I still have to fence in the gardens because our dogs are inside dogs, and their fenced in area won't be the same area as the garden. The young one is a Lab who must be fenced in or she'd take off running and get lost. Our beautiful old lady is a Golden Retriever who wouldn't wander far due to bad hips. But, I'm hoping that they'll scare the deer off enough during the day, since both have big mouths and love to bark, so that those deer don't hang out on the deck at night. I know that I'm hoping for too much, but a girl can dream, right?

Absolutely!

I didn't read through all 7 pages of this thread, but do have a garlic question which I apologize for if it is a repeat: can I transplant at this time all the little garlics I missed from my last harvest? I noticed a whole bundle of tiny little very crowded starts where I had garlic last, and would like to just move them around a bit. Thanks.

If they need moving, you can do so. IF you can scoop up soil with roots, they will transplant better. But even root-bare, they will be OK. Don't expect them to grow very much though, unless you live in a really cool climate. Once the soil begins to warm up, this signals the garlic to begin dormancy, and they will start leaf-yellowing, beginning with the lower leaves first. Once the leaves begin to die, the garlic bulb will be at/near its full size. I pull mine when 1/2 - 2/3 of the lower leaves have yellowed/dried. This usually occurs here in NE Mississippi around the middle of May. Ken

We got some really nice garlic this year, some bigger than 3"

This is Asian Tempest

You must have had much better weather than I did, here in NE Mississippi. Garlic does best when the last 4-6 weeks (before harvest) is on the dry side. We had prolonged cold and extremely wet weather all winter and into spring and the ground just didn't dry out. My garlic harvest was probably 40% lighter (smaller bulbs) than the previous year. I grow my garlic in a raised bed and in large, 20-30 gal pots.

Nice Arlene

Just before harvest we started to get rain so we hurried up and dug it all up, but then it wasn't curing under the deck so we had to bring it inside. We have quite a few this size but some varieties are smaller. Lucky year.

Yeah, for certain vegetables, weather is everything, even in semi-controlled growing in raised beds and huge pots. I have just doubled the size of my raised bed and put in another foot of garden soil mixture. That extra foot will now give me approximately three feet deep garden soil and I will get better drainage. It took nine yards of garden soil mix to achieve this result. I have already ordered six pounds of gourmet garlic for fall planting. I am going to plant 10-14 varieties - 4-6 softnecks, 4-6 Creoles, and 2-3 hardnecks.

Weather was a factor here, too. We had a rainy week just when the early varieties of garlic should have been coming out of the ground. I had clumps of mud when I lifted them a week later, so had to wash them off with the hose before I could hang them to cure. The later ones came out much cleaner. Here is Chinese Pink, a softneck.

We did 15 varieties this year. Do you save some foe seed?

I will replant a lot of it. Probably won't sell much if any this year as I now have more space to plant it. Part of the horse pasture is now a new garden space.

Oooohh, what a great place to make a garden, all that great horse poop turned compost! This year we doubled our crop so I will be anxious to see how fast it sells. Last year we sold out in three Saturday markets.

Well, we sold about half of the crop in one market! I think we'll add another 3'x50' row again this year, bringing us up to 3 rows. I believe we planted somewhere in the neighborhood of 850 cloves last year. Another row will add about 420 or so.

CORRECTION!!! Only about 300 per row. I way overestimated. So sorry.

Gosh, Arlene, I hope to plant perhaps 100 cloves in my expanded raised garden. I cannot imagine planting 300-400 cloves. Ken

Yes, but we're on a farm so we have the space. Funny thing is, to me it's not a real farm since it's just 7 acres, but it sure beats the 50x180 lot we had in town!

Since garlic is such a good seller it makes sense to plant more. Now, if we have a bad year weather wise, well, that sucks. But that's what farming is about.

Asian Tempest is a nice looking garlic, Arlene. Three inches is a good size for nearly any variety.

My neighbor has been receiving orders for garlic through his website, and has already begun to ship out some of his early varieties. I'll be involved helping him clean, grade, and ship. And in the process, I will also be learning a lot about the garlic business.

I checked out his website and it's nice. I told my son about it too. He's the garlic expert, not me! I'm sure he'll sell out.

Yes, Asian Tempest is a nice garlic. We actually only have one left and it's wrapper split so we'll probably keep it to eat for ourselves. Of course most of the Creoles were much smaller but they are a good garlic as well.

Have fun learning about the garlic business. At first we were going to sell when we built up our supply but I don't think I want to do that now, too much work!

Can someone please tell me how long one is supposed to let the garlic dry once it is harvested??? Thanks!!!