Plant up! Plant up!

Yahoo!  It’s that beautiful time of year again!

Autumn!

And time to plant your garlic and shallots, it may not be the shortest day of the year yet, but this weekend the moon is in the right place to plant your root crops..

Garlic and Shallots

I’m going to try to put mine in today.   I had a wonderful group of friends come round in my last days of pregnancy that planted a crop of garlic for me which are just emerging now…

Garlic

Garlic doesn’t need a lot of compost, just light friable soil with good drainage.  Too much nitrogen can cause the garlic to develop side shoots (I can attest to that from the year I used grass clippings as mulch for my garlic).  Potassium and phosphate are all good, so if you have some wood ash hanging around dig that in.  Pop them in pointy end up and about the same depth as the clove, don’t want them too deep or they might rot.  Bring on the rain and frosts, they love it.  So easy!

Old Culpeper has some warnings on the use of garlic (in 1653)……

“In choleric men it will add fuel to the fire; in men oppressed by melancholy it will attenuate the humours, and send up strong fancies, and as many strange visions to the head; therefore let it be taken inwardly with great moderation…”

Tell that to my garlic bread!  You have been warned men!

Happy planting!