Weather Where You Are

[Zeedman]

Could you plant them in containers outside? Garlic is such a tough plant. I have been known to plant in November with a pick to make holes in frozen soil. They grew and did fine in spite of my less than stellar gardening.

I actually did that one year... went out with a cordless drill & auger bit to drill through the frozen ground. Other than a little higher winter kill than normal, the garlic didn't do badly. It might come to that this year.

But while garlic is tough in regard to temperature, it has a weakness - waterlogged soil. The biggest problem with all of my garden plots is that they are on low, poorly drained ground. Add to that the fact that heavy rainfall in recent years has saturated the ground in Spring, and its a recipe for dead or under-sized garlic. The soil is very fertile; if I could just hill the row (or if the rainfall would lessen) the garlic would do wonderfully. I had five really great years of garlic, before (a) disease wiped out all garlic in Wisconsin; and (b) the wet weather pattern began.

The bed where the garlic will be planted was fallow all summer, and cultivated several times for weed control. All I need is for the ground to get dry enough for me to hill the row, and all should be well.

This was what my garlic looked like in the good years, just before planting:

 

[flowerbug]

I actually did that one year... went out with a cordless drill & auger bit to drill through the frozen ground. Other than a little higher winter kill then normal, the garlic didn't do badly. It might come to that this year.

But while garlic is tough in regard to temperature, it has a weakness - waterlogged soil. The biggest problem with all of my garden plots is that they are on low, poorly drained ground. Add to that the fact that heavy rainfall in recent years has saturated the ground in Spring, and its a recipe for dead or under-sized garlic. The soil is very fertile; if I could just hill the row (or if the rainfall would lessen) the garlic would do wonderfully. I had five really great years of garlic, before (a) disease wiped out all garlic in Wisconsin; and (b) the wet weather pattern began.

The bed where the garlic will be planted was fallow all summer, and cultivated several times for weed control. All I need is for the ground to get dry enough for me to hill the row, and all should be well.

This was what my garlic looked like in the good years, just before planting:
View attachment 28822

if you can hill it then that means trenches too. go a few extra shovels full and have deeper trenches.

you would think that in our mostly clay soil and high water table during a lot of the winters/springs would do in the garlic, but i have a patch out back in the NE garden that i'm trying to get out of there and haven't managed it yet. when i have enough time in the spring (rare the past few years) i'll dig up as much as i can for green garlic eating.

i brought in the last of the garlic from the garage a few days ago. i decided i should do something different this year with the extra garlic (usually i peel it and then grind it coarsely and drench it with lemon juice and then freeze it in small jars) so i'm going to peel it, cut it into small chunks and dehydrate it.

i planted 20 cloves this season. a small amount compared to the several hundred i used to do. i still need to get all that other garden cleared and have no incentive to do it if i keep growing it in the other places...

 

[Carol Dee]

It was BRUTALY Windy here yesterday. Nearly stripped the trees bare. We may not get a lot of fall color now.

 

[digitS']

That's quite a picture, @Carol Dee !



I'm not trying to be smug ... lets see if we can find those guys looking smug ... No, our quiet Autumn weather has resulted in both beautiful foliage and bad air!

I don't know if any wildfires are involved in that -- one of the real terrible firestorms we had was at this time of year about 30 years ago. But, those fires needed high winds to push them. I think that this foul air is just from all the cars crowding this valley.

Yesterday, I had a lot of exercise digging out beds in the little garden. This enduring cough/sinus problem/whatever it is -- isn't going away with this behavior.

Steve

 

[canesisters]

Walked out of the theatre last night to SCARY wind gusts, spitting rain & a crowd of people panicking like a tornado was dropping on us.
(Lancaster PA)

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

85 in Medford OR yesterday. Today will be 81. But my tomatoes are crisping up and dying due to the mid 30's at night.

 

[digitS']

Ain’t those temperature swings something, @murphysranch ?

Hard on plants

Hey, now that you have lived near Medford for awhile: do you know where the South Medford High School is? There was no such school 60 years ago! That was our cow pasture.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

It was BRUTALY Windy here yesterday. Nearly stripped the trees bare. We may not get a lot of fall color now. View attachment 28823

perhaps good to help dry things out...

 

[flowerbug]

a little windy today, and cool, but most importantly, it didn't rain... no rain in the forecast for the next week. first time in a month and a half it seems. 40s-50s most days, some sun, cold at night. not all nights frozen. i may get something done this week.

 

[ninnymary]

I actually did that one year... went out with a cordless drill & auger bit to drill through the frozen ground. Other than a little higher winter kill than normal, the garlic didn't do badly. It might come to that this year.

But while garlic is tough in regard to temperature, it has a weakness - waterlogged soil. The biggest problem with all of my garden plots is that they are on low, poorly drained ground. Add to that the fact that heavy rainfall in recent years has saturated the ground in Spring, and its a recipe for dead or under-sized garlic. The soil is very fertile; if I could just hill the row (or if the rainfall would lessen) the garlic would do wonderfully. I had five really great years of garlic, before (a) disease wiped out all garlic in Wisconsin; and (b) the wet weather pattern began.

The bed where the garlic will be planted was fallow all summer, and cultivated several times for weed control. All I need is for the ground to get dry enough for me to hill the row, and all should be well.

This was what my garlic looked like in the good years, just before planting:
View attachment 28822

You plant all that garlic?

Mary