Can I Just Plant Garlic in the Spring? Well…

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1:00Hey, nerds, Farmer Jesse here. Welcome to Growers Daily, your Daily Doze of Ecological Farming. Insight today, we are talking one of my fav subjects. That's farm footwear. We talk planting garlic in the spring and about a ground fit for a meadow to let's do it. All right, welcome in everyone. I hope you all are doing well and feeling well and welling up inside because you want something sweet. Like the Brighton and Arsenal game for just like the third time. As always, you can send in your 22nd Farm video clips by uploading those to Dropboxer Drive and sharing that with Farmer Mike at Notoworkers.com. How are those fall cover crops going? We'd love to see them. So we are going to do our normal Patreon Mailbag thing today and catch up on questions over there. As always, please feel encouraged to add your two cents in the comment section as to how you might answer these questions because I definitely do not have them monopoly and all the good ideas or good advice. So yeah, chime in with your thoughts.

2:01Today's first Patreon question out of the Mailbag comes to us from Patreon member Norse Guard Farm who asks one of my favorite questions. Quote, this may be a question for the forum. I have worn out my dry shot sod buster shoes. I love them. I tried the new model and is very uncomfortable way too tight around the front of my foot. I still have the high boots and they are great, but not in the summer. What are you wearing these summer days? End quote. Love this and this is such an easy and delightful question for me because I wear basically one thing year round and I love them clogs. Now I will talk about some specifics in a second, but there are certainly without question people in the West who are like Jesse clearly doesn't have the rattlesnakes out there. And that's true. We have black snakes that are very territorial and keep out the rattlesnakes and copperheads. Oh look, black snake. Hi friend. So my context is that I get to rock clogs all the time. So anyway, I will give some thoughts on what I do look for in boots and shoes when I wear them or what I would look for in different scenarios. However, can I please just like talk about clogs

3:02for a minute? I have tried every type of clog I think at this point and for one very specific reason you could not pay me to tie my shoes every time I come in and out of the house. I have a back right back here and I'd like to keep it that way. I have a limited time as well. I'd like to not use it tying my shoes for me because of the show and because I have things to do like check on my kids or make lunch or go water the greenhouse really quick in the late summer evenings. I need slip on shoes. And so over the years, I've tried all types of clogs from Birkenstocks to Dance Goes and Beyond. In fact, when I was cooking, I turned two clogs because I was needing some new non-slip shoes and I truly have never turned back since. The clog that I returned to time and time again though, the good ol' crocs crock. Any of the non-slip work clogs that they sell without the holes around the toe because rocks and dirt's, you know, get into those little holes, I think I pluralized dirt there. I think dirt is already plural. I remove the back strap if it has one on the shoe and just slip in and out of it all day long as I go about my business. It is the best. They're good in wet weather, in the wash pack, good in the field. If they get hot, I just kick them off and

4:05work barefoot to me, nothing beats a crock. Especially for the price, the longevity, the comfort, and the utility. And this is not an advertisement. They don't pay us to say this, though they good. That would be nice. Anyway, first snow, I do own a pair of tall extra tough. That's the brand, not my description of them. Insulated boots and they're fine. I like them. I wear them a few times a year. If the snow is not deep, it's the clogs anyway though. Then I do have a pair of blunt stones that I like okay. And I will use those for pasture work or forest work with a saw or if I'm doing some sort of carpentry or going to a farm tour somewhere. It's just something that will reasonably protect my feet and look, I don't know moderately okay out in public. I like those and again, if you haven't noticed, there's a theme. I refuse to spend my time tying shoes except of course it's all practice where tying shoes is basically all I do for the kids. The high boot in rattlesnake country is of course a good idea. You don't want to be walking around in tall grass in the west without without some tall boots on. It's also a good idea for pasture work at duet times of year. So your pants aren't just sopping wet by the end of a few minutes but they can be hard to wear in the summer heat. Those tall sort of like rubbery neoprene boots your feet will absolutely

