Planting Garlic

I planted garlic last week. It ended up taking up much of the day. I was on the backside of the grapevine with a shovel, a chainsaw, a pile of cardboard and a box of fertilizer that had been left in the rain and smelled like a trailhead outhouse. I have three raised beds in the back yard that would be perfect for the two heads of garlic I had to plant. But, I have this idea that I can make a big garden on top of the wild grasses, thistle, blackberries and christmas tree stumps that will be even better than the tranquility and predictability of raised beds. Basically, it is harder and complicated so it is the choice I went with. The goal is a garden approximately 75x35 made up of 4' raised rows running north and south with 2' pathways between them. I have until next spring to get this garden established but this beautiful crisp fall weather is perfect for planting garlic so I had to at least get a start on the garden to get the garlic in the ground. The garlic will bookend the first three beds so I just worked on creating a space to plunk it in the ground and to eventually build the rest of the garden off of.

I did not expect the creation of 6 2x4' mounds to take 6 hours but it sure did. I had to dig out all the blackberry bushes I found and then whack down the tall dry summer grass. I wet the ground down and sprinkled fertilizer right on top of all the grass and weeds. Then came a couple layers of old feed bags or flattened cardboard boxes and a bit more fertilizer and water. Then it was old straw and wheelbarrow loads of dirt from the garden boxes in the back yard. Add in another layer of straw, a bit more fertilizer and another load of dirt and it was time to plant the garlic. I am doing all of this on the faith that a little bit of mold on garlic cloves is not going to ruin the crop. Some Internet websites disagree (strongly) with this but, as previously mentioned, the more work and worse a decision, the more likely it is to be the choice. So, in goes the garlic and another couple inches of dirt. Then it's all topped off with straw. And, a couple chickens when you are not looking... I had to chase Kimmy and his new girlfriend, DJ, off the first bed I made while I was working on the 5th. They'd already tossed a couple cloves out in their eagerness to see what lay beneath all that moldy straw goodness.

I did decide I wanted to be done in between the fifth and sixth garlic mounds. I had been at it since 9am and it was now one o'clock. And there was a very large blackberry bush right in the center of my measurements for the last bed. And a big Christmas tree stump. But, I kept on with it since I guess garlic needs to be planted within a day of dividing the head into cloves. Leaning on my shovel I looked up at the tree line. The mountain was stark in it's cloak of new snow against a cloudless October sky. An almost intangible breeze tugged leaves off the giant Bigleaf Maple at the edge of the canyon. The leaves lifted and hung, backlit in their suspension, black and weightless. And I noticed that some were crows. The leaves and crows both hung there, the light of the sun brilliant behind them, making them indistinguishable from each other in their deferral to drift to earth or rise out of the current.

Why I Am Happy

Now has come, an easy time. I let it
roll. There is a lake somewhere
so blue and far nobody owns it.
A wind comes by and a willow listens
gracefully.
I hear all this, every summer. I laugh
and cry for every turn of the world,
its terribly cold innocent spin.
That lake stays blue and free; it goes
on and on.
And I know where it is.

-- William Stafford