It's not quite the shortest day yet, but my garlic is in. I dug over a patch of garden which I don't plan to be digging in during summer, added some dried manure, and popped in the bulbs. At the end of the row is a rose bush, so let's see if those rumours about garlic keeping aphids away actually work! (Don't worry, I did cover them up. The photo is just at the laying-them-out stage).
I also went with supermarket garlic to plant. I know you aren't supposed to, but it's NZ garlic, Marlborough in fact, so shouldn't be chemically treated. And, when you can get it at the supermarket for $4.99 instead of $8.99 at the garden centre, why wouldn't you?It's all a bit of an experiment for me. The bulbs might not even sprout, they could rot, wither or be eaten by slugs. But hopefully, I'll get lots of lovely bulbs to plait into strings. And there won't be any vampires around here!
Good on you for getting the garlic in. Mine is still waiting because we had a -6 frost yesterday and the ground is so hard I can't get a spade in let alone garlic. I planted supermarket marlbough garlic last year and although they sprouted they didn't produce any bulbs. It wasn't a very good year for garlic up here I'm told and I got them in late too...didn't keep the water up either, so better luck with yours.
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