Garlic Planting & Essential Winter Prep for Vegetable Garden

How is it already the start of November? The mind boggles. We are in the season of pumpkin lattes, cinnamon spice and warm blankets after a long day in the garden and around our farm here in Staffordshire, England.

In this episode my main task for this week is to plant out all of my garlic. My entire haul of garlic seed cloves comes from saved bulbs, for the second year running. This means I’ve become self reliant in my first crop and how amazing does that feel, even if it is only self sufficiency in a single crop? I’m so happy.

I always plant my garlic on October 30th, my birthday, and I aim to harvest on or before my husband Duncan’s birthday, in July. Before we can plant the garlic the bed needs to be weeded and prepped with some glorious well rotted manure from our farm. Another excellent resource I am very lucky to have an unlimited supply of.

The winter bed prep is repeated around the home allotment as I weed and top up with manure some of my other raised beds too. It’s a wonderful feeling getting everything ready for a new growing season. Hard to believe how much we’ll be planting out in just 4-5 months time.

As the beds start to be cleared away and mulched for winter, the list of jobs feel more and more manageable. There’s still so much to do but working through the kitchen garden, one bed at a time, feels so much easier and less overwhelming than trying to do it all at once. The weeds have been on a mission lately, so there’s plenty of weeding to keep us all busy.

I enjoyed a day out with Kerry to a garden centre for a birthday pub lunch out and some strategy planning for future episodes of Sow Chatty, which returns to YouTube the second week of November.

I also give you a little insight in to some of the jobs we’ve been getting up to around the farm this week. Always busy when you garden and farm for a living.

YouTube channels mentioned in this video:
Kerry and her brilliant channel is called @dogontheplot
@SowChatty is mine and Kerry’s joint discussion/podcast channel
@Garden-of-weeden is Pammie’s channel but she can also be found on instagram where she is more active currently.

Polytunnel, fruit cage and Cloche Hoops purchased from www.firsttunnels.co.uk

Items you may find useful:
Prunarbo Pruning Shears: https://amzn.to/3WHlXH7
Black insect netting: https://amzn.to/4nBoZaN

The above link are affiliate links. You won’t be charged any extra but I may receive a small commission on any purchases made. You can visit my Amazon Storefront via the link below, where you can find ALL the items I use on my garden and for making these YouTube videos:

Check out this page from thefarmyardgarden https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/thefarmyardgarden?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_aipsfshop_NQMVB3MHGV4WSMYYNW5V&language=en-US

