Long Island Gardening Community Resource

Today I prepped an area where I will plant garlic for next year. I am planting each clove 3 inches from its brother or sister.

I took some measuring tape, and a piece of thin plywood, and made myself a measuring stick, marking every inch with a marking and a number.

Then I used a horizontal cross section on my trellis and marked it every three inches (with a marker).  I wrapped a piece of string around it and tied a loose knot, allowing enough slack on the string to come out to the end of my bed.  I wrapped the other end around a pencil and stuck it in the ground every three inches so that I can prep my rows and add my valuable compost only to the spots I will need them the most.  That stuff is too valuable to be just throwing everywhere.

So I am making rows every three inches for the garlic.  I just wanted to loosen up the gound a bit so I can work in some organic matter and home-made compost.   Because I heard that garlic likes to breathe, I worked in a bit of  the straw that I had placed around my tomato plants into each row along with the compost.  And thats it.  When the weather cools down enough, I will plant my garlic every three inches.  My plan is to plant 100 garlic plants in a 60″ X 12″ plot (trying to get the most out of my “backyard gardening”).  Each row will measure 60″, spaced 3″ apart.  Each row will have 20 plants/row.  5 rows spaced 3″ apart is 100 plants.