View full sizeClusters of garlic, hanging to cure with old leaves and roots attached, look spooky enough to scare a haint. (Press-Register photo)Mobile, Alabama -- For some reason, just about this time of year, I start thinking about the feel of snow.
Maybe it’s a coping mechanism, when even night temperatures refuse to drop below 80 degrees. It works well enough to make me forget about the heat, imagining how my feet and hands would ache in that quiet cold. Maybe the oppressive unending blanket of summer green is comparable to nothing else but the white-out of snow.
But those daydreams are my important reminder: There’s no better time to think about winter than during the hottest, most miserable days of summer.
If you don’t start assembling your plans and materials for your winter garden now, you won’t be enjoying gardening during the Gulf Coast’s most pleasant seasons. For many gardeners, October through April is the prime season for planting and growing.
The ordering of spring bulbs should be first on every gardener’s list of things to do this month. Let me warn you as loudly as I can in a garden column: If you don’t order your daffodils, jonquils, narcissus, Spanish bluebells, Southern Roman hyacinths and yes, the Gulf Coast-adapted candy-stripe tulip right now, you will not be given permission to come crying to me in November when all the bulbs are gone.
Let’s get this spring bulb thing straight: You can have an abundance of spring bulbs blooming in your garden from Feb. 1 through April 10 if you: 1. Buy bulbs adapted to Gulf Coast winters; 2. Plant those bulbs in fall; and 3. Reserve those bulbs now.
I can help you with the first two items, but only if you’ll get off your summer doldrums right now and reserve bulbs for fall.
Same goes for you garlic growers. There’s much jealousy when I harvest my big, extra-spicy garlic in May. My homegrown turban garlic will make you ashamed to ever settle for grocery store garlic again. But to have it, you need to buy it now.
If you’re not planting until fall, why must you reserve your garlic and flower bulbs now? It’s because you’re competing with gardeners all over the rest of the country, who have to start batting down the hatches for winter in the next couple of months. Wait until you feel a nip in the Gulf air, sometime in October or November, and all the best bulbs will have long since been sold.
That’s the message: Do it now.
But before you do, let me offer some quick advice on what to order. Many gardeners on the Gulf Coast have given up on spring flowering bulbs and garlic because they try to order the same varieties bought and planted by people in Massachusetts. Now, some of you have a hard time comprehending this little known fact, but Alabama’s climate has absolutely nothing in common with Massachusetts. And if you order flower or garlic bulbs adapted to the long, cold winters of New England or North Carolina or (even) Birmingham, your chances of success here on the Gulf Coast are pretty small.
That's why you need to focus on suppliers who offer bulbs adapted to our short, mild winters. There aren't many, but there are two I've come to rely on. For spring flowering bulbs, I swear by Old House Gardens, www.oldhousegardens.com. For garlic, there's no reason to search anywhere else but Filaree Farms, www.filareefarm.com.
Old House Gardens sells bulbs all across the country, and not all their bulbs are adapted to Gulf Coast growing conditions. But unlike other bulb sellers, they also specialize in traditional Southern heirloom bulbs, and quite a few will bloom year after year in your garden, I guarantee. Start out with selections like Grand Primo, Campernelle, Carlton and Italicus, throw in a few Spanish bluebells (you’ll be SO pleasantly surprised) and maybe a candy-stripe tulip (Tulip clusiana) or two. Then branch out to experiment with all the bulbs that they have rated as good for Southern Zones 8B or higher.
Another word of warning: Don’t try this with any other catalog. Old House Gardens gets many of its bulbs from Southern growers, and they’re often much better adapted to Southern conditions than the same bulb varieties grown in Holland (what a surprise!).
Now, for you garlic lovers: Many of you have fallen into much frustration by not following my advice to order from Filaree Farms. Here’s why Filaree garlic works for you: This catalogue offers the most complete collection I’ve seen of Turban garlics from Southeast Asia. And for many, many reasons (not the least of which is that the Southeast Asian climate is most like our own), these Turban garlics are sometimes the ONLY garlics that produce a reliable crop on the Gulf Coast. For starters, try the Thai Purple and Thai Fire garlic, mix in some Chinese Purple, Blossom and Lotus garlic, and (if you’re willing to take a little more risk) consider the artichoke garlics Lorz Italian and Thermadrone.
----
Editor’s note: This column from Garden Writer Bill Finch first appeared in the Garden & Home section on Aug. 6, 2010.
----
Bill Finch would love to hear about your garden experiences and problems. He can’t answer all questions personally, but you can email him at plain gardening@press-register.com.