The tomatoes are looking like skeletons, the cucurbits are covered in powdery mildew and it’s time to say goodbye to warm season crops and clear the way for the final flavors of the season and then the dormancy of winter.
One of my favorite closing rituals to the growing season is the planting of garlic. In this climate, we plant garlic in the fall: October or even early November. We nestle those ivory teeth into the still pliable earth and cover them with a nice blanket of mulch.
The garlic will hunker down over the winter, establishing its roots and go dormant with the freeze, but with the first thawing of spring it will send up a brave green shoot, followed by a swan necked garlic scape in June and, with some help from above, a nice fat head of garlic in July.
While you can plant just about any garlic that is not rotten or desiccated, Edible Eden sources Organic garlic seed that is disease free and variety specific to get our best shot at an abundant harvest next summer. Contact us today to get in our garlic planting schedule!