When I opened up my e-mail from West Coast Seeds last week, I read about garlic and how November was a good time to plant it for next year. Sure, why not? So far everything I’ve purchased from West Coast Seeds has been great and the infographic on garlic made it look really easy. This little experiment was also a good excuse to clean-up our patio and show my son how to snip off ugly foliage off the sides of ornamental kale with Felco 2s.
So I ordered the basic amount ( three pieces) and paid just over $6 for express delivery from Delta. Then a few days later I got a phone call from UPS. My package was in and it came in a box full of holes. The writing on the box said ‘Open immediately’ so the freaked out cashier was wondering if she had to stuff food into the box to keep the contents alive. No, of course not. It was just garlic.
West Coast Seeds also likes to suck you in by sending you free seed samplers. And I think it’s a nice touch. I’m sure my wife will be happy with free basil seeds.
Time to sow in fall
You can sow garlic in the fall, from September to November. Since I couldn’t find any new soil for sale at the nearest RONA, I just picked up a bag of sea soil and worked it into my existing pot soil. And so the experiment begins.
Details
You need a site with six plus hours of sunlight per day and I think my patio qualifies.
Take the garlic and break it apart into individual cloves. Keep the skin intact. Incredibly, this was my first time breaking up garlic into cloves. It’s obvious I don’t cook much.
The recommended planting depth is 4-6″ (10-15cm) with spacing between cloves at the same 4-6″. As for spacing between rows, the package recommends 12-18″ (30-45cm) separation. I already know my pot rows will be tighter than that. Thus the experiment label.
No action is required in winter. Then in spring you should fertilize once growth starts. You can expect to harvest your fresh garlic in summer. We’ll see about that.
