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this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2026
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Gardening
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If this page is correct, you are about 2 to 3 weeks away from your first frost, so you should be fine. https://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-united-kingdom-first-frost-date-map.php
My notes on planting and growing garlic: I've always followed the rule of planting a couple of weeks before your first frost and then mulch over it. What happens is those first couple of weeks allows the garlic to establish roots and make a nice home for itself. Then the frost comes and the bulbs will focus on developing roots and not try to grow upwards. Once winter is over, everything underground should be well established and the shoots should start to pop up with the warmer weather. Keep it watered through spring and prune off the scapes (tail like growths from the center of the stalks with a pointy bulb on the end). Stop watering in early to mid summer, a couple of weeks before you plan to harvest. Once about 1/2 to 1/3 of the leaves have turned brown, you're ready to harvest.
Nicely put! That's what I imagined it'd look like I was just worried if I planted it too early or not, it's just up to nature now lol, I know it's probably common sense at this point but should I only water the garlic once every time the soil is somewhat dry during the colder months/winter?
I also have some freshly cut leaves from our tree cut a few days ago (or maybe a week ago?) would that be fine, maybe some grass clippings too? Sorry I'm really new to these things hehe
I've been watching how to grow garlic and all those things you've mentioned are included so I must be watching the right stuff, thanks! 😄
The leaves and grass clippings might work, just keep an eye out incase they breakdown too quickly and you need to top ofg. I've always used hay / garden straw for my garlic mulch. It lasts the winter and when I harvest the garlic I just mix it into the soil to continue to compost in place.
The one problem I keep running into with the hay is seeds, even though they are not supposed to have any, causing new hay to start growing. So there's some extra wedding that I need to do. It can be hard to distinguish from the garlic at first, but as they mature it becomes more obvious and I've learned how to more easily tell them apart.
I've got a bag full of fresh cut leaves, so hopefully that would last long, if not, I could use some grass clippings, speaking of which our grass could use a mowing right about now, maybe first thing in the morning 😅
Didn't know that about hay having "rogue" seeds in it but I guess that makes sense, I wouldn't know where to get hay where I live although I live near a farm so I could ask them if they got any spare but I don't have the social skills to randomly just turn up and ask for some lmao 😅
Thank you. I screwed it up last year and I think I had both not enough hay/mulch and didn't consistently water.