The 'belt and suspenders' approach. My personal favorite. The problem with putting them in the raised bed is that the snow can still be a foot or so deep around the bed but they tops are snow free. So can't count on that nice insulation.

I have a bed that had strawberries in it that died. Strawberries not bed. I need to dry out the mix a little as it hold water rather heavily. Then I could experiment with planting garlic in the ground where it would benefit from the snow. Our ground freezes solid down a goodly ways. When the frozen earth retreats by more than 5 inches I plant seeds and some cool weather crops. I could still hit ice if I went deeper.

I had some marsh marigolds in the pond last year in a pot. I sunk the pot in one of the raised beds last fall and just covered with mulch. They started growing this spring well ahead of everyone else. The pot was stuck in ice and I slowly dug around it over days until the ice retreated enough to extricate the pot. Amazing. I bought another bunch as I am all for any plant, especially pond plants, that can survive our winter.

Growing in the ice and snow has to be "interesting".

Oh yeah. It's a blast. But once the snow and ice is gone we accept that our ambient temp is cooler and take that into consideration when planting. I am in a micro-climate though so I have a bit of an edge on others further out from the port area.

If I put perlite in the soil will it lighten it up a bit. I can't think of what else to put in there. I have a lot of trouble with moss and lichen even in areas that get sun. I have been liming beds that are really bad. I assume the culprits are acid soil and heavy soil. Too heavy on the peaty soil and manure I added I guess. I wonder if I add some of the baled soil I get from the greenhouse if that would help. It is a nice neutral soil.

pirl said:We do have one nursery that made its name with herbs and garlic so I'll ask them the next time I visit.

I used to go to Peconic Herb Farm but have not been there in years. But still I have bought many things there.

Mary, every time I add soil to my raised bed (and I just added 10 gal. to plant some donated lilies), I add a mix of 2/5 Black Kow, 2/5 milled sphagnum moss, and 1/5 coarse perlite. I just mix my garden soil with this "potting" soil. My raised bed is loaded with perlite and each time I amend it, the perlite content is increased. It never breaks down, at least not noticeably, and certainly does open up the soil. All my potting mixes (not orchid mixes though) are typically made with that same formula.

You guessed it, Rita!

pirl said:You guessed it, Rita!

It is really such a lovely place. Big of a drive for me though as I am on the North Shore, about mid Nassau County.

Mary, everything I have ever read about growing garlic in the north says to plant in late Sept., early Oct. -- I'm not sure when you would have to plant to get top growth, since I've never tried that; but again, "everything I have ever read" says the top growth will die back and deplete the energy of the bulb. (I do often have onions survive the winter and grow, even ones that were very tiny and I missed them when I harvested.) If you want to try that, I would suggest doing some of your garlic that way, and some the recommended way, so you can compare the results.

I will say that I'm a little surprised that your garlic is only barely coming up as of yet... I'm not sure if that's the difference with the raised bed vs open garden, or ?? Also, I plant my garlic a good 3 inches down, if not 4 (and always has a lot of snow cover because the garden is next to our dog pen and we "snow-blow" the dog pen in that direction). Garlic does need good drainage, though...

Anyway, just sayin'...

on the other hand, if I believed "everything I have read" I probably wouldn't be trying to grow Creole garlic

There is a NC Cooperative Extension site (my computer won't allow me to post a link today) that says to plant them 4" deep.

Aha! It's working now but wouldn't work this morning!
http://guilford.ces.ncsu.edu/2...

"Plant the cloves 4 in. deep and 6 in. apart making sure that the root end is sitting on the bottom, mulching heavily to protect from sub-zero temperatures."

It's very confusing since we're both zone 7 (NC and Long Island) and yet we've always been told the standard is 2" deep.

I will stick with the 2" since we never experience frozen soil. Perhaps since I mulch with 4" of oak leaves, that changes the depth a bit.

Planting bulb type stuff is a little different up here. That 'garlic lady' from the ABG was very insistent about 2". I think my failure or learning moment was that I planted in mulch instead of soil. I got to planting them so late the ground was freezing already. This fall they will be planted in nicely amended soil (ala Ken Ramsey) with lots of mulch on top. I noticed that the garlic beds at ABG aren't up yet either. Or Will has spread straw on top of them and I cannot see the growth. I will have to ask him.

