Quote:
Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter
I typically don't purposely water but if I plant before the lawn irrigation systems is shut down for the season, it may get watered a few times. As for covering, I've read that you should wait until the first hard freeze to cover them with mulch. Since I never have my mulch ready when it's planting time, there's always a few weeks before I get them covered.
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So far I haven't ever read anything about waiting to mulch after the first hard freeze. We already had two nights of a hard freeze last week. One of the first years growing garlic, we did mulch, but did not anchor the mulch. The wind blew portions of it off the bed and we had our typical first freezes which were then followed by a few days in the 60's and 70's. We had a hard time keeping all of it mulched that year. I think this cycle of freeze then thaw is harmful to the garlic, causing the ground to heave. We had some garlic failure that year. So, since then we have mulched immediately after planting and our harvests have been great. I imagine when one mulches is dependent on one's climate.