Sam’s Guide To Planting Garlic

On Saturday I conducted my annual duty of planting garlic.
Yes I know it’s not the winter solstice yet but down here in the barren wilderness commonly referred to by many as Hercules Flat, I have found that by planting my garlic in late April I get a much better crop as it establishes itself before the freeze of winter sets in.

So here’s my guide (with pictures!) to planting garlic.

Firstly gather up some disease free garlic and carefully divide the bulb into individual cloves.

Next you organize your rows.
I plant my garlic in rows 40cm apart with the garlic plants spaced 13cm apart.

Take some short stakes, place one at the end of each row and then string up a tight line of twine between the two, thus marking your row.
Then take a small piece of bamboo (or some other type of narrow stick), push it into the ground about 6cm and then rotate slightly in order to create a hole wide enough to fit a garlic clove.

Take the cloves and place one (point upwards) in each hole deep enough to just cover with soil.
Having good soil fertility and regular water is important as a lack of nutrients and water will result in a substandard crop.

And so concludes this episode of Sam’s Guide To..
Stay tuned for future episodes on other gardening activities.