Back in August I harvested my 2015 crop of garlic. I’m still tallying up the totals (everything I do these days is done in the fastest, most efficient way possible, but not always with the same attention to detail as I used to give; having an infant around will do that to you). This weekend I finally retrieved it from the shed lean-to where it was curing for the last couple of months, and I planted next year’s crop.

I opted not to replant a couple varieties this year that didn’t do well. A few varieties seemed susceptible to rot, so I focused on the best performers for next year’s crop: Music, Leningrad, Siberian, Ukrainian and Persian. I’m giving up on Korean and Russian Red. There are about 285 cloves in the ground — five varieties instead of nine — all mulched and ready for winter. Yay! What a huge relief to have that done. I was a bit worried the way the weather was going that I wasn’t going to get them in, but we got to the farm on the weekend with just enough time for me to hastily plant before the rain blew in. I plan to put a few rows in my raised beds at home as well, because it’s nice to have some garlic within reach when it’s ready, and this is really the first fall I’ve had my raised beds back in action since we moved.

The two varieties I didn’t plant at the farm are Purple Glazer and Hungarian, so I think I’ll plant a few of these here. Purple Glazer is so small in size that I’m tempted not to bother with it at all, but it is a lovely garlic I’ve been growing for years and always grows well, so I’m not quite ready to give it up. Hungarian is the other variety I didn’t plant at the farm; it seemed predisposed to rot last year but did better this year, so maybe it will do better in my raised beds here in the city.