Plant Garlic This Fall and Harvest It Next July

Most of the garden is winding down right now. The tomatoes are getting leggy, the squash has powdery mildew, and you’re probably spending more time pulling spent plants than putting new ones in. This is exactly when you should be planting garlic.

Garlic runs on the opposite schedule from most of the garden. You plant it in fall, it grows roots before winter, sits quietly through the cold months, and then comes back to life early in spring. By July, you’re digging up full heads. Here’s how to do it right.

When do you actually plant garlic in the fall?

I wouldn’t get too hung up on one exact planting date. What matters more is giving the cloves time to grow roots before winter really sets in. A common target is roughly 4 to 6 weeks before the ground freezes hard, though your timing will depend quite a bit on where you live. The Old Farmer’s Almanac gives a useful backstop: wait until after the fall equinox in late September rather than planting while the soil is still warm.

In colder northern zones, roughly 3 to 5, that often means late September through October. In zones 6 and 7, mid-October into November is common. Gardeners in zone 8 and warmer may not plant until November or even December.

If you’re not sure when your area usually gets its first hard freeze, look it up by ZIP code before you plant. Local weather matters a lot more here than a date printed on a seed packet.

Seed garlic vs. grocery-store garlic

You technically can plant garlic from the supermarket, but I wouldn’t make it my first choice. Some grocery-store garlic has been treated to slow sprouting so it sits on a shelf longer, and more importantly, you usually don’t know what variety you’re getting or whether it suits your climate. Seed garlic is simply garlic grown and sold specifically for planting, normally labeled by variety, which makes it much easier to choose the right type for where you live.

There are two main groups. Hardneck garlic handles cold winters well and usually produces larger, strongly flavored cloves arranged around a stiff central stalk. It also sends up a curly flower stalk called a scape in early summer, which you can cut and eat.

Softneck garlic produces more cloves per bulb, stores longer, and does especially well in milder climates. It’s also the type used for garlic braids.

If you live somewhere with cold winters, hardneck is usually the easier choice. If your winters are mild, softneck may be better suited to your garden.

If you don’t have a local source for seed garlic, SeedsNow is one place to check. They carry both hardneck and softneck varieties, so just make sure you’re choosing one suited to your winters. Order sooner rather than later, since popular varieties can sell out early.

Why did my garlic grow as one round with no cloves?

If your garlic has ever come out of the ground looking like one big round onion instead of a head full of cloves, lack of cold exposure may be the reason. Most garlic varieties need some cold exposure to form a well-developed head of separate cloves, a process called vernalization. Hardneck varieties generally need more chilling than softneck types.

Without enough cold for the variety you’re growing, the plant may grow perfectly healthy leaves but end up forming one solid, undivided bulb called a round instead of dividing into a head full of cloves. This is more likely to happen in warm climates where winter temperatures don’t stay cold for long.

If you live in zone 8 or warmer and you’re growing a variety that needs more chill than your winter provides, you can give the garlic that cold period yourself before planting. Put your seed garlic in the refrigerator for around 6 to 8 weeks at roughly 35 to 40°F, keeping it dry and away from apples and other ripening fruit while it chills.

Then plant according to your normal fall or early-winter schedule. If you live somewhere with consistently cold winters, you usually don’t need to worry about this step. The garlic gets its cold treatment naturally in the ground.

How deep and how far apart do you plant the cloves?

Start with the bed. Garlic does best in loose, well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter, so if your soil needs help, work in a couple inches of compost before planting. The biggest thing to avoid is soggy soil, since garlic sitting wet all winter is much more likely to rot.

Wait until you’re close to planting before breaking the heads apart. Separate the bulb into individual cloves and leave the papery skin on each one.

Use the biggest cloves for planting, since your largest healthy cloves have the best chance of producing large bulbs. The tiny inner cloves are better saved for cooking.

Plant each clove with the pointed end facing up and the flatter root end facing down, about 2 inches deep for most gardens. Space the cloves around 6 inches apart, a little closer for softneck if you’re short on space, with rows about 12 to 18 inches apart.

Once everything is planted, add mulch. In cold climates I like a fairly generous layer of seedless straw or shredded leaves, around 5 to 8 inches to start, which settles down over winter. Mulch protects the cloves from repeated freezing and thawing, keeps them from being pushed toward the soil surface, and makes spring weed control much easier. If your winters are mild, you don’t need quite as much.

