Leaving Montana

I’m responding to your last entry in your blog regarding your trip to Montana. Sounded like you really loved Montana. Just curious why you left? I would have to agree with you it is a beautiful state.

Melody
Olympia, Washington

I really, really LOVE Montana. But we left because land prices have gotten so high that we couldn’t afford to homestead on the scale we wanted to. Land is so much more affordable here in Minnesota and you can buy 40, 100, 120 acres of wild land here where the only wild land in such acreages are in remote “subdivisions” where you will have neighbors … and not always the best of neighbors. Here, we have 120 acres that we could afford and winged and four-footed neighbors. — Jackie

Garlic and onions

We are interested in onions and garlic and would like to see an article of in-depth information for dummies. Last year we planted garlic toes in late October. They sent leaves up and when the freeze came they died.

Jim G.
Mount Vernon, Ohio

I’ll be happy to do an article on onions and garlic. They’re really easy if you do it right. Therein lies the key, as with many “difficult” garden crops such as carrots and parsnips. Planting in the fall is necessary for good garlic but, as you found out, planting too late doesn’t let the cloves send out strong roots and get established before freezing weather. — Jackie

3 COMMENTS

  1. when I moved into this house, the back side of my land was covered in garlic. after the neighbor harvested his garlic, the small ones he just threw out on the ground, and the next spring, up it came. I had no clue garlic was so difficult to grow. we get down to 20 below a couple times per winter but, most of the time, we stay pretty close to the 30 to 40 mark. I’m delighted we don’t have the pure cold all you northerners consider normal. we also get more ice than snow, just not often. my neighbor passed away, and the garlic slowly disappeared since then.
    gen

  2. Jim G, I’d suspect that you didn’t mulch your garlic and as Jackie said, it was planted late. But even planted late, it would likely have survived if it had been mulched. Mulch is key to fall planting of garlic, onions and shallots. I’d never get a crop without it because where I live there’s a lot of freeze/thaw, very cold winter temps, and unmulched cloves and bulbs tend to freeze and to heave out of the ground. I use hay, straw works if you don’t have wind. I put down a good 4 inches and have to weight it down so it doesn’t blow off. I think if you will mulch on your next try you’ll have success. The other thing I do is apply fish emulsion fertilizer in spring, once a week for about 2 months (how long depends on when your sprouts come up), one tablespoon to a gallon of water. My soil is good and amended each year, but the fish emulsion just seems to add a boost of early strong growth and disease prevention.

  3. Jim G, I’d suspect that you didn’t mulch your garlic and as Jackie said, it was planted too late. But even planted late, it would likely have survived if it had been mulched. Mulch is key to fall planting of garlic, onions and shallots. I’d never get a crop without it because where I live there’s a lot of freeze/thaw and unmulched cloves and bulbs tend to heave out of the ground. I use hay, straw works if you don’t have wind. I put down a good

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