Tools and Equipment

We use a tractor with a rototiller that we have modified to prepare the  beds.  We start first by cultivating the planned growing area without  worrying about rows and beds in the same manner that you would prepare a  field for a new pasture or hay crop.  In the picture on the right you  will see that we use a Machio rototiller with the factory supplied  flanges and this wroks well for the first stage of soil preparation. 

While it is essential to have a tractor and related equipment to  cultivate the soil, the planting, weeding and harvesting are manual  processes.  In the various sections of this page, we have tried to  provide some insight into the various tasks.  

We use a tractor with a rototiller that we have modifed to prepare the  beds.  We start first by cultivating the planned growing area without  worrying about rows and beds in the same manner that you would prepare a  field for a new pasture or hay crop.  In the picture on the right you  will see that we use a Machio rototiller with the factory supplied  flanges and this wroks well for the first stage of soil preparation. 

Before we rototill, we spread manure evenly over the planned area and  rototill it in with several passes.  When we have complete this, it is  time to plan your beds. 

Since we grow on the west coast where rain is abundant, we have elected  to use raise beds of approximately 8 inches in height to ensure that the  plants have adequate drainage during the wet season.  If you are  growing in a dryer area we recommend a lower raised bed.  In our first  years we had about a 50% bed area to 50% path area thinking that this  would give us lots of room to work, weed etc.  But the big problem is  that you end up with 50% garlic and 50% weeds.  If you are growing  organically this can be a problem. 

We modified our rototiller so that our beds are about 40 - 50 inches  wide.  This is adequate for a row of 5 bulbs spaced approximately 8  inches apart.  We have kept the path size down to the width of the  tractor tire.  Since we do a lot of walking up and down the rows during  the season, we find that  trampling of weeds tends to work fairly well  and limits the amount of time spent battling the invading weeds.  

I borrowed the design of this tool from Fred  Flinstone.  Again you may laugh, but the point I am trying to make is  that you shouldn't let the numbers scare you.  Once a bed is prepared  and levelled, I can walk down the bed and stamp out 5 holes every 3  seconds.  So to prepare the holes for planting the seed cloves, I can do  a bed of 1000 in about 10 minutes.  And I'll bet you that you couldn't  even attach an implement to your tractor in that amount of time!  Note  that this clever design not only spaces the plants 8 inches apart but  has gauges to ensure that each success row is exactly 6 inches apart.   ie We plant on an 8" by 6" grid, but you could change this if you so  desire.    

The image on the right shows what your rows might  look like if you followed our guidelines.  One important consideration  if you are planting more than one variety of garlic.  We recommend that  you get stakes and waterproof marking pens and mark your rows prior to  the start of planting.  You will be surprised how fast you forget what  you planted and where, and this can be a minor disaster if you are  planning to sell a number of varieties and want to keep them separate.       and post it here. A good mission statement tells you what drives a company to do what it does.