What goes wrong, and how do you avoid it?

Garlic is pretty forgiving, but a handful of mistakes are worth avoiding. Planting too early is the common one. Put garlic into warm soil too soon and it may send up a lot of green growth before winter. A little green showing isn’t necessarily a disaster, but you don’t want a foot of top growth going into freezing weather.

In cold climates, don’t skimp on mulch either, since repeated freeze-and-thaw cycles can push cloves upward and expose them to cold and drying. Water matters more once spring arrives. Garlic likes steady moisture while it’s actively growing and forming bulbs, and around an inch of water per week is a reasonable target if you’re not getting enough rain.

Toward the end of the season, though, back off. Once the lower leaves start turning brown and harvest is getting close, stop watering roughly three to four weeks before you plan to dig. Constantly wet soil at that stage can stain the wrappers and encourage rot.

If you’re growing hardneck garlic, don’t forget the scapes. You’ll usually see them in early summer as curly green stalks coming out of the center of the plant. Cut them off once they’ve curled so the plant keeps putting energy into the bulb, then eat them. They’re great chopped into eggs, stir-fries, pasta, or blended into pesto.

The July payoff

Fall-planted garlic is usually ready sometime in July, though colder areas may run a little later. Don’t harvest based on the calendar alone. Watch the leaves.

As garlic gets close to maturity, the bottom leaves begin turning brown while the upper leaves stay green. Once roughly the lower third to half have browned, I’d start checking the bulbs. Use a garden fork or shovel to loosen the soil beside the plant and lift gently rather than yanking the stalk.

After harvest, the garlic needs to cure before storage. Hang the plants in small bunches or spread them somewhere shady, dry, and well ventilated for about three to four weeks. Don’t wash the bulbs beforehand, just brush away loose soil once it dries.

When the stalks, roots, and outer wrappers are completely dry, trim the roots and cut the stalk an inch or two above the bulb. Properly cured hardneck garlic generally stores for several months, and softneck usually lasts longer, often well into winter under good conditions.

Before you eat all of it, set aside a few of your biggest, healthiest heads for next year’s seed garlic. Over time, saving garlic that performs well in your own garden gives you planting stock increasingly suited to your conditions.

Ready to put some in the ground?

If you’ve never grown garlic before, it’s one of my favorite crops to recommend starting with. It doesn’t take much space, it doesn’t need constant attention, and most of the work happens during a cool fall afternoon when the rest of the garden is already slowing down.

Find a good variety for your climate, check your local frost timing, and get the cloves planted before the ground freezes. If you live somewhere with mild winters, start thinking about that refrigerator chill ahead of planting time.

Grow Real Food is reader-supported. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission — at no extra cost to you — when you buy through them. This includes the Amazon Associates program (as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases) as well as other affiliate partners whose tools, seeds, and products I recommend. Prices are never raised to cover these commissions, and a commission never decides what makes the list — everything here is included because I actually use it or trust it.

The post Plant Garlic This Fall: The One Crop You Start When Everything Else Is Dying appeared first on Grow Real Food — Organic Gardening, Homesteading & Real Food Recipes.

If you’re not familiar with sprouts or sprouting, it is the process of germinating seeds, nuts, or grains to eat them raw or cooked. It’s generally a two-step process involving soaking the seeds and then sprouting them. Soaking washes away the enzyme inhibitors and anti-nutrients allowing them to begin the process of germinating.

Sprouts are the one of the most enzyme-rich foods on the planet! Experts estimate that there can be up to 43 times more enzymes in sprouts than in uncooked fruits and vegetables. Additionally, the vitamin content in nuts, seeds, and grains are increased dramatically within just a few days of sprouting. Vitamins A, B-Complex, C, and E are increased by as much as 20 times more than in the original non-sprouted seed, nut, or grain. Sprouts also help fight cancer by alkalizing the body and have an abundance of bio-available plant protein, anti-oxidants, fatty acids, and fiber.

For those who have trouble digesting seeds, nuts, and grains raw, you’ll likely have little to no trouble digesting sprouts. Sprouting seeds, nuts, and grains eases the impact on the digestive systems and allows for easier absorption of the nutrients.

Packaged sprouts are available at most health foods stores as well as many grocery stores such as Whole Foods Market. However, the healthiest (and tastiest) sprouts are the ones you grow yourself.

