Readers,

Now, summer is officially over for the garden. (And us too!) So, you can plant things like beets, carrots, hardy greens, and garlic. This post is mostly about garlic and how to plant it.

First, you need to order garlic cloves. The easiest way to plant garlic is not with seeds. The part you plant is actually the same part you eat! Garlic cloves look like this:

garlic clove

These come off of a larger piece of garlic called a “head.” It is sort of like an orange, in that it has sections you can break apart. It grows underground. I can’t show you a picture of the full head, because we have already broken them apart. But, if you don’t know what a garlic head looks like, I encourage you to go see them at the grocery store!

To plant them, the pointy end goes up. Leave the skin on the garlic cloves. Plant them about 1-2 inches deep and space them about 6 inches apart. Fill in the holes and cover your bed with straw, like this:

garlic bedThis is our garlic bed at home. Apparently you should harvest it when the bottom leaves of the plant start to die off, usually in late spring to early summer.

Also, I have started a little herb garden on a sunny kitchen windowsill. I am growing basil, cilantro and mint, although the mint has not sprouted yet. I mist them with a spray bottle every day. I will hopefully have lots of yummy seasonings in a few months! A picture:

herb garden

Note the purple color of the basil (center)! It is called “Red Rubin” basil.

So, plant some garlic and I’ll get back to you next week!