A Bit of Garlic Fun!

It's Garlic planting time Downunder so I'm going to try an experiment this week...

According to Cosmic Gardener's April Moon Guide (here)

"5th - Plant leafy crops, garlic and onions. Foliar feed."

so I planted one lot of cloves today (5 April).

Deb from Nirvana Farm in the Adelaide Hills says in this article from the ABC in Adelaide that April 8th is the best day to plant garlic.

Just to make it interesting the Thomas Zimmer Moon Planting Chart I also like to keep an eye on says that the 11/12 April (are we having fun yet??) is good for root crops which it has Garlic listed as part of.

So I'm going to plant some Garlic on each of these days.

This is going to be fun...and is only meant to be a fun experiment!!


For The Record: I'll update this regularly!
April 5 2009
Under supervision of The Black Ninja:
Divided 3 of the best bulbs of Garlic from last years crop.
Broke off the biggest cloves and mixed them all together.
Divided cloves into 3 piles, 13 in each!
Two lots were bagged for later planting and labeled.

One lot planted in the South end of the Kitchen Garden Pathside Edge Bed.


April 8 2009
Second planting of 13 cloves on the Northern end of the Kitchen Garden Pathside Edge Bed.
This area has similar soil conditions to the other end and won't receive a lot more sunshine.


April 11 2009
The last 13 cloves were planted in the keyhole bed in the Dog pen beds...similar soil and growing conditions as the other two plantings.

Update April 11 2009
All three plantings are being watered via in-line dripper hose and are well mulched. I am keeping an eye on the moisture content of the soil and watering accordingly.

The day temperatures have ranged between 18C and 26C.
Night temps between 9C and 3.5C.
No rainfall recorded.

Update April 15
The Cosmic planted cloves are up and growing...11 out of 13 so far!
The day temperatures have ranged between 21.3C and 28C.
Night temps between 12.1C and 5.2C.
No rainfall recorded.

Update April 20
1 clove in each of the other plantings is up so far!
The day temperatures have ranged between 19.5C and 24.1C.
Night temps between 9C and 1.3C.
No rainfall recorded.



For the full run down on Growing Garlic check out Stewart's My Veggie Garden blog posts:-
Garlic Part 1
and
Garlic Part 2
and to complete the trilogy
Garlic Part 3


Thanks! That will save me writing all that info!