How to Sprout Your Own Seeds:

What Should You Sprout
You can sprout almost any seed, nut, or grain that you choose. Below are a few of the more popular choices. It is important to keep in mind that you will want to use only fresh, raw, organic seeds, nuts, grains, and legumes for sprouting.

• Seeds: Broccoli, alfalfa, sunflower seeds, red cabbage, fenugreek, celery, radish, oats, pumpkin and leek.
• Grains: Quinoa, black sesame, flax, rye, barely, wheat, brown rice, corn, and spelt.
• Legumes: Lentils, mung beans, garbanzo beans, pinto beans, soy beans, and chick peas.
• Nuts: Peanuts and Almonds

What You’ll Need

• Sprouting Vessel (if you don’t have one, a wide mouth mason jar will work fine)
• Sprouting Lid or Cheesecloth (or a breathable cloth)
• Seeds to Sprout
• Pure Water

Soaking and Sprouting Process:

Follow the process below if you are using a mason jar to sprout your seeds. If you are using a store bought sprouting vessel made for sprouting seeds, please follow the direction that came it.

• Step One – Soak The Seeds – Before soaking the seeds you will want to rinse the seeds to remove any dust or residue. Next, place one tablespoon (per quart jar) of your choice of seeds or grains into to the Mason jar. If soaking nuts or legumes, use on-third cup per quart size jar. Now pour pure water in the jar making sure all of your seeds are emerged in water. For seeds, one cup of water will do, but for legumes and nuts double the amount of water. Place the jar in a dark area at room temperature overnight.

• Step Two – Drain and Rinse – After about 6-12 hours of soak time, drain the water and thoroughly rinse the seeds. Making sure the sprouting lid or cheesecloth is secure, place the jar upside down to allow any excess water to drain out. Rinse the seeds two times throughout the day, every day, until the day you eat them, making sure to drain them well after each rinse. Seed sprouts do not need sunlight the first couple of days but during the last few days you can place them in a sunny windowsill to help them green up and grow more quickly.

• Step Three – Harvest the Sprouts Harvest time will vary depending on what you are sprouting. Generally, most sprouts are ready to eat within 5-7 days. To remove the hull place all the sprouts in a bowl with cool water and stir until the hulls are released and float to the top. Removing the hull is not necessary, but it does help prevent spoilage, making the sprouts last longer. Drain sprouts and place in refrigerator for up to 7-10 days.

So there you go! Sprouting is quick and easy! Start sprouting today and enjoy the many great benefits of sprouts. You can get fresh, organic seeds at Sprout People and a sprouting vessel on Amazon.

The post Sprouts: A Nutritional Powerhouse You Can Grow Indoors All Year Long appeared first on Grow Real Food — Organic Gardening, Homesteading & Real Food Recipes.

The post Fall Soil Building for Healthy Spring Plants appeared first on Grow Real Food — Organic Gardening, Homesteading & Real Food Recipes.

Hugelkultur raised garden beds in a nutshell:

• grow a typical garden without irrigation or fertilization
• has been demonstrated to work in deserts as well as backyards
• use up rotting wood, twigs, branches and even whole trees that would otherwise go to the dump or be burned
• it is pretty much nothing more than buried wood
• can be flush with the ground, although raised garden beds are typically better
• can start small, and be added to later
• can always be small – although bigger is better
• You can save the world from global warming by doing carbon sequestration in your own back yard!
• perfect for places that have had trees blown over by storms
• can help end world hunger
• give a gift to your future self

The verbose details about hugelkultur raised garden beds

It’s a german word and some people can say it all german-ish. I’m an american doofus, so I say “hoogle culture”. I had to spend some time with google to find the right spelling. Hugal, hoogal, huegal, hugel …. And I really like saying it out loud: “hugelkultur, hoogle culture, hoogal kulture ….” – it could be a chant or something.

I learned this high-falootin word at my permaculture training. I also saw it demonstrated on the Sepp Holzer terraces and raised beds video – he didn’t call it hugelkultur, but he was doing it.

Hugelkultur is nothing more than making raised garden beds filled with rotten wood. This makes for raised garden beds loaded with organic material, nutrients, air pockets for the roots of what you plant, etc. As the years pass, the deep soil of your raised garden bed becomes incredibly rich and loaded with soil life. As the wood shrinks, it makes more tiny air pockets – so your hugelkultur becomes sort of self tilling. The first few years, the composting process will slightly warm your soil giving you a slightly longer growing season. The woody matter helps to keep nutrient excess from passing into the ground water – and then refeeding that to your garden plants later. Plus, by holding SO much water, hugelkultur could be part of a system for growing garden crops in the desert with no irrigation.

