How does your Garlic grow?

Garlic - it's super easy to grow and if you haven't tried it and want to, you should. And deer hate it.  They stay out of my garden they hate it so much.

This year (or rather last fall when I planted it) my garlic is in a row.  I planted all of these from the garlic I grew last year.  You really only have to buy garlic once if you plant enough to collect a few large pieces off of them for the next planting. I have a row garden when square foot gardens are all the rage.  But guess what? My dad brought me all the stuff to make a 3x10 foot square foot garden this year.  I'll tell you about it later. Anyway, back to the GARLIC ... it's awesome.  Just stick a clove in the ground.  Make sure it gets watered well in the fall.  And then here you go.  It sprouts in the spring and then when it starts turning brown in August, pull it up. You can braid it together or cut off the tops and let it dry. The hard neck kind stores really well, almost a year.  And even though powdered dried garlic upsets my tummy, fresh minced garlic does not. 

Alliums

I am super excited about these plants.  It's the first time I've added them into the garden and I've admired them for years all over town.  The deer don't like them because of their onion/garlic taste. Being deer resistant is a major plus here! And the bulbs not only divide but they produce seeds that also produce more plants.  Makes me wonder if it's going to be a jungle next year.  Regardless I planted two varieties. These little ones were 65 cents a piece.  The larger 3 are just starting to poke through the ground and they were $5/each.  Depending on which I like best I'll be heading to the garden store in the fall for more giant purple puff ball blooms.

I'd like to mulch this year but I think that at $54/yd for river rock (I need something that will not blow away) I'm going to have to wait a while - or just buy one cubic yard of river rock and add it to the west side of the house. We'll see what the budget can handle.