• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Carol J. Michel

Award winner author of gardening humor books

  • About
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Shop
    • Gardening Humor
    • Children’s Books
    • New – The Halloween Hare
  • Social
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
  • The Gardenangelists Podcast
  • Gardening Humor
  • Children’s
  • All Books

May Dreams Gardens

Bon Jardinage! – Garlic and shallots

November 3, 2014 By Carol Michel 7 Comments

I couldn’t pull this sweet alyssum when I weeded today.

As visions of Julia Child danced through my head, I planted shallots and garlic in the vegetable garden today. This was the perfect day for it.

We finally got our first frost and our first freeze on Saturday morning. Hallelujah and glory-be. I was ready for it. I’m used to the first frost coming around October 10th and that’s the signal to start garden clean up.

Forget that I don’t ever really start garden clean up in earnest until November.  Just accept that I needed the first frost to remind me to at least start planning to clean up the garden messes.

Really, everyone needs a little time and some early signs of the end of the growing season, like frost,  to start thinking about garden clean up before they actually do it.  We need time to process that it is truly the end of the growing season again.

Now I feel all behind.

But I’ll pull myself up by my gardening boots and get on with it now that it is November and we’ve had frost.

So today, under clear skies with temps in the 40’s, I cleaned up just one raised bed in the veg garden,  the one where I planted shallots and garlic.

Did you know we should plant garlic and shallots in the fall? Sure you did.

This year, I planted French Grey Shallots and three kinds of garlic – ‘Chesnok Red’, ‘Metechi’ and ‘Purple Glazer”. These are all hard-neck garlic varieties, which do better in my climate than the soft neck varieties.

Shallots and Garlic all in a row

I bought the garlic bulbs from Botanical Interests because they sell them by the bulb instead of the pound. I truly do not need to plant garlic by the pound. Same with shallots. Just one little bag from Renee’s Gardens is enough for my garden.

To plant garlic, you first need to separate the cloves from the bulb.

One bulb, many cloves

Each clove will grow into a nice new bulb of garlic.

The number of cloves per bulb varies, as I found out. The ‘Metechi’ bulb was nice and big but was made up of only five or six cloves, which was about half a row. What about the rest of the row? Leave it blank?  It wouldn’t look right in the spring.

I don’t usually suggest people plant garlic cloves from garlic bulbs they buy at the grocery store. Who knows what the variety is? And maybe the bulb was treated with something to keep it from sprouting. And maybe, if you didn’t check closely, it came all the way from China.

But I had some organic garlic from the grocery store that came from California so I decided to plant some of it to fill out the row.  And to satisfy my curiosity about how well grocery store garlic would grow for me.  After all, it is probably a soft-neck variety. It might not grow well, but then again, it might grow just fine.

In either case, hopefully it will fill out the row. Symmetry restored.

Of course, I labeled my shallot and garlic rows.

Always label the varieties. You WILL forget.

And then I planted them in alphabetic order. You never know what could happen to a wooden plant tag in the wintertime. A bunny could run off with it. It could get erased by snow and ice. Or it could just get picked up by the wind and tossed about.

Yes, best to plant in alphabetical order if you can.  Left to right as you stand and look west. That’s the order I went alphabetically, in case anyone asks. And the grocery store garlic? I labeled it ‘Grocery Store’.

Now to wait until the end of June or thereabouts when the tops of the shallots and garlic begin to yellow and die back.  Then I’ll harvest, clean, and air dry my crops and begin perusing through some cookbooks to see what I should cook, Julie Child style.

To borrow a phrase from Julia, “Bon Appetit”!  Or shall I say “Bon Jardinage”!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: vegetable gardening

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Unknown says

    November 3, 2014 at 5:15 am

    The grocery store garlic is most likely from Gilroy. They have a big festival every year and even have garlic ice cream. I live in Sacramento and the Gilroy festival is a really big deal. Maybe you can make some garlic ice cream when your crop ready.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilroy_Garlic_Festival

    Reply
  2. Anonymous says

    November 3, 2014 at 11:47 am

    Sure 'nuf, just went & checked… my cooking garlic IS from China. Who knew?

    Pickled garlic is good.
    Roasted garlic, spread on French bread, is yummy. Enjoy!

    Reply
  3. Carol Michel says

    November 3, 2014 at 11:52 am

    @gotthedirt – I would return that garlic from China to the store where you got it and get your money back! Buy organic if you can.

    Reply
  4. CommonWeeder says

    November 3, 2014 at 12:50 pm

    I got my first garlic bulbs from a neighbor, known locally as the Garlic King. It is a German hardneck variety. When he crowned me Garlic Queen at our annual Heath Fair the crown was made of softneck garlic so this year I have planted hardneck and soft neck garlic beds, using my own best garlic bulbs, and three of the six softneck bulbs from my crown.Filaree Farm has many many garlic varieties and really good advice.

    Reply
  5. Covegirl says

    November 3, 2014 at 12:53 pm

    I will begin my clean up today.

    Reply
  6. Cindy, MCOK says

    November 3, 2014 at 1:48 pm

    Here's to many stinky heads of garlic in your future!

    Reply
  7. Unknown says

    November 3, 2014 at 6:33 pm

    It will be interesting to compare how your grocery store garlic progresses compared to your named varieties.
    I do like your alphabetical strategy for planting as I am constantly baffled by disappearing labels/ fading labels/ broken labels etc…

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Updates from Carol Michel

* indicates required
Email Preferences

Categories

  • Blog (3,053)
  • Internal (2)

Blog Tags

annuals Blogging books bulbs dr. hortfreud embrace fairies fall family flowers fruits garden bloggers bloom day garden bloggers book club garden design gardeners gardening gardening geek gardens hoes holidays hortense hoelove houseplants humor indoor gardening insects lawn letters to gardening friends perennials rabbits reviews Secrets seeds shrubs spring tools trees vegetable garden vegetable gardening vegetables weather weeding weeds when a gardener wildflower wednesday winter

The Gardenangelists Podcast with Dee Nash

Gardenangelists Podcast

Footer

Gardenangelists Podcast with Dee Nash

Gardenangelists Podcast

Connect

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • maydreams icon

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Contact
  • Books
  • May Dreams Gardens
  • Podcast

Updates from Carol Michel

* indicates required
Email Preferences

Newsletter Archive

Copyright © 2023 · CarolJMichel.com · Sitemap · Privacy Policy

Book purchase links are affiliate links and Carol earns a small commission if you make a purchase.

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT