Planting Garlic

Recovering an old garden. This area receives 3/4 day of sun.

I covered the garlic cloves with old sawdust. I killed the ground ivy that had overtaken the area by spraying with glyphosate three days earlier and did not want to run the risk of killing my garlic cloves. Approximately 80 cloves planted.

I planted the first crop for the 2020 gardening season.

This is a variety I got from Larry Sibley of Bellevue, Michigan. He got it from his brother who picked it up in a field in Wyoming. It is a hard-neck, Racambole type, perhaps Montana Giant.

If all goes well, I will get the German White planted tomorrow. German White is a porcelain type.

I am skeptical of all the garlic cultivars. I don't know if there is a nickel's worth of difference between the cultivars within the groups, unless it relates to freedom from virus.

Virus are the bane of plants that are propagated vegetatively. The seed cycle often provides a fire-wall between infected parent and virus-free offspring. Virus are one good reason to select the cleanest, most robust seedstock and then to exercise restraint in bringing in new selections. Restraint means DON'T DO IT.