Garlic, Tucked In For Winter

All the garlic is in the ground. The pasture grass mulch will remain in place until harvest. This year it helped to moderate soil temperature and it prevented the soil surface from drying out. The only down side to the mulch is that it can prevent the emerging garlic from finding daylight. Keep it loose. The fence serves two purposes now. First, it keeps the deer from walking across the planted bed. Second, it keeps the neighbor's cat from dropping logs in the inviting soil.

This planting will require no further work until June. Then the scapes will be removed. The buckwheat cover crop from this past summer and the mulch will keep the weeds to a minimum. When the rain is scant I will water the garlic. The work is basically done until harvest. The work may be done, but this bed will get plenty of attention. The progress of the plants will be monitored from the house windows. Every entry into the garden will pass by the garlic bed. The plants will be closely watched. For now the work is done.