Garlic

My grandad has always told me that the time to plant garlic is Hallowe'en. This appeals to the witchy part of me, but this year I found that putting my garlic in the ground on Hallowe'en resulted in no garlic shoots at all until the new year. Although I like the idea, I think I need to accept that I, planting my garlic quite a bit further north than my grandad, need to get it in sooner. Next year I will aim for early October and see if that helps.

Another thing that happened to my garlic this year is that some of it was snaffled by mice. We have been battling mice and rats ever since we moved to this house, which is only to be expected since we live in an old cottage surrounded by farmland. To be honest, I am just grateful we no longer have them in the house. I can live with all manner of creatures roaming the garden, the walls, the loft, the solum, but having them skittering around the house where my babies play would upset me. So, I suppose you could say we've reached a compromise. Having said that, I do need to think about better protecting my crops from all these hungry mouths.

Despite the setbacks, in early January the first shoots appeared much to my relief and delight. Garlic is a wonderful crop to grow, not only for its usefulness and health benefits, but for the way it emerges over the coldest months giving you something to watch and look forward to when everything else is dormant.

I was reading recently about garlic 'seed', i.e. the miniature cloves that form along the stem. I am going to try planting a few of these from my homegrown garlic last year and see what happens. Bonus garlic hopefully!