Raised Beds for Garlic and Peanuts

[dogginfox]

I will be planting Garlic and Peanuts this spring. In the next few days i will be constructing a few raised beds for planting this spring. I am wondering how tall each bed should be for each type.

Thanks
Dogginfox

 

[Reinbeau]

I don't think there's a set height, usually it would depend on what you're going to use for sides. My raised beds are 12" high because we used 2x12's to build them. If there's something special for peanuts then someone else will have to chime in, I've never grown them. Garlic I grow every year, however, this year for the first time it's in the ground proper, as I've rearranged things out there.

 

[Hencackle]

Reinbeau--do you plant your garlic in the spring or fall? I didn't get mine planted last fall and I wondered if I can have still have a decent crop if I plant this spring. (I'm zone 6)

 

[patandchickens]

I wouldn't make them any higher than you have to, since to some extent the higher the bed the more additional watering it needs.

I'm not aware of garlic or peanuts needing an unusual depth of soil - both grow underground, yes, but relatively close to thew surface.


Pat

 

[Buff Shallots]

Hencackle, garlic is usually planted in the fall because it needs a good 9 months in the ground to do its thing. If you plant them in spring, maybe you could get some small cloves out of it?...

Edited to add: we grow our garlic in raised beds. We have to because our yard is 99% sand.

 

[patandchickens]

On the one hand, like Buff Shallots I'm used to thinking of garlic as a fall planted crop...

...but on the other hand, as fall is even longer off than springtime is , here's really no reason *not* to plant garlic in the spring as long as you have modest expectations. I'd say go ahead and do it (I think that's actually the usual way of growing garlic in areas with winters too cold for garlic to be happy aboveground but too warm for it to keep its head down til spring!).

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Reinbeau]

Yes, I'd plant it as early as I could work the ground if I didn't get them in in the fall, but that's when I usually do it. I plant them late, end of October to mid-November, and then once the ground freezes, I mulch it heavily with leaves to keep the ground frozen until early spring. I do get the mulch off as soon as I can, around mid-March, because they really like to come up in the cool of spring.

 

[dogginfox]

Thanks for all the info!

as far as soil and compost that i will be adding to the raised beds i would like to add some sand to the peanut bed but i can only find play sand locally which is really high in silicates. Is this ok for plants or will it have negative effects?