Though most of our harvests are past, we are still working the soil. It is now time to plant garlic. I enlist Juana and Olivia to help me today.
It is a bright crisp day with only a few clouds painting the sky and a slight breeze rustling the trees. The trees are still holding onto their leaves, unusual at the time when I plant garlic. My collection of garlic is a combination of the largest bulbs from the July harvest and a few I purchased from local farm stands. I gave up a long time ago trying to identifying each different type rather focusing on the size of the cloves that will be put into the soil.
Pulling weeds from the space that used to hold tomatoes, I spread a thin layer of compost and kelp meal on the soil. I then methodically punch holes into the ground with my dibber, a rather useful tool for planting individual cloves. The soil is warm to the touch and as I get individual cloves from Olivia, my fingers pick up their fragrance. It is a heady scent that almost overwhelms me. It will take quite a few scrubbings to remove it from my hands.
Finishing the job, I have exactly 120 cloves planted in a compact area. I always plant this close, as planting further apart merely wastes precious space in my raised beds. Ranking over the holes with soil and then covering with straw, the last planting in the garden is finished for the season. Now is the time to wait and dream of harvests to come.
