The Curious Dibbler

Back ten days. Garlic planting. Sunday, clouds still hanging onto the mountains. Rise as if it was a Sunday, bit later, then get started by 9 am. Lots to do, and who knew whether I could get it all done in one day?

Signs were attached to their posts first, then planted. Do not mess up the organization.

The sun poked through the clouds as I experimented with my hastily made dibber.

Four cut lengths of broom handle, then pointed. The addition to the right measures from the last dibbing.

Heads were cracked at night, then sorted, weighed, counted, boxed and labeled. Remaining heads are to be planted at the beach farm, remaining cloves to be eaten. These are a turban variety called Tuscan.

After dibbing, cloves are wedged between index and middle fingers, root side down.

Then pushed down into the 5-inch deep hole.

Care is taken to keep the pointy top up while pushing the clove in. Since the clove is curved, it naturally wants to slip onto its side on its way to the bottom of the hole. Make sure this doesn't happen.

Labeled and planted, the majority of the rows are ready for bone and blood meal, raking over the planting holes, and a watering in. I will mulch the beds later. By sundown, I had all but 18 rows completed. I decided I would wake early to plant four of those rows (500 cloves) before my departure at 9 am.