5:10suffer. Notably we do have a discount code to high sea boots over there at the Patreon page and a brand new spiffy show thread for October Patreon members who go check those out just saying. But yeah, there's lots of great brands out there. What say you all? What is your summer go to shoe? What are some of the considerations that you have to account for like rattlesnakes or mud or do or briars or etc. Let us know. Otherwise we're going to take a quick break. When we return we will get a garlic question that is out of this world. No sorry I'm in it's out of this season. It's out of this season. That BRB. Hey there. Just survived the Norrister New Jersey zone 6B. Just kind of patiently waiting for all these loofas to come out. All my drooling maritokes fell down. That's okay. All my burying heading fell down. But everything's still standing otherwise. Today's episode is brought to you by Good Agriculture. If the season is picking up and the pile of

6:12receipts is starting to grow you're not alone. Good Agriculture handles farm bookkeeping so you can stay ahead of the mess before it piles up. They keep your books organized each month, help you understand what's coming in and what's going out and show you where your farm stands so you can make better business decisions throughout the season. If you're behind it'll help get everything caught up. They also help farmers find funding and stay ahead of grant deadlines. You run the farm, they help the business. Learn more at goodagriculture.com slash info. That's goodagriculture.com slash info. Back to the show. If you like this work, appreciate this work. Think it is a valuable asset to the world. That is super rad. Thank you. Also, you can keep it going by becoming a Patreon member over at patreon.com slash no-till growers. There are some discount codes and such over there. But I will also answer your question here like this one from Patreon member Amy Blinkenship who must have known Monday's topic ahead of time because they ask, quote, everything I see online about planting garlics has plant in the fall yet in my local areas. Central Mississippi, 8B, the stores only sell

7:12garlic in the early spring is planting garlic and march viable. What would that process look like? And quote, all right, great question. I'm glad you asked it too because it is yet another aspect of garlic that I get to talk about, which is always fun for me. But to start, the short answer is no. Not really. It is not viable to plant garlic in March and get a bulb. You can plant garlic and march and get green garlic or, you know, garlic grass, but not a large bulb of garlic. As we just so happen to discuss on Monday, the challenge there is not just that garlic needs 40 days under 40 degrees Fahrenheit because you could also, you know, grow a soft neck that doesn't quite need that amount of cold. Like if you popped a hard neck garlic in the fridge for 10 weeks and shoved in in the soil, it would not really create much of a bulb at that point. So it's not just that there are some other factors as well. Specifically, garlic needs a decently long growing season and growing time over the winter to really sink those roots into the soil and prepare for the days to start lengthening. If it's popped into the soil when the days are already getting longer, that it's going to be challenged to establish itself enough to create a bulb if any. In general,

8:14garlic really needs a long robust vegetative stage to create a nice healthy bulb and that can't happen really when you're planting it so late like in March. Now, I don't know why you don't have garlic in the stores there right now. It is almost certainly at the farmer's market. I would think which is where I would recommend you get it from anyway. Those are going to be the most well adapted to the area. What you get in the store could have come from the item who knows where. Moreover, if for some reason you do everybody seed garlic from a store, it must be organic so as to avoid irradiated garlic that will not germinate. Indeed, a lot of the conventional garlic that you see at the store has been subjected to a small dose of ionizing energy such as gamma rays or x rays. I think there's other forms, but that essentially render the garlic unable to germinate, which extends its shelf life for the grower, but also means if you plant it, ain't nothing going to happen. But yeah, that garlic in the store could also have come from an entirely different climate there years, unless it's like a local co-op or something that sells local produce. It could have come from California or China or Washington or wherever and there's no guarantee it will be happy where you are in Mississippi. The latest I would plant garlic here is probably like Thanksgiving

