On 6/17/12 12:48 AM, Higgs Boson wrote:
On Jun 16, 3:50 pm, Frank Miles wrote:
On Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:57:14 -0700, Higgs Boson wrote:
I usually plant cloves of garlic between roses to discourage pests;
seems to work pretty well.

However, when the foliage dries out and droops and I dig up the garlic,
it's never a full head with cloves. Just one Tiny.

What am I doing wrong?

Or is this the way it's supposed to be?

HB

Don't know where you are - but in the Pacific NW, we generally plant the
garlic around Oct 1.

HTH-

I am downstate from you. I guess I thought "mild, Mediterranean
climate" would signal So. Calif. coastal.

I have been coordinating garlic planting to pruning the roses. Do
you do that as well? Should I be doing it? Following David Ross's
comment, maybe I should NOT.
Because after pruning roses, I would not feed them. But I would,
selon lui, need to feed the garlic. Sounds like I am slowly thinking
myself into planting garlic earlier. Yes? No?

HB


I would treat garlic as a spring bulb, planting it around the second
half of October.

By the way, my earlier comment about fertilizers is that garlic -- and
many other spring bulbs -- should not get a lot of nitrogen. One
feeding with a general fertilizer around early March should be
sufficient. Roses on the other hand require repeated feedings. I feed
mine monthly from the time new growth starts until the end of October.
I only stop in October so that I won't be pruning new shoots in December
and January.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary