Garlic Beds

I borrowed a bed raiser from Eddie at Kellogg Valley Farms last weekend to raise two long rows for this fall's garlic bulbs.

After raising my strawberry bed by hand (and a rake) I just had to stand and shake my head at how quickly Robert pulled up two rows for me to plant garlic cloves in. 

Milan didn't care how quickly my rows were being raised, all he knew was that a tractor was moving and he wasn't on it.

With two rows pulled up it was on Milan and I to plant almost twenty pounds of garlic cloves that Robert helped me split up on Friday afternoon.  

It was also on Milan and I to get the rows mulched really well to help keep them raised and keep the bulbs under dirt.  We would normally use large round bales of hay that gets cut off of our hayfield to mulch these beds.  Due to the drought this year though we have no hay from that field so we are using the wood mulch Bruce hauls over whenever he gets a chance.  The electric company did a lot of work taking down trees that were under power lines near Bruce's house and they dumped large piles of wood mulch at his place and now he hauls them over to our place.  

So yesterday and today Milan and I spent a few hours hauling mulch to the garlic beds and spreading it by hand since I so brilliantly put these garlic rows too far apart to straddle with the tractor tires yet too close together to fit a tractor tire in between.  Milan's main jobs were to put the key in the tractor every time we needed a new load,

strap himself onto the seat (in a timely manner),

and drive his own tractor through the mulch.  

As the person who simply had to move the mulch with a hayfork and a snow shovel, I can say that watching Milan work absolutely wore me out.  However, the job is done.