9:19give or take a week or two so like late November much later than that and they won't quite be as able to establish the requisite root systems for a robust bulb even if they do get their 40 days below 40 degrees. So yeah, buying garlic in March and planting it will not yield all that much in that climate in the southern hemisphere. You may be good to go up though obviously that's roughly when you are planting it. Anyway, I hope that was helpful. If not, I'm always happy to go into more detail. I love garlic. I'll talk about garlic all the time and also I have a daily show. Details kind of how we roll. Cool. Cool. All right, we're going to take one last quick break and then we will met a whoop. That sounds like a phrase people would use, right? Like I'm about to met a whoop to this plot right here. I like it. Let's start using it. All right, be right back. Hey, I'm going to answer one of these questions that we got on YouTube. Like when I did the last live that I kind of skipped over but it doesn't really necessitate a whole segment but Coco Miller had asked. Has Jesse ever said why he doesn't do worm composting and we do worm composting and we

10:20did worm composting and the only reason we stopped is because stuff kept getting into our little worm bin and not just like big stuff like I don't know rats would crawl up in there and eat some of our worms and like dig around through the material that was in there when I had it outside. But when we had it inside then ants would come and live in it and we kept having to protect it and it just kind of like fell by the wayside. Love worm composting. It's very fun. I always intend to get back into it. It's just kind of been one of those things that has sort of fallen by the wayside. But yeah, it's great. It's super fun to do especially with like half finished compost adding that to the top of the worm bin, letting the worms kind of finish it out. Very microbially active stuff I don't often see in the soil, lots of silly bits and stuff. So it's very cool. Definitely a big fan of worm composting. Would love to do more of it. In fact, would love to just have a whole greenhouse full of worm composting but time. Time is something I also need more of. But yeah, great question. Yeah, and always ask your questions in the YouTube comments and if I can get to them, I will. Thanks. Today's episode is brought to you by Rimmel Greenhouses. Whether you're growing tomatoes

11:21from market, flowers in the spring are vegetables for your family, growing in a high tunnel protected from the weather provides the right environment for harvest you can count on. Rimmel greenhouses are strong, durable and easy to assemble, offering the quality you need to grow productively year round. The team of experts at Rimmel Greenhouse systems will be your trusted partners to ensure you get exceptional value from your greenhouse or high tunnel investment. Visit Rimmel.com today to get growing. Today's episode is also brought to you by BCS America. If you're practicing no till or low-till farming, you know that heavy equipment is often the enemy of your soil structure. That's where BCS two-wheeled tractors come in. Built for small farms, market gardens and regenerative growers, BCS tractors give you the power to manage beds efficiently without unnecessary compaction. For the low and no till grower, there are two attachments that change the game. The BCS power harrow stirs only the top inch or two of soil to incorporate soil amendments and create a perfect seed bed without soil inversion or pulling up weed seeds. And when it's time to terminate cover crops, that flail mower shreds organic matter into a beautiful nutrient-rich mulch right on top

12:24of the bed. To find your local dealer and see the full lineup of attachments designed for the way you farm, head to BCSAmerica.com. That's BCSAmerica.com. All right, back to the show. All right, our final picture on question of the day comes to us from Gory, Gwari. Gwari, who writes, quote, question, we have a very large field that I just plowed to get the ground ready for a massive wild flower meadow. Clearly, there's a lot of heavy grasses, so I know with, we're one, it will be a mix of grasses and flowers. Any other wise prep advice? And quote, all right, a great question here, and indeed I do have some prep advice. And it's worth noting that Gory wouldn't have known this when they asked the question, but I had a meadow episode from a couple weeks back primed and ready to go. But let's just answer this question in the exact situation that is presented here. A field is plowed up and they're planning to plant it to wild flowers, which is rad. Your soil ecology will thank you occasionally with their stangers, perhaps, but they mean well. So the biggest thing with sowing anything like this is that you will want to treat that area like it's a crop ground. Sure,