I do think there are some considerations to keep in mind. For example, I don’t think I would use cedar. Cedar lasts so long because it is loaded with natural pesticides/herbicides/anti-fungal/anti-microbial (remember, good soil has lots of fungal and microbial stuff). Not a good mix for tomatoes or melons, eh? Black locust, black cherry, black walnut? These woods have issues. Black locust won’t rot – I think because it is so dense. Black walnut is very toxic to most plants, and cherry is toxic to animals, but it might be okay when it rots – but I wouldn’t use it until I had done the research. Known excellent woods are: alders, apple, cottonwood, poplar, willow (dry) and birch. I suspect maples would be really good too, but am not certain. Super rotten wood is better than slightly aged wood. The best woods are even better when they have been cut the same day (this allows you to “seed” the wood with your choice of fungus – shitake mushrooms perhaps?).

Another thing to keep in mind is that wood is high in carbon and will consume nitrogen to do the compost thing. This could lock up the nitrogen and take it away from your growies. But well rotted wood doesn’t do this so much. If the wood is far enough along, it may have already taken in sooooo much nitrogen, that it is now putting it out!

Pine and fir will have some levels of tanins in them, but I’m guessing that most of that will be gone when the wood has been dead for a few years.

……..Read the rest of the article from the source

The post Hugelkultur: The Ultimate Raised Garden Beds appeared first on Grow Real Food — Organic Gardening, Homesteading & Real Food Recipes.

The post Seed Saving Tips appeared first on Grow Real Food — Organic Gardening, Homesteading & Real Food Recipes.

Preserve your fall harvest by storing your vegetables in a homemade outdoor root cellar.

The Garbage Can Cellar

Keeping water out is one of the challenges of a hole-in-the-ground pit cellar, but using a garbage can will help. Dig a hole slightly larger than the diameter of the can and deep enough so that the can’s lid will sit 6 inches or so below the soil level. Set the can inside the hole, then layer in the veggies with some straw or dead leaves. Set the lid on the can, use a stick to pack soil all the way down into the gap around the outside of the can, and then flare the soil out at a tidy angle around the opening. Long-keeping root vegetables will live happily down there, even in the coldest weather. Good storage apple varieties will too, but keep your veggies separate from them. (Apples release ethylene gas as they ripen, which will shorten the storage life of vegetables.)

Cut a couple of 2-inch-thick pieces of extruded polystyrene foam slightly larger than the diameter of the lid and place the foam on top of the can to keep out frost. Cut another circle of three-quarter-inch-thick exterior-grade plywood to about the same size and place it over the foam, with a stone on top to keep it securely in place.

This technique also works well with other containers — such as an old chest freezer or a wooden barrel — buried in a similar fashion.

The post Simple DIY Outdoor Root Cellar For Apples & Vegetables appeared first on Grow Real Food — Organic Gardening, Homesteading & Real Food Recipes.

A Worm Tower is basically a length of pipe buried halfway in the ground with holes drilled in the buried part for worms to get in and out. Food scraps are added directly to the tower instead of into your composting bin, and are eaten by worms already living in the target part of your yard. You can add Worm Towers to your full blown vermiculture / vermicomposting regime or just use them by themselves, particularly in raised beds. Several steps and lots of time can be eliminated for some of your composting by simply delivering food waste directly to the worms, directly on to the garden.

Build Your Own Worm Tower in Just 3 Simple Steps

STEP 1
Drill ¼+ inch holes into a PVC or plastic tube so that the worms can move freely in and out. The tube should be anywhere between 2 and 2 ½ feet long, 4 to 8 inches in diameter. Drill on tarp or bed sheet to catch the bits of plastic.

The post Build Your Own Worm Tower appeared first on Grow Real Food — Organic Gardening, Homesteading & Real Food Recipes.

What is a Keyhole Garden?

Each keyhole garden has a composting basket built into its center. This gives the garden a keyhole shape when viewed from above. The garden uses a number of layers to retain moisture and nourish the soil, making it more productive than a conventional garden. The composting basket replenishes the soil’s nutrients as well. The garden is made from materials that are all available at low cost.

