Garlic

I was excited a couple of weeks ago when I received my garlic order. I purchased it from an organic supplier in QLD. Her name is Kym and she's from Food with a Future. I received five different varieties to try out. Two are hard neck types, and three are soft necks. The hard necks I have just planted and the soft necks will go into the ground in June. What I'm really excitited about is that we no longer need to buy chemically treated garlic. (that bleached white stuff in little net bags all the way from China!). This past Christmas I harvested a lot of garlic, planted by the previous owners. There was enough for us and a few friends and family to keep us going to the next harvest. But I'm hoping to grow a bit more and perhaps sell some at the local markets over the coming Summer.

 Here we've separated the cloves and counted them. We're keeping a record to see what grows best and what our return will be. You know, that Quality Assurance, list making and flow chart stuff still comes in handy!

This is the garden bed that I prepared for the garlic. I spread a good load of chook poo over it and dug it over. Then I left it for a couple of weeks. I've now cleaned it up. No more tomatoes. Only a little bit of corn remains at the end of the bed. I have planted turnips, parsnips, beetroot, broad beans and a few brassicas, which are experimental. I don't think the pH in the soil is high enough for them so we'll see. The garlic will be down the front end of the bed. I'm preparing another area for the June garlic.