Taylor's Tip for October

The month of October brings forth cooler weather, pumpkin carving, and costume parties. With so much anticipation for these exciting events, one may forget one of the most exciting of all; planting garlic!

Garlic is definitely one of the most asked about vegetables in the garden. Probably because just about everyone likes garlic and can find a reason to make space for it in their garden. Luckily garlic is easy to grow. However it can require some patience since it takes about eight months until harvest; though, it is well worth it in the end!

To get those big beautiful bulbs of garlic, one must first plant a single clove. This is actually nice for the gardener since one clove will produce one full bulb of garlic. So if you begin with a full bulb and individually plant all of the cloves, you’ll end up with more garlic than you’ll know what to do with! When planting the clove the most important thing to remember is which way is up. Plant the clove vertically with the flat base on the bottom and the tip pointing towards the top (just remember, the pointy end points towards the sky). The spacing of your cloves should be 2 inches deep and at least 4 inches apart. Give your garlic a boost by mixing in compost before planting; also, make sure to plant in full sun and in well-drained soil. Now you just have to wait.

When June finally does roll around, you will be happy that you took the time to plant garlic in October. Look for yellowing leaves ¾ the way down that are flopping over. Once you see them, stop watering for a week and prepare to harvest!

Growing garlic is very easy and well worth it. So make time in-between the candy apples and candy corn for some wonderful garlic!