I hope it's not too late...

Last year we planted our garlic given to us by Zoe & Matt at the end of October. This year, however, I was out of town for the last few days of that crucial month. And on top of that, it snowed! I don't really know what the protocol is for planting garlic after a snowfall, but the ground wasn't frozen yet, so I'm hoping for the best. This is what our little 2.5' x 3' bed looked like in the midst of planning:

Each row has a different variety of garlic! Ten altogether, and I think I planted around 67 cloves. I decided to only plant the varieties that were heavy producers of giant bulbs. I'm not a garlic afficionado, I just love it all. So if a plant will give me huge, beautiful bulbs, I'm all for it. Just plant the individual cloves pointy-end up (the side that sometimes sprouts while sitting on your kitchen counter) a few inches apart. I put mine about 2 inches under the top of the soil.

You can sort of see my map here. If you're planting multiple varieties of anything in the same bed, and you care about the names of them (our include such lovelies as "Music," "German Porcelain," and "Whistlestop," so how could I not want to remember those?), then a map is a must. Just put it somewhere where you'll be able to find it come next summer.

And the last step is to cover the babies with a heaping layer of mulch. Last year we put on about 6 inches of straw with huge success, but Drew is out of town and I didn't have any straw to spare. What's a girl to do? I gathered up a bunch of fallen fig tree leaves from the blizzard, along with some oak leaves, and thinking this will probably be pretty acidic, I topped it all off with a few big comfrey leaves for good measure. I have no idea if this was a huge mistake, if maybe I should have just waited till Drew got home to help me with the straw. Anyone know? Anyone? But I suppose gardening is a constant learning experience. And darnit, I had to get those cloves in the ground soon!