We are planting garlic this week. We'll probably be done today. Then we will mulch the field with a fairly thick layer of straw and wait until spring. We are using cloves of several hardneck varieties: Bogatyr, German Porcelain, Music, Marino, Nova Scotia, Red Rocambole, Killarney, and Temptress.
For the curious, a bogatyr in Russian is an heroic knight-errant. Unconfirmed rumors have it that if you eat plenty of Bogatyr garlic you will become infused with the virtues of a legendary hero. We are not sure whether Music is so named because of the special melodic qualities of this tasty variety, but we do know that it originated in Ontario, Canada.
In our minds we associate garlic planting with cool weather and sweaters. Who would have guessed that on the first day of November we would be working with short-sleeved t-shirts?
Morning action: above we see Dave Vernon dropping cloves into dibbled holes set about five inches apart, while Carrie is walking to refill her empty container with garlic cloves to plant. In addition to the volunteer work of Dave, a new DC resident who hails from the UK, we also benefitted from the great help of volunteers Andrea Humm and Pat Burke.
Late afternoon: Joe getting ready to dibble more holes (two sets of rows per hill). Megan is dropping cloves and Carrie is covering holes.
Later still: Carrie and Megan planting with brio as the sun is setting lower and lower. The long days of summer are long gone.
One of the benefits of working outside. This is how it looked when we were ready to go home.
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