That brings to mind my stopping at one of our more distant neighbor's house and asking if he'd inter-planted onions in his beans ...thought maybe it was to repel rabbits. He said -no, I just haven't weeded those lately! I guess what looked like young bean plants from the road...well, weren't beans. Not the most comfortable way to chat with a new acquaintance (I think we were both embarrassed), but we were laughing as we parted company...and it did give me something to think about.

It just might work.

, Chelle!

Now that I think about it, it seems like I saw some things in one of my garden catalogs that were garlic scented, that were meant to be tied to plants to deter deer (as I recall it).

My best garlic is the ones I grow in the ground. The ones I plant in the raised beds never get as big and I'm not sure why.

I do the same thing. Moisture retention of the garden soil is simply better, Dave. At least that would be my first guess. The garden stays fairly moist (unless there isn't enough rain during the fall and winter months) and the soil in the pots regardless of pot size (mine are 24" in diameter), dry out much more readily. Also the soil in the pots will probably get a few degrees colder during the winter months simply because they are above ground. That may pay some role.

>> I even raised it another foot last summer because I wanted better drainage. The garden is now 2 1/2 feet above ground level. Moisture is my main concern, particularly excess moisture in late winter/early spring.

I think that most people think "raised beds" to get root zones above peak water tables.

I went the other way and have lowered my "high-water mark" by trenching below my slightly raised beds. Even a few extra inches might make a difference in raised beds with 8-12" walls. Since you have 30" of root zone towering above grade, surely those beds don't need any more drainage! I would have expected the walls to let so much water escape that you couldn't keep them moist.

I eventually amend and re-use most of the clay that I dig out of trenches, so I guess "I go both ways".

You would need at least a little slope to your yard for a trench to carry away water.

I found that a wide trench with a perforated hose was not necessary. Even a small, open slit trench was enough - literally 2" or 3" wide.

I wonder whether some powered edging tool might dig a wide enough trench to let water in the soil under your raised beds escape more rapidly? If not, it would probably loosen the soil in a slit that you could then widen easily with a mattock blade or small-bladed hoe or cultivator. Digging out a slit trench with a spade held "sideways" is rather clumsy, and most hoes would dig a wider trench than is necessary to carry off a little ground water.

Chelle--it is getting to be time to plant garlic in our zone. I'm planting mine this week (just because it works best for my schedule), but any time in the next week or two will be fine. I spread about 1" of compost over my garlic bed (raised bed) and will mix in a little organic fertilizer before planting. Once we've had a light frost, I'll mulch with straw.

I always follow the instructions I originally got from Gourmet Garlic Gardens. The night before, I separate the cloves, and soak them in a baking soda/seaweed mix (1 heaping TBSP of baking soda and 1 TBSP of seaweed fertilizer in a gallon of water). Right before planting, I will drain that mix, and soak the cloves in alcohol for 5 minutes before planting. I've never had any problems with diseases in my garlic, so I'm afraid to NOT do it this way.

I'd love to hear what everyone else does when planting garlic.

Linda, that's interesting! I've never heard of soaking the garlic cloves (in anything) before... and as far as I know, have never had any sort of disease in mine, either... but, this IS the time of year that I plant (next week they will all go in, have to pull out my pepper plants first because that's where the garlic is going this year!). And I do give them a top dressing of compost, as well. Hope some other people chime in here about soaking (or not soaking)...

Very interesting, Linda. Thanks for sharing your tips. I know that soil moisture can be iffy here this time of year. I recall one autumn in particular that remained dry...I'd planted flower bulbs in a hurry without soaking or watering-in and they didn't do much of anything until the second spring.

I too have never soaked mine before planting.

I haven't either but I can imagine the possible benefits.

70 cloves of garlic planted today, using the tried and true soaking method. It's always a bit of a crap-shoot here, as we never know how wet/cold our winters will be. I have the garlic in raised beds with a really light potting mix that drains well. I put about 1" of compost and a little organic fertilizer before I planted today. The beds seem to drain really well, so hopefully we won't have an issue with rotting.

