Late garlic planting / Kasna sadnja češnjaka

I didn’t like garlic until I started cooking. Even then, at first, I was kinda „I don’t want to use it I don’t like how it smells“. Now it all sounds so stupid to me. I use garlic quite a lot. Last year we had our home grown garlic and even some people say it’s hard to grow it, it wasn’t that hard, to be honest. Yes, you have to take care about it, but its same thing with everything you grow. Garlic from last year story was planted in fall of 2012. Last fall I dint have time to think about it (actually I lie now, I totally forgot it, but lot of other work I’ve been dealing with kept me from thinking about garlic) and so we thought we won’t have homegrown garlic this year. Few days ago I thought hey why wouldn’t I do it now?, nothing bad can happen to me if I do it. So, I decided to plant my garlic first day of May. Now, I believe some people will roll their eyes and say, you won’t grow any garlic now girl (some people said the same thing to my face), but if nothing, at least I showed you how to plant your homegrown garlic. And that’s one of the points of this blog. So… how to grow your own garlic so you don’t have to buy it? It’s pretty simple and as showing you how to grow it, I’ll also tell you something about companion planting (I’ll cover that subject once too, so don’t miss me then).  Garlic is grown by planting the cloves and it needs a lot of full sun, good drainage (if you have clay soil it’s not good for garlic) and it only won’t grow in areas with lot of rain or high heat and humidity. What I basically did, I took some garlic I had from last year, if you don’t have your own, buy some at local farmers market and try to get organic ones. You don’t want one that’s already sprayed with chemicals. You gently break the cloves from garlic head and try not to damage that paperly skin that’s attached to clove. If you damage it, choose another one because that one will not grow. It’s also good if you have ones with green shoots on them, it’s a good sign they should grow. 

I planted my garlic next to tomatoes because they go good together (in your garden and in your kitchen). I dig a small hole, some 5 cm deep and planted one clove into each hole, you should space your cloves about 15-20 cm apart for best growing. After you placed cloves you should put some soil and mulch on top of it and water it. Now take some time for your garlic to grow out (we’ll see what will happen with mine in a few days), and you can use it as it grows.

I already told you I planted it next to tomatoes, and thing is – garlic is great thing to plant if you like companion planting. It goes well with tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, celery, peas and you may be surprised – all kind of fruit. Keep that in mind if you like companion gardening/planting. You should plant your garlic at late fall or early spring, depending on your climate. I’ll show you my garlic again, when it grows out (if it grows out) but until then tell me. Do you plant garlic and what do you think – will I have my own garlic until end of planting season or no? 

···

Nisam voljela češnjak sve dok nisam počela kuhati . Čak i tada , u početku , bila sam nekako " ne želim ga koristiti,ne sviđa mi se njegov miris”. Sada mi sve to zvuči tako glupo. I češnjak zapravo, koristim dosta često. Prošle godine imali smo svoj domaći češnjak, pa čak iako neki kažu da ga je teško uzgojiti, mi smo s njim imali ok odnos. Da , morate voditi brigu o njemu, ali tako je sa svime što raste .Taj prošlogodišnji češnjak sadili smo tijekom jeseni 2012. godine. Prošle jeseni nisam imala vremena za sadnju češnjaka (sad pomalo lažem, potpuno sam zaboravila na njega,, ali to je zato što sam imala masu drugih obaveza, koje su me spriječile od razmišljanja o sadnji češnjaka), pa smo mislili da će ova godina proći bez domaćeg. No, prije par dana uhvatila sam se kako razmišljam o tome zašto ne bi sada to napravila?, mislim, što mi se loše može dogoditi. Dakle , odlučila sam posaditi češnjak prvog dana svibnja . Vjerujem da će sada neki okrenuti očima i reći kako nema šanse da mi to uspije (čula sam tu istu stvar uživo) , ali ako ništa , barem sam vam pokazala kako posaditi svoj domaći češnjak. 

A to i je jedna od ideja ovog bloga. Dakle ... kako uzgojiti svoj vlastiti češnjak , tako da ga ne morate kupovati ? Prilično jednostavno, a spomenut ćemo i zajedničku zadnju (tu ću temu obraditi samostalno, tako da me svakako partite). Češnjak se uzgaja sadnjom češanja, treba puno sunca, dobru drenažu (ako imate glineno tlo, ono nikako nije dobro za sadnju češnjaka) i neće rasti jedno u područjima s puno kiše, vlage ili visokih temperatura. Sve što sam ja zapravo napravila je, uzela sam češnjak koji mi je ostao od prošle godine, ako nemate svoj, kupite na tržnici, potražite organski. Nikako ne želite češnjak koji je već prekriven raznim kemikalijama. Nježno razdijelite češnjak i pokušajte ne uništiti zaštitni sloj oko češnja. Ako ga oštetite, odaberite neki drugi, jer taj neće rasti. Također, ako imate češnjeve sa zelenim mladicama zasadite njih. Češnjak sam zasadila pokraj rajčica jer se te dvije biljke dobro slažu (i u vrtu i u kuhinji). Iskopala sam manju rupu, nekih 5 cm dubine i stavila po jedan češanj u svaku, razmislite o razmaku jer je za najbolji prinos potreban razmak od oko 15-20 cm. 

Nakon što ste posadili češnjak, prekrijte ga zemljom i malčom i zalijte. Sada treba neko vrijeme da češnjak krene rasti (vidjet ćemo što će se dogoditi s mojim za nekoliko dana) , a možete ga koristiti kako raste. Već sam rekla kako sam ga posadila uz rajčice , a stvar je - češnjak je super biljka za zajedničku sadnju. Slaže se s rajčicom, krumpirom , mrkvom, patlidžanom , brokulom, cvjetačom , keljom, korabom , krastavcima, zelenom salatom , špinatom, celerom , graškom i možda ćete biti iznenađeni – češnjak se slaže sa svim vrstama voća. O češnjaku ću pisati ponovno , kad raste (ako izraste), ali do tada recite mi . Da li se ga vi sadite i što mislite hoću li ili ne imati svoj češnjak do kraja sezone?