Maple Leaves & Garlic

We had moments of sunshine over the weekend and with winter weather predicted we knew it might be our last chance to get some fall garden work done.  Namely, we needed to get the garlic planted.

We planted the garlic and covered it under a 3 inch layer of maple leaves.  We marked off the edge of the row with garden markers from the past season so that we don’t till over it as we get ready next spring.  Most dinners start with two cloves of garlic and some chopped onion here at Two Frog Home, so this garlic is important to us.  We planted two different varieties both hardneck types (Purple Italian & Early White) and both from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply.  If you’re new to planting / growing garlic, Peaceful Valley and Seed Savers have great growing guides with simple to follow advice that has worked well for us for the last several years.

Beyond just covering the garlic, the maple leaves have been raked into the garden as part of our overall soil nutrition program. We’ve spread the raked leaves over the garden and weather permitting, we’ll till those leaves into the soil.  This morning the ground is covered in snow and if it stays that way until spring, that’s okay, they’ll get tilled in then.  We allow them to compost right into the dirt and honestly, I have no doubt that these leaves are greatly responsible for how we’ve been able to turn what was a patch of lawn into fairly good garden soil in just four years.  Oh, we add other compost as we have it available but these leaves and the sheer volume of them get the majority of the credit for the soil amendment around here.

What’s happening in your October Garden?