Wintering My Garden

[flowerbug]

from Central IL. Your growing zone/state have a LOT to do with answering your question. Please put your location with your avatar bc I won't remember where you live once you start posting.

Around The Farm Table - Garlic: The Stinking Rose - Twin Cities PBS

Inga prepares a fall harvest meal for farmer friends who helped plant garlic.

www.tpt.org

She lives in Wisconsin and might be in a similar zone to you.
I live in a warmer zone, and ALL of my advice was to get it into the ground ASAP.
Inga plants in October and covers with straw.

garlic seeds are very different than planting cloves or what is commonly called seed garlic. so just trying to figure out if they are speaking of actual seeds or bulbules/cloves is first thing i'd have to do to give accurate response...

 

[Jane23]

Now that cooler weather is coming, I expect my winter plants to start going. Today is the last day of hotter weather, or so it seems from the weather report. I have a hardiness zone of 4b, meaning I am in for a cold winter, which requires a lot of straw to keep sensitive plants alive.

I already have plenty of straw ready to cover the garlic I will plant next week (if it stops raining) and have surrounded my strawberry plant, the potato transplants I want to try to winter, and the onion seeds I just planted. I know I am "late" for some seeds and too early for others.

This year has been interesting for gardening. A lot of the people in my area are saying the same thing as most of us couldn't get our summer plants in the ground until almost the end of June because we kept having seriously cold weather and freezes.

 

[Jane23]

garlic seeds are very different than planting cloves or what is commonly called seed garlic. so just trying to figure out if they are speaking of actual seeds or bulbules/cloves is first thing i'd have to do to give accurate response...

I am not planting garlic seeds. I purchased organic cloves, which I have separated to plant next week.

 

[flowerbug]

I am not planting garlic seeds. I purchased organic cloves, which I have separated to plant next week.

yes, that is what i suspected but can't always be sure. better to ask.

you can plant them any time before the ground freezes. mulch may or may not be needed depending upon variety and soil conditions and if it gets too dry there during the winter months. if the variety is suited for your climate and the soil is more sandy or mineral and doesn't hold water very well then mulch might be ok but towards spring when the weather starts to get warm enough consistently pull the mulch back a bit to let the sun warm the soil and to keep the green sprouts growing.

i've had some winter's here where it is mild enough that the garlic would stay green even under the snow and i've had other times when the winter is so cold and raw that the green gets killed back to the ground level, but the garlic will regrow as soon as the weather warms up enough.

raised beds might get too dried out so after planting the garlic give them a good watering and then mulch would probably be good enough. if the weather remains warm enough they may sprout and start growing but that really doesn't hurt anything as later on when it gets cold enough they'll go dormant again until it warms up again.

i have to use raised beds here for some drainage as the soil here is mostly clay and if i didn't put them up a bit it would be soggy all the time (especially through the winter/cooler seasons when our water table can get pretty high). we also can have flash floods so that's the other reason for putting things up a bit.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Welcome from Southern Washington.

 

[Jane23]

yes, that is what i suspected but can't always be sure. better to ask.

you can plant them any time before the ground freezes. mulch may or may not be needed depending upon variety and soil conditions and if it gets too dry there during the winter months. if the variety is suited for your climate and the soil is more sandy or mineral and doesn't hold water very well then mulch might be ok but towards spring when the weather starts to get warm enough consistently pull the mulch back a bit to let the sun warm the soil and to keep the green sprouts growing.

i've had some winter's here where it is mild enough that the garlic would stay green even under the snow and i've had other times when the winter is so cold and raw that the green gets killed back to the ground level, but the garlic will regrow as soon as the weather warms up enough.

raised beds might get too dried out so after planting the garlic give them a good watering and then mulch would probably be good enough. if the weather remains warm enough they may sprout and start growing but that really doesn't hurt anything as later on when it gets cold enough they'll go dormant again until it warms up again.

i have to use raised beds here for some drainage as the soil here is mostly clay and if i didn't put them up a bit it would be soggy all the time (especially through the winter/cooler seasons when our water table can get pretty high). we also can have flash floods so that's the other reason for putting things up a bit.

My soil has too much clay, but other than that it’s fairly good for most plants. Aside from the ones they have trouble breaking through the clay. It holds moisture fairly well the top is quick to dry out.

I am expecting enough snow/rain to take care of my garden as the winter comes in, I am mostly concerned with temperatures as low as -40 killing any sprouts I get. I have plenty of straw to cover those beds.

 

[flowerbug]

...I am mostly concerned with temperatures as low as -40 killing any sprouts I get. I have plenty of straw to cover those beds.

if the garlic you selected is ok for your climate the worst that will happen is the sprouts get knocked back but they'll start growing again when it warms up more later on.

 

[digitS']

We need @R2elk ..

. to weigh in here on choices, care and scheduling..

I'm thinking that SE Montana is much like Central Wyoming.

 

[Jane23]

I think it is like central Wyoming. I live in an area that gets very cold. One of my friends did a garlic variety pack last year, and she is also planting the same this year. She told me to layer straw pretty thick over any onion seeds I spread and garlic I plant and that they will make it just fine.

 

[digitS']

I did some checking on Wikipedia and the "lowest" part of Montana is where the Kootenai River comes into northern Idaho.

. So, you are at a higher altitude that I am altho at a lower latitude there in the SE and the other side of the Rockies.

Wyoming is a little crazy for a gardener. We would have to utilize @Alasgun technology in much of that state. Lower latitude doesn't count for much at 10,000 feet elevation. Good Gravy! The Weather Service provides first & last frost dates and for some Wyoming communities, there isn't a single month without the strong possibility of frost. That isn't true with some of the state and I wonder about some neighbors that I once had who moved into @R2elk 's country. Looking again at Wikipedia's climate information - it really isn't too much different in their new town than here. However, WY is a big state so even one area of it is variable in geography and climate.

Steve