Garlic order arrived on Thursday! My DH built an awesome Canine and Evil Bunny Proof fence around my garden and little orchard ( approx. 50 x 75 ft x 6 ft tall) and I am just chomping at the bit to get to SPRING when I can fill it with massive greenery - so I will start with garlic! The weather sure feels like Spring around here - temps in the high 80's/low 90's nights in the high 50's - definitely has me with "Spring Planting Fever".
I again ordered from http://www.TheGarlicStore.com and, as my order from last year, the bulbs are large and fresh. Last year I ordered two samplers as an experiment for my first garlic growing adventures - a hard neck and a soft neck set. Even discounting the dogs stepping on them, the hard necks definitely out performed the soft necks here, so this year I ordered mostly hard necks. I haven't developed a preference, yet, as far as tastes go - they were ALL So Much Better than what you get at the grocery store. Doesn't matter that some don't store well - we only have 4 cloves left from this year's harvest, and I am thinking some of those will get eaten with today's BBQ and garlic bread!
What are your favorites? Here's what I ordered for this year:
Georgian Crystal
Siberian
Bogatyr
Korean Red
Polish Hardneck
and as a free bonus, Kettle River Giant
I was concerned about moving to the High Desert a few years ago, but since we have a reliable well with a lake and river charged aquifer, it appears I can pretty much grow anything here - just add compost, mulch, mulch, mulch and water. And now that the dogs and rabbits have been fenced out, maybe more of it will make it to human consumption :-)
Fall Garlic Planting
I am trying some Garlic this fall as well. I ordered from Gourmet Garlic Gardens. I got German Stiffneck, Rosewood, Romanian Red, & Georgia Fire. I am anxious to try these different varities.
You've got me thinking, now... from the growing info at The Garlic Store, it sounds like I'd be harvesting by or before early July, which means I'd then be able to plant cucumbers or green beans in that spot. (Due to multiple cucumber disasters, I ended up planting out cucumbers in July this year... and they did well, so maybe late planting is the trick to escaping the blight that they get here.)
All those varieties... how does one choose?
I wonder if I need to pick varieties that like it "warm" rather than "cold"....
This is fun. Thanks!
There are "creol" garlics that like it hot and humid, and, from what I understand, most garlic with put up with a fair amount of the cold stuff. In z6b/7a high desert, we harvested end of June this year. ... I too, was cuke challenged this year - I have two that I started at the end of July since most years frost doesn't come until mid Oct. They are vining and have pretty flowers - but no fruit - I think they don't like our 40*F nights (even though the days are still in the mid80's up to 90). Well, they are cute and they are green and they are flowering their little hearts out (and my granddaughter thinks they are "berry, berry pretty"), so I say, they are a success ;-)
"All those varieties..." - that's why I ended up with a softneck and a hardneck sampler last year - couldn't choose!
Georgia Fire - I love it - I know they probably mean "Georgia in Russia", but I have a soft spot for All Things Southern, and in particular, from Georgia :-)
I was looking at those hot ones too, for DH... Georgia Fire caught my attention... I lived in GA for a while, thought of it as my adoptive "home state." :-)
I am Asian and from CA, but always wanted to be Celtic and from The South... so I married a good ol' Irish boy from GA the first time around and a first generation Scot who grew up in TN the second (and last) time around - and my daughters were both born in GA. So I am Celtic by association and gave birth to Southerners - close enough :-) Not sure how I ended up in the Nevada Desert, but I love it here. Maybe it's just the wide, open spaces.
Some garlic inspiration: fall planting order 2007 http://kmom246.icfsc.com/garlic091507.htm
part of the summer 2007 harvest (scroll to bottom) http://kmom246.icfsc.com/herbs071507.htm
kmom, all I can think of from your first post is the Monty Python evil rabbit. "Oh, he's just a wee bunny now, isn't he?" Good luck with the garlic in the high desert. We've enjoyed growing Bogatyr and Porcelain and Music and a few others which I can't remember right now. We went to a garlic festival over Labor Day and got "Italian" to plant this year. mmmm...roasted garlic mashed potatoes!
From Seed Savers Exchange, I just received a sampler package that includes 2 heads each:
Music
Shvelisi (Chesnok Red)
Inchelium Red
Chet's Italian Red
Bogatyr
Samarkand (Persian Star)
German Extra Hardy
Broadleaf Czech
Chrysalis Purple
and 1 Elephant Garlic.
They don't say whether hard neck or soft neck on the packages and I haven't had time to look them up. I will plant them after the first frost here.
I absolutely love garlic and I've decided to try for the first time this year. Actually, I'm just now starting to do any gardening, so I feel quite overwhelmed. I chose two varieties to grow in a half whisky barrel: the standard grocery variety and Elephant. I've heard both are pretty good for starters. I was just heading out to plant them and realized I don't know what to do! Hehe... Oye.
??? So I have these great big garlic bulbs, do I stick the entire thing in one whole or am I supposed to split the cloves up and plant each of those?
Plant each clove, about 4" apart and 2-3" deep. Mulch with 6" of mulch for winter protection.
Ohh... well I hope my container is big enough.
You're going to have a lot of garlic! Yummy, someday maybe I'll be brave enough to experiment with some of those. ; )
music garlic --- very hot
spanish roja ---- very tasty
First Hard Frost this morning :-( End of the tomatoes - but - got the rest of the garlicin the ground today, except for one bulb. So far that means I have about 90 cloves in the ground. My expectations are pretty low, since between my neglect and the challenging High Desert, it is good to not be overly optimistic... still, I can't help but hope that at 70%, I'll get about 60 yummy bulbs next June? I feel like an expectant Mom with 9 more months to go - is it real? Will I really have 60 or more pungent, yummy, "stinking roses" in nine months?!
kTalia, you might want to plant the Elephant garlic closer to the center of your wine barrel - it is actually a leek and not a true garlic and does not take cold as well. Real garlic will probably not have an issue being cold from the top and the side (mine did not last year - had them in raised beds, and the north side of the bed got pretty chilly, I am sure).