All of the bunches of German Extra Hearty garlic (10 stalks each)
that have been hanging in the rafters
since early August were taken down on November 3, 2012.
The hardest part about raising garlic is just before the new planting goes in.
Each stalk needs to be cut with pruning sheers about an inch above the bulb.
Then the roots need to be cut with scissors, all the while
removing the outer dried dirt and outer skins.
The result is a drastic improvement in appearance and
it now resembles what you would buy at the supermarket.
There were 16 bundles kept separate for planting in November,
for a total of 160 bulbs pictured in the box above.
Believe it or not, this all that I would have to plant to get the same
160 bulbs that you saw hanging in the rafters in August.
Since each bulb has 4 cloves, I only need 40 bulbs
out of the 160 to match last year's total harvest!
However, not all of the 160 bulbs are worthy of going into the garden.
These are the smallest of the lot which are for my kitchen!
On November 4, 2012, I did final rotor-tilling(s) for the season.
I spent about an hour braking-up all of the garlic
bulbs into cloves for today's planting.
I almost ran out of room... I had 408 cloves to plant and it
took up a lot of space!
I outlined my impromptu, L-shaped row in the photo.
The row is 50 feet long with 5 cloves in width.
Not quite the 500 I was hoping to plant, but with over 200
more of the 10 other varieties, I'm looking at a very busy season in 2013!
