What did you do in the garden today?

G’morning all. Still just watering, I let the hose run for about ten minutes in each shrub yesterday. Needless to say the crew was happily hunting bugs and playing in the mud all morning. DH and I were at the docs office all day yesterday. They took out his stitches, put his hand in a hard cast, took X-rays. It looks gnarly on the outside, but it’s kinda cool to see the screw in there on the X-ray. Hopefully cooler temps are on the way, but I dunno how much of a winter we’re going to have. I’m even doubting whether it will cool off enough to grow the cool season crops at this rate.
 
Soil: About 1/2 to two thirds of bagged potting soil/topsoil and 1/2 to 1/3 cow manure. (It’s always been in containers.) Added some perlite to the pot this time too.
Zone: 5b.

How cold does it need to be? I have a room that doesn’t get heated in the winter (keeps the electric bill down).

Never had issues getting the grocery store garlic to sprout before, it’s the not rotting in the spring part that’s the issue.
I'm in N Illinois, was 5b they just switched to 6. I grow over 200 heads of garlic for about 10 years. For me the hard neck does better than the soft neck. The garlic from a warmer zone doesn't do as well. Most of the grocery store is from China or California and didn't do well here.
I bought seed garlic heads from North of me and over the years they have acclimated to my area. I originally have clay soil with a few inches of dirt. I have been adding coop waste, leaves and cut grass yearly.
 
Yesterday I did some maintenance on my pickup truck. Scuffed some skin on my thumb. Bled like crazy because I am on a blood thinner. Did a little garden cleanup. Started putting leaf guards on the gutters. Productive day. Today I have a DR appointment. Checkup with heart DR.
I had plastic leaf guards and the raccoons sat on them squashing them into the gutter :rant
Ended up getting the one piece leafguard gutters installed when I needed new gutters. Expensive as all get out though.
Hope all's well with the DR.
 
I believe I will plant my garlic today. It'll be kind of a shame to break up the nice looking heads hanging in the kitchen, but it's for good purpose. And I'll know how how many cloves I'll have left to eat over the winter.

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Soil: About 1/2 to two thirds of bagged potting soil/topsoil and 1/2 to 1/3 cow manure. (It’s always been in containers.) Added some perlite to the pot this time too.
Zone: 5b.

How cold does it need to be? I have a room that doesn’t get heated in the winter (keeps the electric bill down).

Never had issues getting the grocery store garlic to sprout before, it’s the not rotting in the spring part that’s the issue.

5b, hard neck as far as I can tell.

“don't water if the potting mix is frozen.” - I suspect that’s been my problem, spring tends to be wet here. 🤔 But from the sound of it, I can move the pot outside now and bring it in after a few months, I’d just need to avoid watering until it thawed. And I think I’d move it to the unheated room first, to cut down on stress from the transition.
I have quite sandy soil, which is probably why I haven't run into that issue. My problem is keeping it watered properly when weather warms up. My leaves get yellow on the ends. Thankfully, garlic is self perpetuating. Buy once and have cloves to plant. Always plant the largest cloves to get larger bulbs. Good luck!
 

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