Planting Garlic in Grow Zone 7a

October 6, 2025 Sarah

As we enter fall, it is time to plant garlic (and shallots) before winter arrives. Back in Western Washington, in grow zone 8b, I could often plant into early December – I just had to pay attention to any Canadian freezes that were forecasted. Those came late, though. It was definitely easier gardening for the lazy. But I will say this: growing in West Virginia in 7a has been more productive. I am still picking fully ripe tomatoes. There is something to be said about temperatures in the 80s°F in the first week of October.

However, in the Shenandoah Valley, in zone 7a, I need to be more mindful of the temperatures. As winter approaches, the temperature drops quickly at night, becoming cold. We are in the first half of October, so do not hesitate. It is time to get it done. And don’t forget to plant elephant garlic and shallots, if you plan to do so.

Determine the type of garlic you want to grow: Softneck or Hardneck? Hard neck? Spicy or mild? Each garlic variety will have a description talking about its features. To determine how much to buy, consider the number of potential cloves each head contains. And how many plants do you want? You will want to plant enough to eat, and enough to plant next year. If a head has an average of 8 cloves, and you want 64 plants…well, you need eight bulbs. See below for spacing.
Figure where you want to plant the garlic: If your groundwater level is high, deep raised boxes can be your friend. Since your garlic will be overwintering, you don’t want it to sit in water and potentially rot. Consider whether rainwater accumulates in the area or if it seeps in quickly. Raised (hilled) rows also work well. Rotate garlic yearly; don’t grow it in the same spot every year. Ensure your garlic receives as much sunlight as possible during the summer.
Once situated, weed the bed well, turning it over gently. Add soil or compost as needed on top.
Break your garlic up into individual cloves. I wear disposable gloves so I don’t stink for days, but I am a garden princess, it seems.

Spacing and planting: I plant in rows 1 foot apart, and since our beds are 48 inches wide (4 feet), I can fit eight cloves across. You want at least 6 inches apart per clove for ample growth.
Using a dibble or a broomstick, poke holes into the soil. Drop a single clove in, then cover it with soil and gently tamp it down. Be sure to mark your rows before you cover up.

Cover your garlic with straw deeply. Water the straw to hold it down, then walk away for the fall and winter. Unless your fall is hot, don’t worry about watering. If it is in the 60s or lower, you are fine.
In late winter to early spring, the garlic will come alive once again and push up through the straw, green stalks rising up. As the weather heats up, you will want to keep it well watered so it grows large.
In late spring, if you grow hardneck garlic, you will get garlic scapes. They come up out of the top of the stalk. These are edible, cut off, and enjoy. Diced, they taste like garlic asparagus (I add them to eggs), or I use them to make a pesto sauce. The scapes, if allowed to grow, will turn into a flower head that then produces bulbils. The bulbits can be harvested and used to grow garlic, but it will take 2 to 3 years. Cutting off the garlic scapes allows the bulb in the ground to develop fully. I let 1 or 2 go for the fun of producing the tiny “seeds” and because bees love the flowers – always support your pollinators.
Around the end of June/4th of July, quit watering.
You will know when to harvest when the tops start turning tawny in color. To harvest, pull gently up to pop out. If the top breaks (and it does a few times at least), gently use a small hand shovel or hand fork to loosen under the roots, being careful not to gouge the garlic.
To cure: Shake dirt off the bulb and gather all the garlic. Trim the stalks back, leaving approximately six inches. Please place it in a well-ventilated spot, out of direct sunlight, for a couple of weeks. We have in the past put a wooden pallet over a garden cart in our shop and walked away. The pallet ensures air flow, and the dirt drops down as the garlic dries. Once cured, we trim the stalk back even more.
To store for use, we keep ours in a large cardboard box with plenty of space to allow for airflow. We had a cellar that remained at 55°F year-round in our previous home, where we stored our items. Next year, I will store them in our basement. We haven’t had rodent issues with garlic, but your mileage may vary. The key is to keep it cool, in the dark, and dry. If it sprouts, use that for seed garlic first.
Saving seed garlic: I pick out any heads (bulbs) where the paper is cracked or pulled back first, or ones I have to dig out. Then I use the biggest after that. These I keep well-ventilated in a cool, dry place and wait for planting time. Then I enjoy the rest of the garlic!
And last but not least, if you get garlic that sprouts, just plant it randomly, even if it is from the grocery store. Find a spot, and plant it. Garlic is resilient, and it has a will to grow even if you have a black thumb. The only thing more resilient than garlic is potatoes.

And that is a wrap for the year. I built it, planted it, and put it to bed. Cool temps are coming this week. Fingers crossed this crop does well – half of it is locally grown garlic I sourced.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Fall Planting Schedule For Grow Zone 7a

September 25, 2025 Sarah

Fall showed up this week on the calendar in the Eastern Panhandle, but not in the weather. We did get rain, which is essential, after a long, dry August and most of September. It’ll be a while till sweater season. The nighttime temps are still warm, which has encouraged my fall crops that I planted in August. So that is a good thing.

Bush peas, dwarf peas, and bok choy. The other side of the bed has kale and swiss chard growing.

But what do you need to be planning now? What seeds do you need? Fall gets busy, so you need to plan before September is done.

The first “average” frost date for grow zone 7a is October 29th, but where I live in 25442, it is October 19th.

You want crops to have time to get established before there is a risk of frost. Garlic should be planted three to four weeks before the first frost, which is very soon.

