October 20: Garlic Anniversaries

8 of the rows of planted garlic

October 20 is a very special day to us. It's our wedding anniversary. Yet it also marks the height of garlic planting time. And if the garlic is not in the ground on time; we'll be sorry in the spring. So...as with the few days before and after our wedding, garlic must get in the ground. Now, when the garlic cloth comes out of storage, we know it's time to celebrate our anniversary. The first year we grew it like this was the year we were married and extra time had to be spent cutting each hole in the cloth. Now, three years later, we reuse the same cloth after having cleaned it of  weed seeds. We do this all summer using various methods including letting the chickens loose on it.  Each strip of heavy fabric weed barrier has two rows of holes, made by cutting a "T" shape. It is secured by garden stakes as well as soil to hold it down in the heaviest winds. Our biggest and best garlic heads are separated and one clove is planted by hand in each hole. They will stay in the ground all winter until they are harvested when 2/3 of each stalk are brown; this year it was early July for us.