Hi! I first want to know if I can plant bulbs underneath my fall lettuces? Can I also plant bulbs with my garlic and shallots so whilst everyone hibernates, so during the spring, I can have flowers along with the good stuffs?

to ATP ReBecca!

I know you can plant annuals over the top of bulbs so you surely could put them under the fall lettuce. When you are talking about the garlic & shallots, I assume you mean literally *along* with not *underneath*. If you mean bulbs in the vegetable garden beside or next to.... YES!

Hey Virginia, to ATP!

I can't imagine why you shouldn't plant bulbs under your salad greens etc. Sounds like a fine idea to me.

The bulbs are fairly deep down, 4 or 5in. if you're talking about tulips and daffodils that is. So they won't rob the salad greens of nutrients while they grow, bloom and ripen off their foliage. The lettuce, garlic and shallots have all their roots in the top 2in. or so of soil. Probably not a good idea with root crops like carrots or beets, though. They go deeper.

Just be very careful if you're planting greens in the early spring not to nick the tips of the emerging bulbs as you prepare your soil. Maybe mark where you plant each bulb with a little stick or something? Just so you know where they are before they pop up.

Awesome! Yes, garlic and bulbs together, side by side, flowers below lettuces. I've just planted my bulbs and want to get a fall bit of lettuces/salad greens going for dinner in the next few weeks. What I did was dig into the ground, put some big pots in with just their top lips sticking out, then put in my dirt, mulch and compost in. Garlic comes in hopefully Friday so I can get those pots going and the lettuces are going in tomorrow. I'm so excited! Thank you!

Garlic certainly doesn't have roots at 2". The cloves themselves might be planted at 2" (all depends on the size of the clove) but the roots go much deeper than that. It would make absolutely no sense to plant anything above, besides, or beneath garlic cloves. You are just robbing the garlic of space and of nutrients.

Sounds good Dr. Dawg! I have five other pots set out in the garden area. They are set up with grass clippings, mulch, and manure. Now all is needed is garlic! Thanks! I gotta have my garlic healthy as I cook for 250 every week and I am so tired of always buying garlic. If I can get it growing I can most definitely put it to use!

Oh, maybe I was planting my garlic very shallow in Utah, because of the icky clay soil . . . It's some years ago now.

Still the garlic cloves don't go nearly as deep as a tulip or daff bulb, do they? I just recalled that the garlic bulbs were just barely below the soil when I harvested them, and had roots going out sideways from the bottoms of the bulbs, but not down very far.

At any rate, the question of garlic roots is moot since ReBecca is planting the garlic in pots & wants to put bulbs beside the garlic.

You're all set ReBecca! Ready to plant that garlic when it arrives. Happy Gardening & happy eating!

I plant a lot of garlic, both in a large raised bed and in numerous large, 24-30" diameter pots. I planted approximately 200 cloves last year and plan on planting 300 this year. In my experience, IF you plant the garlic cloves too close to each other, and this would be true for planting anything else in their vicinity, the bulbs will not develop as well. Don't forget that garlic will be in the ground for 6-7 months, its bulbs slowly developing from those single cloves. For maximum bulb size these bulbs need both nutrients and space. I would not want weeds, flowers, or any other type plants competing with my garlic. If one is satisfied with smaller garlic bulbs that's fine. I want to maximize my bulb size however possible.

These are some views of the raised garden last November. One variety of garlic is already coming up. Notice I box in all my garlic so that I can keep other plants away, to give more depth thus better draining, and to keep the various varieties separated. That's sweet potatoes and asparagus growing as well.

ReBecca.

Since you have much practice in this endeavor, how much spacing DrDawg for the garlic? I have already planted all bulbs and lettuces and have saved my other pots solely for the garlic. Thanks!

I leave 4" between cloves. Some of what I grow will end up being 1/4 lb. bulbs and those will be 2-3" in diameter. Your garlic should grow well in the pots. My pot-grown ones won't typically be quite as large as those grown in the garden simply because the wet/dry cycles are more prominent in the pots. The garden soil stays more evenly moist and that factor always encourages better and faster growth of plants.