Benefits of the Keyhole Garden

Soil enrichment
• The layers of organic materials decompose over time, adding nutrients to the soil.
• The central composting basket continuously replenishes the soil.

Moisture retention
• The layers soak up moisture, so the garden requires less water to remain moist.

Year-round vegetable production
• The stones of the keyhole garden wall absorb heat from the sun, protecting crops from cold winter temperatures.

Labor saving technology
• The soil re-nourishment and moisture retention reduce the amount of time required to maintain the garden.
• The garden shape makes it more accessible to sick or elderly gardeners.

Low-cost design
• All construction materials should be readily available (at no cost) to gardeners.
• Gardeners might need to purchase seeds for planting, however.

Steps in Construction of a Keyhole Garden

• A circle about 6 1/2 feet across is cleared.
• Four corner posts are secured into the ground.

• The outline of the garden is marked with stones.
• The outline dips inwards at the center.

• The basket is encircled with rope and lined with thatching grass to allow water that is poured into the basket to flow into the garden soil.

• The first layer of the garden is iron scraps such as empty food and beverage cans, aloe leaves, dry animal bones, broken clay pots, which can be substituted with fist-size stones
• These materials provide minerals to the soil as well as drainage in heavy rains.

• The first layer is covered with soil that gives nutrients, thatching grass that retains moisture, and wood ash that provides potassium.
• Every layer should slope downwards from the basket so water can flow properly into the soil.
• Soil is added on top of the wood ash.

• Soil is added on top of the wood ash.
• A thick layer of mixed soil and dry manure is added on top. Using wet manure will kill young seedlings
• Add stones to the garden walls as the layers grow taller.

• Seeds are planted according to the season.
• During the winter, protect plants from the cold with thatching grass or old carpet. During the day, plants should be uncovered so they receive sunlight.

Planting Keyhole Garden

Space, soil nutrients, and pest management are key considerations in planning your garden. Companion planting is planting different kinds of crops together in the same garden in order to best satisfy those needs. Different methods include planting leafy crops next to root vegetables or planting pest-resistant vegetables(like onion or garlic) next to regular crops. To best ensure that your garden will
stay fertile and resist pests, plant a minimum of four vegetable types.

Preferred Crops For Keyhole Gardens

Root Crops

• Carrot
• Onion
• Beetroot
• Radish
• Turnips
• Garlic

The post How To & Why You Should Build a Keyhole Garden appeared first on Grow Real Food — Organic Gardening, Homesteading & Real Food Recipes.

A DIY Compost Tea Brewer

Running through the equipment and materials needed—from bucket to drill to pump and aeration stones—and following up with a step-by-step demonstration of how to put this together, it certainly makes you wonder why some folks are spending extraordinary amounts of money on compost tea makers. Essentially, these are just aeration devices designed to keep oxygen moving in a tub of water and compost. That’s it. This video shows the bare basics of how to make that happen.

Learn how to brew and apply compost tea

The post DIY Compost Tea Brewer for Under $30 appeared first on Grow Real Food — Organic Gardening, Homesteading & Real Food Recipes.

Do you use your freezer to preserve herbs, vegetables, or fruit? The freezer can be a powerful, overlooked method of preserving. Pesto, strawberry puree, tomato soup — stash them away now for colder times! One of my favorite ingredients, a handful of fresh herbs from the garden, is one of the simplest things to preserve in the freezer, and I just learned a new, better way to freeze herbs: In oil!

8 Steps for Freezing Herbs in Oil

1. Choose firm, fresh herbs, ideally from the market or your own garden.
2. If you wish, you can chop them fine. Or leave them in larger sprigs and leaves. Here I froze a combination of finely-chopped and whole herbs such as rosemary, fennel stalk, sage, and oregano.
3. Pack the wells of ice cube trays about 2/3 full of herbs.
4. You can mix up the herbs, too; think about freezing a mix of sage, thyme, and rosemary to add to winter roast chickens and potatoes!
5. Pour extra-virgin olive oil or melted, unsalted butter over the herbs.
6. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and freeze overnight.
7. Remove the frozen cubes and store in freezer containers or small bags.
8. Don’t forget to label each container or bag with the type of herb (and oil) inside!

(Source)

The post Freeze & Preserve Fresh Herbs in Olive Oil appeared first on Grow Real Food — Organic Gardening, Homesteading & Real Food Recipes.