Garden Log (what I did):
1. Watered garlic sprouts in sidewalk veggie bed.
You, the Habitat Gardener (reflections):
1. Our veggie bed along the sidewalk, Straw Bale Recliner, is sprouting garlic through the straw mulch. Yay!, the garlic bulbs that I got from the supermarket germinated — I was somewhat anxious about whether they would sprout or not because I have been told that sometimes the markets irradiate garlic bulbs to prevent sprouting in the market. Makes sense but I have been successful with the big-market garlic a couple of seasons now. And yes, the supermarket’s price of garlic is more friendly to my gardening budget.
Garlic sprouting in Straw Bale Recliner veggie bed.
What an easy crop garlic is! So glad that we planted the cloves before the New Year. Nothing was growing in the beds anyway so what could we lose? Come spring we will have both a crop AND soil that was loved all winter long. Soil that was alive! Soil that had a happy exchange of mineral nutrients, microbes, insects, earthworms, snails, slugs, and plant roots. Soil that sent out green stalk ambassadors to capture the sun’s energy, make food with it, and send it to the developing garlic bulbs.
We mulched the newly planted garlic cloves with a light layer of straw. The mulch protects the soil from a heavy rainfall and helps keep moisture in the bed so the garlic does not stop thriving. So easy to lay the thin layer of mulch BEFORE the sprouts reach skyward. What a pain to have plants sprout and then want to mulch the bed. Been there, done that enough times to appreciate getting the mulch down during planting. Not only is mulching after sprouting difficult, but also doing so can damage a recently sprouted plant.
Close-up of garlic sprouting through a thin layer of straw.
Mulching during planting does present a trade-off, though. If the mulch layer is too thick, the sun will not warm the soil enough, with air and moisture becoming trapped in the soil. The seed/bulb will rot and die. So, moderation prevails when mulching over a planted crop. Hard to say amounts here — too many factors, like soil type, hours of sunlight, type of seed, weather conditions, to say just what that thin layer of mulch ought to look like. Try it! You’re bound to get it right eventually. Yes, even you 🙂 .
Tony