garlic doesn't work out.  Anyway, this is what showed up in the mail today!

It even came with planting and harvesting instructions!

I also ordered sweet corn, bush beans, and echinacea seeds for next spring.

But back to the garlic.  Yesterday, in anticipation of the garlic arrival, I pulled out one of the remaining zucchini plants that hadn't produced anything in two months.  Today I added a layer of compost and loosened the soil down about a foot.  I pulled apart all the cloves from the garlic bulbs, leaving the paper intact around each clove, and laid them on the soil about 6" apart to see how much room I needed in the bed.

Then I placed each clove about 2" down into the soil with the pointed end facing up.

I covered them back up with soil and added several inches of straw.  Leaves would work just as well, but I happen to have lots of straw around for the chickens.

And sometime late next spring or early summer, I should have 24 garlic bulbs to braid for the kitchen!