#gardeningvideos #vegetablegarden #allotment #backyardgarden

Music by Storyblocks for LumaFusion Paid Subscription

Hello, welcome back to the channel. We are right at the end of October. In fact, it’s the 30th of October today and this date is traditionally the date that I’m going to be planting my garlic. I have three varieties here. Now, why do I choose today’s date? Well, today is actually my birthday, so that’s why I’m choosing this date. And it’s a really good tradition to set and an easy date to remember. Obviously, I’m going to be planting garlic in this bed this year. I’ve already cleared the bed out, done some weeding. So, all I need to do now is go and find where I’ve dumped the wheelbarrow, and I will meet you at the manure pile. [Music] It feels a long way by the time you get here. Oh, now this manure has been waiting for me to use it all year. Duncan got this out of the sheds in very early spring, but it had been there all winter in an area of the sheds that had been shut off from the cattle. So, this is quite well broken down even though there’s some bits of straw in here because it was actually quite dry. And it’s really nice and loose and not clumped up together. So, hopefully it’ll make a really nice good mulch to put on these beds. I have the Wolf Garden little cultivating hoe. So, I’m going to just try and mix it into the surface of the soil a little bit so it doesn’t just sit on top. And hopefully it will just help give them a really good start. I’m just going to just tamp it down a little bit before I put the garlic cloves in. Not a lot. Don’t want to make my job any harder getting through the ground, but just want to make sure that it’s fairly level. I’m going to start up this end of the bed because I’m going to be planting the elephant garlic here, which needs to be in the ground a bit deeper. Now, these elephant garlic came from Kerry, a dog on the plot. Last year, she gave me a few cloves, which I planted, and I only managed to get two that actually worked for me and harvested. So, I’ve got six cloves to plant again this year. So this year is all about building my stock again for future years. Now if you watched So chatty last week, you will know, as I’ve just said, the elephant garlic has to be planted deeper. So I’m hoping to get right to the end of this lovely DBER. And this was a DBER that was sent as a present from Pammy at Garden of Weeden. It’s lovely when you get out onto your garden and realize that the things that you’re using have all come from other gardeners and friends. That’s the first one in. Now, I very much underestimated the size of these clothes, so I’m having to do a bit of a bit of wiggle with my DBER to make the horse big enough to fit them in. [Music] Now, the next variety I’m going to be planting is called Cork White. This is a hard neck variety. Now, you’re not actually supposed to pre-break them. I did those on so chatty so that I could show you the size difference in some of the cloves. It’s the same process, although these don’t need to be quite so far apart because they won’t grow as big as the elephant garlic. But I’m going to be planting them in the ground. I’m just going to lay out the pattern that I want for them before planting them. Just can work out exactly how many I can fit in. And I like using this kind of dice shape five pattern while I’m laying them out. Just put my hand there. I want one more there. One more there. And one more there. And the final variety is Province White. And again, I have some whole bulbs in here, but I do also have some clobs that have been split. And again, I did that while we were on. So, chatty. These were by far the strongest and biggest bulbs last year. So, it makes sense that they become the mainstay of the crop. I mean, the size of that one, that’s huge compared to that one, which is why there’s no way I’ll be planting that. So satisfying you knowing that these are your own saved clothes. That’s the epitome of being self-sufficient in a crop, isn’t it? Now all I need to do is get them planted. And these just go underneath the surface. Nowhere near as deep as the elephant garlic. [Music] Now, I don’t think there’s much threat of alien leaf miner right at this moment in time. I think as we head into November, we’re probably quite safe. But I am going to cover them because I am worried about pigeons and crows pulling them out of the ground when the shoots start. But this netting isn’t the netting that I’ll be using to cover them when it’s actually alium leaf miner season. I do like to tuck the edges of the nets in with the wood chip. [Music] It feels like the main stay of my last few weeks on the garden has been tidying up beds that I’ve let weeds take a hold in areas. And you know that’s it’s not really neglectful, is it? I said I was embarrassed last week and I mean I am a little bit because I did like to keep on top of these things a bit more than this but it doesn’t take long to get them out and we’ve all been busy with all the harvesting and the weather’s turned and I just think we don’t have to beat ourselves up if we let things get away from us. Now is the perfect time to get back on top of these things as the beds start to be emptied one by one. we can tidy up the weeds that we’ve left behind. Biggest problem weed on my garden is actually plantain. And I know that plantain has medicinal uses, but I don’t need to make any medicine anywhere near the quantities of the plantain that grows in my beds. I was going to say that I reckon weeding is the least favorite job for most of us, but actually I don’t mind the weeding. Not so much the weeding, but I love the satisfaction when you’ve done it to look in the beds. So, as much as I keep putting it off, it isn’t my most hated job on the garden. I don’t actually know what is to be honest. But look at that. Couple of minutes and look how different it looks. It makes you wonder why you put it off for so long, doesn’t it? Some of these cosmoses are looking past the best. So, I’m going to pull it out. Oh, accidentally pulled out one of the gladioli. I don’t remember the gladioli still being up like this this late last year. Let’s get that planted back in. It’s lovely to see how healthy it is actually. And all these little belly things that are hanging off them, which are where they’re actually naturalizing and going to be putting out even more gladioli for me in future years. So, I better put you in safely. should keep that safe until next year. Now, I’ve also got a pumpkin that I haven’t harvested here. And this one is a buttercup. I’ve just caught sight of my hat in the camera and I can see that I look a bit like Naughty. The back of my coat pushes the hat off up my head. There you go. That’s a really nice pumpkin. I quite like the shape under the bottom as well. It’s quite fitting to get that harvested now, isn’t it? Given it’s Halloween tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have to have my own little Halloween display in the house. While I’m down here, I’m just going to put some of these nersium seeds underneath the soil cuz they will definitely come back next year. And I think while I’ve got this bed empty and I don’t have any plans to plant