Allotments 4 All

As I'm a newbie I'll post this here (not brave enough to raise my head in the Edible Plants section yet...) I've got my big box of seeds from Garden Organic including the garlic bulbs - and the instruction is to plant it out as soon as I get it. Is that right? Like this weekend? Doesn't seem like such a great idea. Would appreciate your thoughts.

Also Apple Mac users take note. Mat's plating exel spreadsheet thingy works fine without any messing about. Get her to send you a copy.

You don't say what the seeds are, but garlic should certainly go in ASAP.

I was just wondering about garlic aswell, as everything I read says either autumn or spring so as I missed autumn I was waiting but if it is okay to plant now I will :)
Does it need keeping indoors or anything while it settles?

No, it actually needs cold to get the bulb to break into cloves. Just shove it in.

Plant your garlic as soon as you can, the colder it is the better for it.

mine went in just before Christmas and looks to be sprouting ...

Mine went in November and was sprouting then a tractor ran over it. I will be planting my second sowing in February - this would have been going in irrespective of the tractor.

plant deep , about 2 inches should do it, then forget about it until the little green things show up :)

mine went in in november already
folklore says plant on the shortest day harvest on the longest day

Thank you - this is very exciting - it'll be the very first thing i've planted on the allotment. Cheers everyone. M

That might explain the trouble I had a couple of years ago then I ended up with a single bulb, I used it all be it a bit confused by the whole thing.

Garlic needs a period of extreme cold - looks as if it'll get it too, starting this weekend if the weather forecasters are right :o

Just one year, when I was away Nov/Dec. I didn't get mine in until February. Some bulbs had split into cloves - others hadn't, tho still a goodish size. Didn't affect the eating tho ;D ;D ;D

OK - I'm going out now to plant my garlic - anything else i should be planting this weekend? Just for the record I'm planting out in the beds - not in little seed pots.

bung in some broad beans?

i think some garlic does better with a spring sowing - i do Printanor and thermodor but cannot remember which is which - however, get it in when you can, garlic seems amazingly tolerant of times and conditions although my dad claimed that it should be planted on the shortest day and harvested on the shortest.

Quote from: campanula on January 21, 2006, 19:30:36
i it should be planted on the shortest day and harvested on the shortest.

Can't decide if this is the quickest growing garlic on record, or the slowest ??? ::) ;D

Mike, if you're going to sow everything directly into the ground, wonder if you should think of starting to warm the soil by covering now with black plastic/cardboard/carpet/whatever?

I'm planting in raised beds that have been covered with that black roll membrane stuff. I've planted the garlic but I'm assuming that i pull the sheeting back off that bit so they get to see the sunlight...

Thermidrome is autumn and printanor spring (I think from French printemps=spring)

I know that garlic needs cold to get started on producing the cloves, but what puzzles me is how they manage to grow it all round the Mediterranean where they don't have that degree of cold? It is part of so many Med country recipes..

I have ordered some garlic from Tucker's and this will be my first attempt at growing them.  Could you please let me know if I plant the whole garlic or split it up into individual cloves and then plant them?  thanks!

Individual cloves Pauline.