Playing safe.

You may remember that last year I planted garlic in three different ways. I posted about it here.

One lot was planted directly in the ground on the plot, another lot was planted in small pots to be transplanted onto the plot later and a third lot was planted in  tubs that were like the pots kept in our cold garden greenhouse to be lifted outside at a later date.

At harvesting time I found that the cloves planted directly on the plot and those planted in tubs out performed those that were started in pots and transplanted. The garlic didn't seem to appreciate the disturbance. Even though in the past I have grown garlic successfully in this way, I decided this year I would employ only the two most successful methods. 

Our soil is fairly heavy clay that can become very soggy during winter - last year the drier winter maybe provided better conditions for directly planted garlic but already this year the ground is very wet. For this reason I decided to have a back-up plan and plant garlic in tubs as well as planting outdoors.

I also decided to restrict myself to just two varieties Early Purple Wight - a hard neck type - and Provence Wight - a soft neck type and also Elephant garlic. 

Cloves were planted outdoors at the same time as the autumn planted onions and in the same bed in mid October.

I kept back a bulb of each ordinary garlic variety which have now been planted in a long trough.

and five cloves of elephant garlic which have now been planted in a large pot.

The cloves were completely covered after taking the photos. 

If you want to read about last year's garlic growing experiences there is a summary on our website here

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author by S Garrett