Square Box Gardening #6

My Surprise Garlic Crop!

Maybe you remember me talking about harvesting my crop of Garlic a few months ago. I believe it was toward the middle of August if I remember correctly. I cleaned the whole bed out - or thought I had.  When I was done digging and sifting for Garlic,  I planted several cloves in one of my large Garden  Boxes. So, I had about a quart jar full of nice moderate sized garlic cloves.  I also had saved several to replant for a fall garden patch. Little did I know that the fun was just starting.

  A couple weeks ago around Halloween time, I noticed these little bushes popping up in my old garlic patch. At first when I pulled one up I thought some of my Wild Onions had jumped their fence and gotten loose and were running around in my garden without a leash! 

 It seems that I had accidentally left a few Garlic cloves in the ground after thinking I had thoroughly cleaned the original patch. I hadn't! Where I had overlooked an old garlic, a nest of new garlic arose! I dug out the first clump thinking they were just weeds. Low and Behold, out come a handful of New garlic plants! Nearly 30! Some were already as big as my thumb. I could see where the original Spring Planted Garlic had disappeared as food for the new ones I suppose. What an amazing process!

It was time to plant Garlic, and dad-gum, if I wasn't ready to set them out then they were just have to start without me! I looked over the the old plot, and there were close to 10 clumps just like the first!  Some much bigger!  I was astounded and bewildered by the discovery of all these Garlic growing health and happy ready to transplant into my Fall Garden.

Just when I was going to go down the Produce Aisle and select a few Grocery Store Elephant Garlic like I did this spring - because Elephant Garlic seems to make a lot of Cloves! I'm not really Thrifty, I'm just Cheap.  Besides, growing Garlic is still new to me.  I'll just experiment and stumble around for a year or two until I get it right. Then I'll have more stories to tell.

The new plants are easily detached from the clump of roots.

 Now, I had to do something with them. As I dug each partial clump out, I dropped them immediately into a half-full Fruit Jar of cool water.

 
 Golly those jars come in handy, though I have to Beg, Borrow. and sometimes (out of pure desperation you understand) Steal them from my daughter. She did give me the ones with the "Small Mouths" though. Their not good for pickling she says because she can't get her fingers out and she dances around the kitchen with a fruit jar stuck to her finger! Anyway..

I checked the boxes that I had put the mid-august cloves in and there were quite a few missing plants.. I dug around. They were gone. Killed by the summer heat I suspect. They had just rotted away. Planted at the wrong time I guess.. When the experts say plant them in the fall, I guess they mean it!

So I set about planting the newly leafed out garlic cloves into the empty spots in one of my Big Boxes (4 Square Feet).  

As you can see, there are a few Big Leaves on the right side of the 2 X 2 square foot Garden Box.  These are what is left from the planting that was made too early in Mid August. I  have already planted quite a few new garlic in this picture.  I  planted them a little over an inch deep and in rows about 3 inches wide.

The plants are planted 3 inches apart.  This is probably a little closer than recommended, but my "Small Box Gardening" method should allow me to grow Garlic denser than usual. I will  soon be covering all my Garlic over with a thick mulch to protect them over the winter. In the spring about Late March or Early April here in South Central Kansas (zone 6b, I will be pulling the mulch away from the plants as they start to grow. According to the Master Gardeners, I should be pulling  a nice crop of large Elephant Garlic about Late July when the tops start falling over.  Wish me Luck!

Bob

GrandBob

Square Box Gardening #7

http://GrandBobsGarden.Blogspot.Com

E-mail Direct:  robertlee97@gmail.com

Square Box Gardening - # 4

How to Do and Use Square Box Gardening

Why I use a Plastic Sheet Bottom on my Boxes

 Go back to the very beginning of this article and view the Large Introduction Photo.  In the background, you will see a few light green boxes with plants in them. But no grass or weeds at all in these boxes. Only between boxes or on the outside of the boxes do you see unwanted grass or weeds.  I have spent maybe a half-hour on all 20 of my Pickle Cucumber Boxes - all Summer! 

 In the front close to these green boxes is a redwood colored box setting next to the redwood trellis just packed with grass as well as a few onions, a cucumber plant and a few leeks with large ''Pom-Poms" at the top. This box has no bottom and sets right on the ground. I have weeded it maybe 4 times this summer and the Grass - since it is coming from the ground Below the Box - is terribly hard to Keep out and Get.  This is how I started growing in boxes. I had a lot of work cut out for me since the boxes were setting directly on the ground. I wanted drainage but the boxes had to be weeded and de-grassed at least every week to keep clear. With the Green Colored Boxes, I rarely have to pull out a weed even once a month. Part of the reason is the Plastic Sheet Bottoms and the other is the soil mix that I use. It is usually clean of most weeds when I first use it.  The wind carries a few weed seeds and grass seeds occasionally in inspite of the caution to keep them out.  With the Drainage Holes around the bottom of the boxes, I never have to worry about plants being drowned by a "Gully Washer" rain. [ A Kansas term for a very heavy Rain Storm]. We know, don't we guys and gals... When the soil is put in the boxes, I press down a little firmer around the edges of the box when I pack the soil mix down.  Since watering is easy and takes small amounts, and the holes are on the sides of the box instead of the bottom, very little soil is lost. Maybe a half inch of soil this year from each box. 

Grow More Plants in a Whole Lot Less Space

Since these are square foot boxes, and I can control the amount of water and  nutrients going into each box, I can grow more plants in a smaller area.  For example, 3 cucumber plants (as in most "hills") in one box. - since I grow them under a rope trellis and they grow UP instead of Out, They take up only 1 square foot of garden space. Not only that, I could probably put one box against the next with no space between and have about 90 plants in a 30 foot row! But I haven't tried that yet so I don't know how that will work out.  I put about a 2 inch space between the boxes and let the grass grow between them. If it gets too long, I give the grass clumps a haircut with a kitchen scissors.I have figured out a simple method to keep the grass growing through much without cutting it. A herbicide is completely out.

Check Out:

More Square Box Gardening #5

There is more to come so stop by often to catch the latest up date on Square Box Gardening.  Please go to the bottom of the page and check one of the Comment Blocks.  More important, Please leave a comment and let me know how I am doing and what articles you might want me to write and ideas and experiments You have tried.  I might even have You write an Article for us!

Coming Soon: "How to "Winnow" Onion Seeds"  and also Leek and Chives using the same method - like the pros probably did 3 thousand years ago! Subscribe Below to keep from missing a post!

Cheers!

Bob

GrandBob

To write a personal note, I will always respond and soon. E-mail, robertlee97@gmail.com . I am always glad to hear from my garden friends!