As usual I waited too long and local nurseries were all out of seed garlic. So I bought some from a farm stand after they assured me it had not been treated in any way. Quite large bulbs that had about 10 bulblets apiece for planting. Didn't soak.

I'm kind of intrigued by the fact that I've never heard of soaking the cloves so I've been searching and reading articles on the 'net -- and in the process discovered that I've been planting my garlic much too close together! I've been planting my cloves around 3-4 inches apart in the rows, and it seems that anywhere from about 6-8 inches (or even more) is recommended. Well, duh ! Maybe that's why my bulbs haven't been getting as large as I thought they should...

Here's a link to a very informative article from some commercial growers in Wisconsin -- http://www.wegrowgarlic.com/12...

In the article they note that they've been soaking all of their garlic prior to planting but are considering just doing any they suspect of having some type of problem, because they feel the garlic that hasn't been soaked produces larger bulbs for them.

I'm going to plant part of my garlic today -- at about 6" apart!

Thanks for the link to that article, Sandy. Lots of good information. I also used to plant too close together, so I force myself to go at least 6" apart. When you have really limited planting space, it's tempting to try to squeeze as much in as you can, but sometimes that just doesn't pay off. Last year was the first year I did my garlic in raised beds, and planted with more space between each clove. It really did seem to pay off, in terms of the size of the heads we were harvesting.

I've found that many of the skins stay on the cloves, even when soaking. They may loosen somewhat, but very few actually come off.
And I agree with the article--the soaking process with the seaweed does smell bad

I attended a garlic workshop at the Botanical garden and one thing the teacher stressed was never put the garlic in water. Funny, huh? Just break them apart, assure the skin was in tact and plant.I will add some compost cover now. Mine have been in the ground for about a week. We had freezes consistently with the top soil frozen down 2-3" but the last day or two has been in the 40's with rain. Glad to see that as I had planted some lilies, peonies, and of course the garlic late. Now it has stopped so hoping it was just enough to give everyone a drink before settling down to winter. And hope it didn't hurt my garlic. Oh, they are in raised beds about 4" apart. opsss.

I love hearing all of the bits of information everyone has gotten. Funny how there can be so many ways to plant garlic. I guess the important thing is that we all find what works best for us.

Stella--funny how different our zone 5 temperatures are....we've not even had frost yet. Leaves are beginning to change.

We had our first frost last night, but it wasn't a killing frost. Some leaf damage on warm weather annuals like impatiens, but no black mush yet.

I had planned to plant garlic tomorrow, but they're calling for 2" of rain overnight Monday and on into Tuesday. Normally I'd think that would be a good thing, but could it be too much for the garlic?

mom2goldens said:Stella--funny how different our zone 5 temperatures are....we've not even had frost yet. Leaves are beginning to change.

Yes, that's what I was thinking -- we finally had a couple of light frosts with the recent full moon, but they didn't hurt anything that's still in the garden (including peppers and the last straggling tomatoes...

and until the USDA changed the zone designations a few years back we were more like zone 4, now we're zone 5a... but after last winter I think they should revisit that idea!!

Chelle, if your soil has decent drainage I don't think your garlic will have a problem with the rain -- we had a horribly rainy fall last year (so much so that I could never get the garden tilled) and then the spring was again very wet (and never DID till the garden!!), and my garlic actually came up better than it ever has, not one miss out of the 150 or so cloves that I planted.

And, Mary Stella, don't worry that you planted your garlic at 4 inches apart -- I've been doing that for years (and even a little closer) and they do fine, just not as large as they could be I guess.

Sandy. I think they'll be just fine then, so I'll go ahead and get them planted.

Good deal. I think I will spread a little compost over them tomorrow. To wash some nutrients down to them when it rains and to provide a little more cover. They are planted in a combination of soil and mulch which might be a little light for protection from ... What? Obviously the ground around them will freeze down to the ground level (18").