I dug up the Sonoran and Shilla hardneck varieties last week and those are all hanging in my greenhouse for the two-week "curing". Today I will dig up the Maiskij and Purple Glazier bulbs. The Russian Red and Russian Giant varieties still don't look to be at their prime and ready to dig up. Perhaps next week for them and maybe a few varieties of the softneck and Creole will be ready as well.

You're a little ahead of me, Ken. My garlic is close but not ready. I'm growing exclusively the Early Red Italian and it's usually ready right around June 1st. We have 2 or 3 leaves brown but I usually wait til I see 6-8 leaves brown. I did dig one a couple days ago and it was a nice size. Do you ever eat it fresh? We ate the bulb the same day we dug it but found it to be a little too "not sweet" if you get my meaning. I figure curing will help the sweetness.

You hit on an important factor, Dave. Those who have only had store-bought garlic, are used to the mild taste and lack of heat. Heirloom, gourmet garlic has many times the flavor but it is pungent as well. Some varieties have an early heat that dissipates quickly, some have a sneaky heat that seems mild at first but then builds in the mouth, and some is just, well, extremely hot. We use chopped garlic all the time for marinates and in salads. Heck, when we have pizza delivered, we will often chop up some cloves and sprinkle it over the pizza. I will then pop it into the oven for ten minutes at 375-400F. If we cook, we generally use garlic.

I don't know that of all the varieties I have grown, some 30 now, I have ever had a "sweet" garlic, one without pungency. I taste every single variety I harvest, just a sliver, you understand. I like to tell folks what they can expect.

Dave, when you say "fresh," do you mean "raw," or just freshly dug ? I admit I don't have the most discerning palate in the world, but I've never met a raw garlic that I would describe as "sweet"... a nice roasted head of garlic, now that's a whole different story!! I can't honestly say that I've ever seen much difference in the garlic after allowing it to cure, though, either (other than it seems to be a lot harder to peel when it's really fresh).

The vast majority of roasted garlic in restaurants is Elephant garlic - it's not a garlic.

Weedwhacker said:Dave, when you say "fresh," do you mean "raw," or just freshly dug ? I admit I don't have the most discerning palate in the world, but I've never met a raw garlic that I would describe as "sweet"... a nice roasted head of garlic, now that's a whole different story!! I can't honestly say that I've ever seen much difference in the garlic after allowing it to cure, though, either (other than it seems to be a lot harder to peel when it's really fresh).

Yes, by fresh I mean just dug and immediately eaten.

We eat our garlic raw almost always and LOVE it. The Early Red Italian is as sweet as can be (to our palate, anyway) and we just love it. But this one clove we ate right out of the garden had a strange different taste to it. Almost "green" and oniony if that makes sense. And VERY hot. It could also be our weather. We've had almost no sun for a couple months and extremely high amounts of rain. I fear our garlic harvest will be not as good this year. I know some cloves are rotting in the ground.

We once ate the garlic the day I dug it up and loved the taste. The heat of some of the cloves was more than a bit surprising.

Dave, I could send you cloves from a half dozen garlic varieties that were dug in early June, 2014, and every single one will be pungent. I just can't imagine an heirloom garlic not pungent. It doesn't have to be terribly hot, but I sure could never call one "sweet". By sweet I assume you mean without "heat", right? That being said, I don't think I have every grown the variety you are growing.

We had a terribly wet winter and spring last year, and all my garlic was undersized, approximately 25% less weight/bulb. You may experience the same results. The garlic was still the same flavor/pungency as far as I could tell. Garlic does best for me when the last 4-6 weeks are a bit on the dry side.

drdawg said:The vast majority of roasted garlic in restaurants is Elephant garlic - it's not a garlic.

To my knowledge, I've never had roasted garlic in a restaurant -- just what I've roasted myself. And I've never seen any kind of recipe for roasting garlic that said to use elephant "garlic."

Not that I doubt that restaurants might call "elephant garlic" garlic and not even know the difference, though -- we once had dinner at a pretty nice place that listed a special as some dish or other accompanied by "sugar beets."