Better late than never! We would have liked to get the garlic in the ground last October or November. We were on track for planting in late November but then a snow storm came and first made the field frozen and then muddy. So we had to wait. Luckily we have a strain of garlic that is absolutely localized, adapted, and resilient. I remember a growing season about 5-7 years ago where life got in the way of planting and we had to plant when we could. In that case it was January as well. I am confident we could have waited until the earliest chance in the spring to plant, but we were able to get these cloves into the soil that has been thawing out due to uncommonly warm weather. It is nice to have garlic come out of the ground early in the spring at a time that indicates other cool weather crops like peas and fava beans can be planted at the time of garlic emergence.
We planted four rows of garlic for our curriculum at Chrysalis Alternative School in addition to creating fundraising opportunities for our programs and students. Since all the garlic is in the ground, now we can look forward to more snow!
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