So with the 21st scheduled for more important tasks (Christmas tree erecting, mince pie & cookie making, plus a batch of toffee creation) and after a couple of days of dry and warm weather following a deluge last week, the day had arrived.
As ever with most planting jobs, it is the preparation that takes the time. Garlic doesn't need a lot of nutrients to grow but does like a well drained spot, always a challenge with my heavy clay. The best solution is to grow it on/in ridges to try and stop the cloves from rotting.
The bed has been under a mulch of chopped leaves and grass clippings since the tomatillos, courgettes and chillies gave up the ghost in late October, and topped off with black plastic to keep the worst of the wet weather out. The plastic was removed when the rain stopped a few days ago so the first job was to rake back the leaves to soil level. The soil beneath was lovely and light and crumbly. As the leaves break down the worms pull them underground, but inevitably the presence of worms also means moles so the bulk of the work was a quick fork out of all the mole runs in the bed. I've posted before about the conflict between a no-dig approach and the presence of very keen diggers like moles. If they want to eat my worms they'll have to work for their supper and dig some new tunnels!
