Anchorage Daily News

It seems to me the really hard frosts, the ones that tell you this is going to be a long winter and it is just beginning, are still a ways off. I am guessing the ground won't freeze for up to a month and the chances of that frost getting down very deep, quickly, seem slim.

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Click to enlarge

Jeff's garden calendar (10/8/09)

Bulbs: Still time to plant spring flowering bulbs. Do it. As many as you can.

Tools: Put them away before they get buried under snow!

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There is still time to plant one more crop.

It is time to plant garlic. I should have mentioned it a couple of weeks back, but I didn't. Thanks to the warm weather, Nature is giving me another window of opportunity and you too.

Plant anything other than spring bulbs this weekend? Well, consider garlic as a spring flowering bulb and a hardy one at that. The cloves, those individual segments of the bulb need a few weeks in the ground before it freezes.

I know garlic is one of those plants that most of us would never think could survive the cold and long winters of Southcentral. Yet garlic requires cold weather to produce properly and to taste best. People who live in the southern part of the country can't grow it with out a lot of fussing.

Not so here in Alaska. Once you get garlic cloves in the ground and put a good layer of mulch on them there is little else you need to do. The hardest part is getting your hands on great garlics to grow. It may not be too late to find a few catalog houses on the web and order garlic. Check out www.nicholsnursery.com which sells quite a few garlics.

Still it is possible to grow garlics found at the supermarket. And don't forget checking with the wonderful Asian markets we are so lucky to have.

What you really want to find, in my opinion, are "hard neck" garlics. They have a hard stem at the tip of the bulb.

Of course, whenever possible, buy organic garlics. These will not have been sprayed to prevent sprouting. Remember that you are going to plant individual bulbs, so don't go over board. One bulb makes 4 or 5 plants.

Once you break apart your bulbs into individual cloves, they are ready to plant. (Leave the sheath of skins on the clove. These will provide carbon that will help attract bacteria and fungi to the roots of the plant. Find a suitable place in your garden and use a trowel to make individual holes, four to six inches apart, three or four inches deep.

Don't overlook planting some in the perennial beds. You will get a flower and an interesting looking plant. Drop a clove into a hole, pointed end up. Some folks place the clove on its side, but I can't see any reason for this as the shoot comes from the pointed end.

Don't fertilize and don't water. The garlic has all it needs to start in the clove.

Our soils are plenty wet from all the rain we've been having. Adding water would likely rot the cloves. Sprinkle some compost, if you have any, on top of each bulb.

Once planted, it is important to "mulch over" garlic cloves. If you can, get hold of some straw and place it four or five inches thick over them.

You can use leaves if you must, but the straw is better from a soil food web perspective. Four or five inches of mulch will prevent the plants from emerging during those premature spring thaws.

You will need to remember to pull this back when spring hits so the plants can emerge.

That is really all there is to it. Sure, you can plant garlic in the spring and get bulbs, but they won't be nearly as large nor will they have the flavor associated with fall-planted garlic.

Sure some of the soft neck garlic found at stores may not make it. Still, I am betting most will be ready to harvest next August.

What have you to lose? The whole process will take 10 minutes and you may actually succeed in growing some great garlic.

Jeff Lowenfels is a member of the Garden Writers Hall of Fame. You can reach him at teamingwithmicrobes.com or by calling 274-5297 during "The Garden Party" radio show from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays on KBYR AM-700.

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