13:26you can sow it and see whatever happens happens. But the reality is that wild recovery species are really good at their jobs. We call them weeds, but they exist in such abundance with such persistence for a reason. The soil wants to be covered. The plants want to photosynthesize and drop seeds. Well, if I'm allowed a little anthropomorphization occasionally. So your first challenge in establishing something like a meadow is to get rid of your annual recovery species as well as any of the perennial weeds that are hanging on as best you can. Sure, things like Johnson grass and the like will be really hard to deal with. And you can go through now while it's plowed and pick out any roots that you see and that will help. I know we just talked about this as well. It's the season for soil work, but how you plow it is important context to a mull-bore plow. Does a different job than a rotary plow? The rotary plow is like a plow tiller and does both of the jobs at once. A mull-bore plow flips the soil over and leaves it exposed, but with channels of sorts. The finer the soil is worked, the first time the more risk involved with erosion, but the faster you can get into that soil and get some of that stuff out of there. So if you use the rotary plow, you will want

14:28to cultivate it once or twice and plant it as quickly as you can to avoid erosion. If you went the mull-bore plow root, you can let it get rained on once, till it down, let it get wet one more time then cultivate or tarp and then sow the wildflower seeds and or plugs, assuming that they are perennial. Some of these things probably want to be sowed in the spring and not the fall, if you're going into the fall where you are. In effect, you want to get the soil as ready to plant as possible. Don't plant it and then let those weeds germinate and then kill those weeds and then you're ready to plant called stale seed bedding. If you're okay with a little grass in there and to be sure some grasses and especially native ones are beneficial to insects, spiders and birds, then you can sow without that heavy stale seed bedding first. I just recommend getting the weeds and check so that you get what you want out of the field and not what you don't want, like a weed seed bank. There are almost certainly some weeds chilling out in that soil that will outgrow whatever you sow that could be like amaranth and lamb quarters chickweed in the winter time, that sort of stuff. So it's good to just get those and check. Anyway, do go back and check out the show that we did on meadows a few weeks back.

15:29But best of luck, your local ecology should be stoked to have you. I'm certainly stoked for it. Otherwise, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your Thursday because we are done here. Don't forget, note to where we're saying non-profit 501c3. So donations are tax deductible and greatly appreciated. Please make sure you like and subscribe and or follow wherever you're getting this podcast. That is a super easy way to help us out as well. Unormous. Thank you to all of our show sponsors. And if you'd ever like to sponsor this show, you can reach out to farmermachelleatnotowrors.com. Big thank you to Michelle. Big thank you to the notowrorsport of directors. Huge shots to Willie breeding for the theme music. My Gilbert for the production helped an editing and my wife, Hannah, for absolutely everything in the world. Also, shots to the epidemic sound for the background music that you can hear. Pick up a hat or a copy of my book, The Living So Well Handbook and Notowrors.com to support this work. Big, big thank you to everyone over at patreon.com slash notowrorswhere. At a certain level or if you just bump up from one level to another, you sign up in the month of October. You'll get a shout out on the show. That's right, we're in October now. You get a shout out on the show. So anyway, big shout outs today to our earthworm from August actually. Kim Jepinga.

16:35I forgot to shout you out last week, Kim. But thank you, shouts for keeping this story going. All right, so as you will remember, Kay has just heard John yelling from the woods that he is stuck and the rain has started to come down. She has just had her first ever contraction. The midwife is on her way, but the rain is really starting to come down and John is laying their helpless when he hears the twigs snapping behind him and worried it's an animal turns to see Kay soaking wet full pregnant belly waddling towards him with a determined look on her face. She grabs the chainsaw, pulls the cord and springs to life. John will never forget this image of his amazing partner Kay standing there in the rain holding a chainsaw fully pregnant. And then of course, freeing him in his legs so that they can go, you know, have this baby when they get back to the house after John is sought to freedom is when they hear the message waiting for them on their machine. The midwife can't make it for another hour. Road is washed out. Gonna have to go around and we will pick it up tomorrow on the birth story. That's boring. Anyway, I'll come up with something better maybe.

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