Grow Getters & Mad Potters (Gardening Thread)

[SnapdragonQ]

Sometimes I have planted garlic as late as Jan and it still does well, but usually I plant about the time that one would plant Tulips. Early to mid November up north, Dec down here.

I often will mulch the beds with leaves, or whatever I have on hand, to keep the temps as stable as possible to limit late season growth (which garlic will do) and in the spring as soon as I see the daffodils poking up I'll rake the mulch to the side and leave it.

Garlic loves a lot of organic material and appreciates being mulched. That's really all there is to growing garlic besides not eating it all next year so you can replant it again.
Garlic is remarkably adaptable and I've been growing from the same bulb sets I first bought in 2006.

 

[Compost King]

Sometimes I have planted garlic as late as Jan and it still does well, but usually I plant about the time that one would plant Tulips. Early to mid November up north, Dec down here.

I often will mulch the beds with leaves, or whatever I have on hand, to keep the temps as stable as possible to limit late season growth (which garlic will do) and in the spring as soon as I see the daffodils poking up I'll rake the mulch to the side and leave it.

Garlic loves a lot of organic material and appreciates being mulched. That's really all there is to growing garlic besides not eating it all next year so you can replant it again.
Garlic is remarkably adaptable and I've been growing from the same bulb sets I first bought in 2006.

This is much appreciated, its my first fall/winter I am growing Garlic. It also gives me a little more time to prepare my bed as I am falling behind on my chores. I built a greenhouse that is sucking up all my time an interest.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

This is much appreciated, its my first fall/winter I am growing Garlic. It also gives me a little more time to prepare my bed as I am falling behind on my chores. I built a greenhouse that is sucking up all my time an interest.

I envy your greenhouse!

Long time ago I lived in western NC and think you could probably get away with not planting garlic until Christmas. Are you planting hard neck or soft neck varieties? This also might play into planting time. Up north they both were planted the same time, but in your location it might be a tad bit different.

And they will do a little better if you plant a little bit further apart because sometimes the roots can be bigger than you think, and go closer to 4 inches deep. This also helps with them not pushing out growth too early, like during warm winter spells.

 

[FortCluck]

This is much appreciated, its my first fall/winter I am growing Garlic. It also gives me a little more time to prepare my bed as I am falling behind on my chores. I built a greenhouse that is sucking up all my time an interest.

I hear you on that. We just adopted a dog so we are spending a lot of time trying to train her and just take care of her because she came here in very rough shape. I’m glad they rescued her!

 

[TJAnonymous]

Thought I'd hop on and post an update.... Been a while since I was on this thread. I think my husband and mother think I've lost my marbles...ha ha. In the past several months, I've gone a little overboard on "let's see if I can grow xxxx." Mostly picking up stuff from the grocery store to try to grow from seed for little or nothing - lemons, pomegranates, plums, apples, blueberries, kiwi, garlic, etc.... I have also been on an ordering binge. I've ordered vanilla orchid, chokeberries, blueberry bushes, raspberries, and a crap ton of trees. The hard part is waiting the 1 - 5 years before anything really produces on a sufficient level....and trying not to let it die in the meantime. *sigh*

Oooo...almost forgot that I also ordered a bunch of flower seeds and some unique vegetable seeds for the spring garden.

 

[Sally PB]

I've gone a little overboard on "let's see if I can grow xxxx.

Oh, yeah, I can relate! It gets really bad when the garden catalogs start coming in the mail. Some of them are flat out garden porn with their beautiful photographs. I do like to try a few new things every year. Some keepers, some I won't waste the space on again.

As far as garlic goes, I got mine from a local farmer's market two years ago. It's a hard neck variety -- Music -- and the bonus is that in the spring I get garlic scapes! Music grows really big cloves, but only 4-5 per bulb. I sort out the biggest ones to plant for the next year, and eat the smaller ones. Friends love the garlic I give them and marvel at the big cloves. I tell them, nah, those are the little ones. Then I show them pics of the big ones.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I don't think I know that variety.... I will have to look for it! I picked up two different types of garlic from the store. One was organic, the other was not. I wasn't sure if the non-organic would germinate but so far everything I planted came up nicely...

Right now I'm babying 6 lemon tree seedlings, 8 pomegranate tree seedlings, 3 plum seedlings, and 2 apple tree seedlings. I will wait until spring before planting them outside...

The kiwi from seed was a crap shoot. I don't think any of it will germinate. Thinking about buying some cuttings... I really want some gold kiwi in particular.... It is absolutely amazing! I saved a source for a female cutting on Etsy. Just need to find a suitable male! ☺

 

[fuentemoon]

Hello, found a read this thread last night, heading into mostly winter cleanup mode here, but hoping to get some bulbs planted. We have a collard green plant that looks like a tree still going strong and lots of new mustard greens that dont mind the frosty mornings. Thinking about building some cold frames to keep growing a bit longer, but we will what we get done before it is just too cold and wet.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Here's my new strawberry bed. Got the tires for free. Old tires are safe for gardening because toxic chemicals are inert unless burned or otherwise released. It takes millenia for them to break down in the sun so there should be no danger. Anyway, I planted used Simply Lemonade bottles in the middle (with holes in the bottom on all 4 sides) to make them self watering and then transplanted my strawberry plants. I will plant my alpine strawberries in the top in the spring. I cut up old Layer pellets feed bags to use as weed barrier underneath. They make EXCELLENT weed barrier cloth, btw.

Here's my new raspberry raised bed. I had hubby cut up a sheet of corrugated metal roofing and attach it to simple square support frames. I put down 6 inches of used straw bedding from the barn as an effective weed barrier. Then I added some old rotten logs and small limbs. These break down into GREAT compost and take up some space to save a little on soil. Next I added jugs with holes in the bottom on all 4 sides to make self watering containers. Then added dirt (amended top soil with peat humus, peat moss, and manure compost). Lastly I transplanted my red raspberries. Going to plant gold raspberries on the other side in the spring.

 

[Kusanar]

Here's my new strawberry bed. Got the tires for free. Old tires are safe for gardening because toxic chemicals are inert unless burned or otherwise released. It takes millenia for them to break down in the sun so there should be no danger. Anyway, I planted used Simply Lemonade bottles in the middle (with holes in the bottom on all 4 sides) to make them self watering and then transplanted my strawberry plants. I will plant my alpine strawberries in the top in the spring. I cut up old Layer pellets feed bags to use as weed barrier underneath. They make EXCELLENT weed barrier cloth, btw.

View attachment 2408409

Here's my new raspberry raised bed. I had hubby cut up a sheet of corrugated metal roofing and attach it to simple square support frames. I put down 6 inches of used straw bedding from the barn as an effective weed barrier. Then I added some old rotten logs and small limbs. These break down into GREAT compost and take up some space to save a little on soil. Next I added jugs with holes in the bottom on all 4 sides to make self watering containers. Then added dirt (amended top soil with peat humus, peat moss, and manure compost). Lastly I transplanted my red raspberries. Going to plant gold raspberries on the other side in the spring.

View attachment 2408421

Very nice. I'm using cinderblocks I found in the woods for the walls of my garden. I need to spray the dirt out of the holes of a few of them, but most are empty and mostly clean. End goal is to get the garden built up 2 cinderblocks high (or around 16 inches) and fill the holes in the blocks with soil to plant things like strawberries and flowers in. May actually lay some of the top blocks on their sides so the holes are on the side of the wall, not the top and put strawberries in sideways so they kind of hang down the wall. We'll see. I have quite a ways to go, only about 3 inches above natural soil level so far.