anything in here over winter, might as well just go and get another barrerow of manure and fill this bed up and I can tick another bed off done for the season. I’ve had a few comments asking whether I recovered from going for that little run with the dog a couple of weeks ago, and I’m pleased to say that me, Dexter, and Duncan have been out for two more runs since that day, and I’ve had no more repeats of not being able to walk. So, I’m really excited to get back into the running as well. Don’t know where the muk fork has gone, so I’m having to use this one. which is not the best fork for the job. I’ll just break up any clgy bits. Now, satisfying as it is to get those two beds ticked off the list, they are not the only beds that have been clearing out and the rest have been done off camera, it’s really great to think that pretty much the top half of the vegetable garden is now cleared. Looks a lot better than it did just a couple of short weeks ago when it was very, very tatty looking. Now, the other side of the dia beds is also looking good. These have got my green manure in, and it never grew like this last year. So, I’m quite excited to see just how well all of the various crops are doing in here. Still got a few concerns about digging them in next year. Red clover here. In this bed, I have the peashoots. And in fact, I’ve taken a few tops off the peashoots, and I will be doing that again before we get the first frost. This bed here is the facilia, and that’s done really well. It’s a really thick carpet of cover on there. And then I’ve got the mustard greens in here. And I have also taken a few of these leaves from here as well. They’re absolutely delicious when they’re so tiny and oh been great to add them to salads. I’m thinking that while it’s so satisfying to have seen those beds filled with manure that I’m actually going to carry on and fill these beds behind me, the ones at the top of the plot now they’ve been weedied. And while I do that, you can have a little tour around the farm. [Music] Come back here. [Music] [Music] [Music] the Cattle won’t be out for much longer and in fact in a couple of weeks time it is our six monthly TB testing and we usually bring the cattle in then not quite sure what we’ll do if the weather stays this mild overnight though we might change of mind and leave them out a little bit longer but we are getting geared up for it now all of the sheds are cleared out ready for them to come in so it’ll soon be winter season for them as well while you’ve been gone I have filled up four beds with some manure so that’s another four ticked off the list and I’ve even put a little bit of manure around the base of the mulbury bush. Haven’t put any manure around the other apple trees yet. They’re just not quite dormant enough and I don’t want to encourage any new growth if I fertilize them before they’ve gone dormant. I keep laughing about this one mry left on the bush here because I thought a bird would take it. I left it for them intentionally, but they haven’t. All the leaves have dropped off and it’s like a little shining beacon to the birds, but they’re not interested. In this next bed along, the celery has really taken off since we’ve been having that wet weather. It’s really happy now. So, I’ve been leaving it a little bit longer and hopefully I’ll be able to harvest that soon. I’ve put some manure in this little bed up here. And then if you come to this bed here, I’ve not actually put anything here because the patio quint tree has not yet died back enough. It’s not dormant enough to put some manure around the base. The salad leaves underneath are looking truly amazing. Did not think that I’d be able to get such a good crop of these so late in the year. I have been picking these rocket leaves and I’ve started to pick some of the leaves off these little gems. I don’t think that they’ll form big heads this year now, but they are still extremely tasty and very welcome. And I have also put some manure in this bed here outside the poly tunnel. If I come back up to the dia beds, I expected these beds to be empty by now. I have loads of bulbs that I want to fill this bed with. Lots of early spring bulbs and then hopefully the dailies will take over again next summer. Going to be leaving them in the bed this year. So, what I’m going to do is a little bit of dead heading, make them look a little bit tidier and just wait for a big frost to come and take them so they become dormant. I don’t want to cut them back because that will not be sending the tubers to sleep for winter. Now, this is the one that I’m really hoping does survive winter because this is the one called patches after my horse. So, I’m really keeping my hopes up that it does okay because I’ll be devastated if it doesn’t. Now, whatever your views are on having flowers on a vegetable garden, and some people are dead against wasting in their eyes growing space on flowers, I don’t think you can argue with the fact that they’ve brought a whole new dimension to the garden this year. And not only have they brought joy, they’ve brought their own harvest of cut flowers and also brought the pollinators in which has clearly helped the vegetable garden in itself anyway. So, they’re a firm favorite and I am definitely going to be increasing the amount of flowers around the garden next year. Now, one of the things I’m really pleased about is that I saved the seeds from the straw flowers not long ago because, as you can see, these straw flowers have not enjoyed the increasing wetness that we’re having lately, and they’re just kind of rotting. They’re not dying back and putting out proper seeds now. So, if you’re thinking of saving seeds from straw flowers, I would do it sooner rather than later because I mean, I don’t need anymore, but I would definitely have missed the window, I think, had I not already done it. While I am clearing away, I think I’ll make a start on some of these flowers up here on the pollinator highway because this straw flower has well and truly had it and I don’t want it to fall over in any strong winds and take the apple tree with it. I feel like the pollinator highway has been an absolute triumph this year and it’s still hard for me to think that it wasn’t even here this time last year. You know, most of this was planted in early spring and it’s just like it’s always been here. When I look back on old videos of how the garden was before we did the plot extension, I think to myself, how could I manage with the space that I had before? Because now it feels like how it was always meant to be. Now, as mentioned at the start of the video, it is my birthday week this week, and I met up with Carrie on Friday where we discussed all things so chatty and obviously had a coffee and a piece of birthday cake between us. Let’s have a look at what we got up to. [Music] It looks shockingly bare now here, doesn’t it, at the moment? But hopefully the bulbs that you saw me buy yesterday with Kerry are going to help out and fill this up with some spring color to come and a few little bedding plants for over winter as well. That’s it for this week. I hope you’ve had a really good week. Look after yourselves and I’ll see you next week. Bye.