Thursday started with plenty of supervision during photo editing. Once the blog was up I went to the kitchen to clean it up.
Someone claimed there was a mouse in this corner.
Once the morning chores were done, I sat down to break garlic bulbs apart and select seed grade cloves to plant. I put 100 cloves in each bucket then set about putting 100 markers in 2 more buckets. Finally I put 8 cups of BulbTone in each of the last 2 buckets.
My helper friend had arrived at 9:30AM and he collected all the equipment we’d need and brought it into the Big garden.
Then we laid out the first row and he broadforked it.
He also spread the remaining amendment on the whole area. The amendment balances the soil, the BulbTone adds a small amount of food just under the clove.
We were ready to plant once I ran the tape measure along the back side of the row. I plant garlic 6” apart and 6” deep. The rows are 2’ apart just because I am no longer 18” wide and I have to get down the rows to weed.
We managed to get 2 rows planted and one row mulched before he had to leave at 2PM. I was pretty wiped out.
2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map
The USDA has put out an updated map for hardiness. It has now moved me 4 zones south. I’ve always been a Zone 4a and now I am a Zone 6a. I’m still sticking to my frost times of May 31 and the 3rd week of September. I’m going to need a few more winters that don’t get down to -25F before I’m willing to change zones.
Moon rise, sunset
On Friday I’m having a window helper from 8 - 12PM. We have 13 windows, 4 of them big windows, to get done. My helper friend will be here from 8 - 11:30AM and he will have to mulch the 2nd row before he can start the 3rd row. He also needs to prep more garlic for that.
He returns at 3PM and I will be able to help him plant and mulch but it means we probably won’t finish the garlic on Friday.