It is my favorite time of year. I love fall and October. Halloween is a favorite in this household, but my husband and my four year old take it to another level. Aye yi yi, it’s a haunted house around here, you guys. I love Octobers, and one reason I really do is because …. it is time to plant the garlic. However, garlic is not the only thing on our list of what to plant in October!
What to Plant in October
GARLIC!!!!
Okay, as you can tell I am so excited about garlic. If you have not grown your own garlic please give it a try this year. Even if it’s only a few cloves. Having fresh garlic will change your life and really make you wonder “How long does that garlic sit on a grocery store shelf?” Is that a conspiracy theory already? Why isn’t the garlic in the store fresh!? Big Ag has nothing on homegrown garlic.
Garlic is one of my favorite crops to grow because you’ll have green in your garden nearly all winter. Early this year when it was too early to plant anything I would soothe my gardening soul by stepping outside and take in the greenery of the garlic leaves.
In my experience garlic is an easy, tolerant & hardy crop. I very rarely water my garlic, I don’t use fertilizer besides the rotted down hay I use as mulch. Garlic is a low maintenance crop. So how do you grow it? Well, first you need to buy your garlic cloves. I am not going to lie to you, I have had great success growing garlic from organic garlic I bought at the grocery store. But this year I ordered some from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. You also need to determine what kind of garlic you want to grow. Here in Zone 8b/9a we can grow both soft neck and hard neck garlic, so if you’re in a mild climate you can try both. Hard neck garlic is hardy enough for some colder climates. But in my garden I grow both!
Here is how to plant Garlic
Before we begin, here is an important note – You are not going to be harvesting this garlic until July. Maybe June, but probably July. So you are going to use a box or container that you are not going to miss until then. There is still plenty of time to grow whatever you want in the box after you harvest. Here on my micro homestead I keep it real easy. In mid October I carefully break apart the heads of garlic to keep the paper on the cloves intact. You can’t have naked cloves going into the ground. As I’m breaking them apart I use a stick or bamboo pole about the width of my thumb to make holes in the dirt about 1 inch deep and 2-3 inches apart throughout the entire box.
Plant the largest bulbs first. If you have small ones leftover, I say use them. Your bulbs may be smaller at harvest, but I chop these in half to use in broths. Once the cloves are in the ground, cover them with dirt. Lightly mulch the ground to retain moisture and offer some protection from early frost. As soon as the garlic sprouts and is about an inch tall HEAVILY mulch it. I’m talking inches of mulch. That’s the secret to less weeding & less watering. We will talk harvesting garlic next year, but for now just remember that you must have patience with garlic.
Radishes
Radishes are still a great crop to keep planting in your garden. They are quick to reach maturity, some can go from seed to harvest in less than a month! I have been successively planting radishes since the days have gotten shorter. Learn more about planting them in my post about what to plant in September!
Lettuce
Lettuce is a wonderful cold weather crop, and my goal is to keep some salad boxes going through the winter! The first winter we were here with garden boxes I bought some row fabric to protect my plants from freezing weather. I intend to put those to use this year to keep spinach and lettuce growing. I create a hoop house structure using green bamboo, then as temperatures drop I have the perfect way to protect my leafy greens.
Spinach
Okay one of my big goals around here is to never buy spinach at the grocery store again. You know the drill, you buy the big thing of spinach, you put it in your fridge. It gets shoved behind 100 things, and you find it when it’s wilted and slimy. And I never want that to happen again! I had a realization last year that there is no reason we should not be able to grow lettuce and spinach nearly year round where we live. And there is no better time to plant spinach than when it’s starting to get colder. Spinach is a wonderful cool weather crop, and the cool thing about spinach leaves is that they actually get large when you let them grow! No more baby spinach for us! I went over my spinach planting routine in my September post, so check back there for specifics.
Turnips
I’m not going to lie to you. I gave up on turnips this spring. Don’t get me wrong, every time I plant them I get big, beautiful turnips, and I am so excited about them. But I never, ever use them. I have one recipe that I use them in, and I rarely make that recipe! So I decided “I will buy the turnips I need at the grocery store”. And I haven’t bought any this year, so I think I made the right decision. Growing something that you won’t eat is a waste of space, a waste of water, and a waste of time!
But if you like and use turnips, now is the time to plant them for a spring harvest! When I have planted them in the past I have planted them in a square foot plot, about 3-4 inches apart. The problem I have with root veggies is getting the right depth. I found with turnips it’s best to sprinkle them on top of soft dirt and pat them in, covering them lightly with soil and a bit of hay as mulch to help with sprouting.
Do you have a turnip recipe you love? Please tell me about it! I would love to grow them with a purpose!
Tulips Bulbs
Who doesn’t love tulips? Waking up on a gray winter morning and looking outside to see some color popping up in the yard is a magical thing. My husband and I were watching some Chip & Joanna show once upon a time and Joanna had her sister over for coffee and tulip picking one morning. Ever since then I have dreamed of a garden full of tulips to pick with my ladies. Last October my then three year old and I dug up some of the front yard to get started. I dug the 6 inch hole, and she dropped each bulb in. We had already decorated for Halloween so it was quite a stark contrast. Prepping for Spring Blooms underneath a massive spider web.
Crocus Bulbs
This is my first year planting crocus bulbs, so I can’t wait to see how they do! I’m actually going to give saffron a try, and I am so excited to see how they do. Saffron seems a bit of a lofty goal, but I’m a pedal to the metal, try everything kind of gal. My plan is to plant them in containers to see how they do. Then I’ll be able to move them inside when we get well below freezing this winter.
I have this weird mindset where I like to plant root / bulb crops in containers just in case we move suddenly I can pick em up and take them with us. It’s weird, I know! It’s probably because I once thought we were going to move early summer and I wouldn’t be able to take my garlic with me. I dreamt up ways that I could carefully uproot and move my garden boxes without a) making a huge mess and b) killing the garlic in the process.
Thankfully, we stayed put and I didn’t have to uproot my garden. But now every time I plant something that is valuable to my heart, or needs time to be established I think about how I could take it with me if we finally got our acreage! Looking at you garlic & echinacea.
Daffodil Bulbs
Like Tulips, daffodils are a burst of sunshine in the gloomy PNW weather. We have lots of them growing in our front yard, and they are a big attraction to the kids in the neighborhood. Make sure you plant plenty so that you won’t miss a couple that go missing.
I have read that a lot of people have trouble with squirrels digging up their freshly planted bulbs. We haven’t had that problem around here, so I have no suggestions for how to deter them. However, we have had pest problems this year, so maybe this will be the year the squirrels attack.
I hope you get out in the garden to plant some more this October! You will be thankful come spring when you have armfuls of tulips & daffodils.
Hope to see you in the garden soon,
Aubrey
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