The slowest crop in the garden goes in the ground this month.
In addition to keeping vampires away in time for Halloween, garlic asks almost nothing of you: poke the cloves in before the holiday, mulch them, and then ignore them completely until July. Nine months of benign neglect for one of the best harvests of the year. There is a lesson in there about patience, but I'll let the garlic teach it.
Hardnecks for our climate — the stiff central stalk, the scapes in June, the big easy-peeling cloves. Plant the biggest cloves from your best heads and eat the rest. Future summer you is already grateful.
