Garlic

"I'm happy now." 3 year old Liam Riley

This has by far been the best year of gardening we have had since we have moved in. The garlic has been no exception. We recently harvested three different varieties of the cloves from our raised bed and from our son's little side garden. It may be worth adding that his plants were huge and put ours to shame, he is a natural and just like his father it makes him happy being in the garden.

One of the goals we are aiming for next growing season is to make a solid transfer of the whole garden to raised beds, we will have to wait and see how well that works out. Part of the reason is that you are able to produce such large, healthy plants. Last year we grew lettuce in the raised bed and then at the end of the year we fed the soil with compost and in the fall put in the garlic bulbs that we just finished harvesting.

The health benefits of garlic are numerous and well documented, for example, it is a natural anti-biotic. For one reason or another the body does not develop a resistance to garlic the way it does to synthetic anti-biotics and thus the positive health benefits of garlic can last over a lifetime.

It is a fairly easy plant to grow so if you have the extra space put a few cloves of garlic in the ground this fall and enjoy the fruit of your labor the following year!

Tobias Whitaker blogs for Mother Earth News and Grit Magazine. Click on the Mother Earth News logo at the bottom of the page for all of his post. You can also find him on Facebook at Seed To Harvest: Bossy Hen Homestead  https://www.facebook.com/seedtoharvestbossyhenhomestead/ which is a central location for his homesteading blogs and his homeschooling blog, A Mile In Her Shoes: Tales Of A Stay-At Home Dad found here https://amileinhershoestalesofastayathomedad.wordpress.com/