Garlic for the winter.
I have never planted garlic for the winter before. So I planted it, so the question arises with what covering material is best to cover it with. I have wheat straw, will it work? And if you cover it with straw, then what layer?
It is very interesting to hear the opinions of people who have personal experience.
We always plant garlic, but before winter we never cover the beds with it. In winter, snow falls and the garlic under it does not freeze. In spring, there are practically no losses from freezing.
If you are not going to plant a huge field, then try covering the ground with roofing felt, then the snow will fall and it will be warm. We planted a small area and always did this; in the spring, after the snow melted, naturally the roofing material was removed.
Our garlic does not freeze even without any shelter. The main thing is not to plant the cloves prematurely, so that the greenery does not start to grow. Therefore, you need to plant from the last ten days of September until mid-October.
Depending on where you live, we didn’t cover it or cover it with anything at all, everything grew normally and sprouted without problems. Well, for your peace of mind, I think you can cover it with something, it won’t do any harm, the main thing is not to forget to open it later.
Garlic has never been covered with anything. I plant it before the cold weather so that it doesn’t have time to sprout. During this time, it manages to give roots to the ground. Nothing will happen to him during the winter; he will spend the winter in the ground under the snow.
We usually cover the garlic with straw mixed with a little manure. There was a case when they forgot, and everything sprouted without freezing.Therefore, if your winters are not too cold, there is no particular need for shelter.
Yes, you can simply use old tops. I usually first cover it with film, press it down along the edges and then lay some kind of plant material on top - pine spruce branches, tomato or potato tops. In Siberia, winter garlic has to be well covered.
Garlic is a fairly frost-resistant vegetable crop, and we always cover it with nothing when planting, except for a small amount of soil, straight from the garden, so that it does not sprout prematurely in the fall.
In cold climates the ground freezes very much, so we cover the garlic. Just not tops, which we burn all and use their ashes, but dry grass, which there is a lot of outside the gardens, you just need to take it and cut it.