Garlic Growers needed
My circumstances are changing. It was not possible to build two new raised cedar beds in the Monticello garden to plant my garlic seed for the 2025 crop. And the Shelby Park Community Garden (SPCG) in Louisville, KY where I plant my garlic will be reconfiguring their planting beds in the spring 2025. So there will be no beds that could hold the garlic October 2024-June 2025 because the beds will be deconstructed and new beds built in their place. SPCG is grateful for a Tito’s Grant to revitalize our raised beds. However, these circumstances leave me in a quandary. Where will I plant the seed I saved from my 2024 crop?
I’m looking for raised beds close to either of my homes where I can grow some of my seed. If you are a grower near me in Louisville or Monticello, will you plant some of my seed in your prepared soil, tend it through the growing season, and let me help harvest it in June, 2025?
If you want to try your hand at growing garlic with organic practices and you have a 4’x8’ raised bed area (or a size close to that or larger) that you could devote for this purpose for immediate planting of my garlic SEED, please contact me by text message to (502) 494-4052.
Broadleaf Czech SEED braid 2024 for the 2025 crop.
Grower Commitments:
The grower will receive my organically grown SEED (valued at $38 per pound) at no cost to the grower, and will earn a portion of the harvest for their personal use.
The grower will pay the cost of organic soil amendments for their growing beds (Lynn can provide these amendments at cost—usually under $10 for a 4’x12’ raised bed)
Lynn will receive 10% of the plants from the grower’s June 2025 harvest—the largest bulbs—to replenish my SEED for the next season.
After the grower chooses their portion (approximately 20%—this amount is negotiable) from the harvest, Lynn will receive the rest (approximately 70%) of the crop to braid.
In “Planting garlic in Kentucky (zone 7A)” blog you will find how to prepare and amend the soil prior to planting, how to plant the cloves, how to tend the beds through the long garlic growing season here in Kentucky (zone 7a), and how to know it’s time to harvest.
I will come to each growing site to assist you growers-of-my garlic-SEED in preparing the soil, planting, spring side-dressing, and harvesting.
The grower commits to tend to the growing garlic plants throughout the season:
mulch with 3” of straw
water every three days when it does not rain
since garlic does not compete well with weeds, pull the few weeds that break through the mulch
side-dress with organic soil amendments in the spring
help Lynn harvest the crop in June when the plants reveal that they are mature
If excessive rain is forecast during the 2-3 weeks before we expect to harvest, the grower agrees to cover the bed with a high-tunnel (clear plastic on plastic pipe hoops) so the crop is not soaked with the rain just prior to harvest (which will ruin the crop). I’m grateful, this circumstance has only happened once in more than 15 years that I’ve been growing garlic to braid.
If the grower wants to learn my braiding techniques, I will provide a braiding workshop for them at no cost. When their braids are ready to be sold, at the grower’s request, I will post pictures of their braids on my website and other places for sale. Braids from their portion of the harvest will earn them 100% of the sale price, and it will be their responsibility to deliver or post them to the buyers.
Lynn will receive the total sales price of the product she braids with the 70% of the harvest that the grower will provide her. After the largest bulbs 10% of harvest is returned to Lynn to repay the SEED garlic she gave the grower at no charge in the fall 2024, the grower receives approximately 20% of the harvest to use however they choose.