The other is tomorrow, we slip to 12 hours of light. Plants need as much light as possible. Even if it is warm, without enough hours of sunlight, they don’t grow well.

What To Plant In The Next Two Months:

Seeds (plant as soon as possible):

Dwarf bok choy
Dwarf kale
Radishes
Dwarf lettuces
Arugula
Small carrot varieties – this is the time for the tiny finger ones, not the arm-length ones.
Beets – look for fast-growing types, but you can always eat the greens
Spinach
Green Onions

You will notice I use “dwarf” often. Why? They are smaller plants and grow to maturity faster. Will you get as big a crop? No, but that is ok! You will enjoy fall greens and crisp vegetables. And that is always better than not planting anything.

Other:

Potatoes. I learned a lesson this first year here – you can grow spring potatoes. But not summer ones, unless they are in the ground. I literally cooked my potatoes this summer, trying for a second crop. I was used to that working back in the PNW. I planted a crop in mid-September, and we shall see how it goes. Sometimes fall crops are ready for harvest; if not, they emerge in very early spring, for an early harvest.

Bulbs:

Elephant Garlic – It can go into the ground at any point from now. Give each bulb 8″ between and a wide row, so it has room to grow. It will grow tall, so plan accordingly to avoid shading lower crops. As the first frost approaches, mulch to protect.

Garlic – plant in the ground 3 to 4 weeks before the first frost, allowing it time to develop roots. You can buy garlic at farmers’ markets, garden centers, online, or, if not easily available, you can buy garlic from the grocery store to plant. However, only buy certified organic so it isn’t sprayed with growth retardants. Before first frost mulch well to protect over winter.

Shallots – pick up bulbs to plant; usually, you can divide them into two separate bulbs. A trick is to buy at the grocery store. Like garlic, make sure it is US-grown and certified organic to avoid the use of growth retardants. Not all varieties can be grown from true seed, so using the bulbs is far easier (especially for fall planting). Plant just below the surface, let it sprout, then mulch to protect it in winter.

Protect Against Frost:

It’s also time to consider protecting late summer/fall crops if necessary. Last year, I had picked up this set of grow tunnel hoops for spring, but then I didn’t open them due to the move. I got them assembled quickly and into a finished bed. Now I can put on frost fabric or plastic quickly. To keep certain things warm.

In action:

Enjoy the time outside before the cold weather arrives. And get the work done as soon as you can.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

Gardening 101: Learn The Basics

April 15, 2024 Sarah

When you decide to start gardening, it can be overwhelming. Where does one start? How do you do it? We have many posts that can help you with each question, inspire, and help you learn. Wether you have a single pot on a deck, an urban backyard, or you are living rural with many growing areas.

Updated USDA Grow Zones

Know the average temperatures in your local area. They have changed in some places in recent years.

Make Your Own Seed Starting Mix

It’s far better and more affordable than buying tiny bags of seed starting mix.

Starting Seeds In Pots

Giving your future crops a hand up.

No Garden? Grow Dwarf Plants

It’s the easy way to have fresh veggies and fruit on a patio or deck.

Building A Garden Quickly

You can get a garden on the weekend.

Growing To Eat Versus Growing For Hobby

There is a real difference in how you will go at it, and how much space you need.

How To Buy The Best Seeds

There are so many options it can overwhelm you.

How Much To Plant?

This is one of the questions we get the most often asked. How much does a person need to plant, per person, based on whether or not you are eating for the summer or preserving for winter as well?

The Food Forest

Plant once, eat every year. Grow fruit and berries (and some vegetables) that come back yearly.

Using Reclaimed Logs To Build Beds

We have used this method a couple of times.

Grow Potatoes

Potatoes are one of the few crops that, even if they fail, you can use the failures to restart the growth cycle.

Garbage Can Taters

It’s a simple and effective method.

Building An Herbal Garden

Herbs are great for pollination, medicinal, and culinary.

5 Gallon Bucket Growing

A great method for pepper plants.

Growing Garlic

It’s the crop that flavors so much.

Planning A Fall Garden

In mid-summer, it is time to start planting fall crops.

Saving Seeds

How do you have next year’s seeds for free?

Making Seed Packets

How to create an easy paper envelope. Great for children to do.

Prepping For Early Frosts

If you want to extend your garden season, plan for it beforehand.

The Kinder Garden

Build a garden for your children.

Dealing With Microclimates

How to protect plants when it has a shorter season than a mile away does.

A Year Of Sileage Tarping

How to use sileage tarps to create fields ready to grow in.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading

In The Garden: Rebuilding An In Ground Bed

April 7, 2024 Sarah

This bed has changed a lot in the past five years. Kirk tilled it for me with the tractor in our second year here, in 2019. He had removed the evergreen trees that were sprinkled on the land down low in 2018, leaving many craters behind.

I covered it with farm fabric and set to work.

Its first year was as a trial bed for strawberry plants. Fenced off from the deer. The orchard was to the left.

Eventually, the two areas would become one, and I’d install full fencing 6 feet high.

Then, in 2020:

With our Pandemic Chickens, we bought a coop and installed it where there was fencing. My strawberry bed lasted till mid-summer and the birds became adults. They would live there until the end of summer of 2023.

Eventually, I moved the chickens out, and it became a nothing zone. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. I let it rest over fall and winter.

This spring, I decided that, with it being a chicken area, the soil would be very rich. So I weeded it and tilled it up, using a light tiller, to just open up the top inches of soil.

We laid out the fabric on the edges to suppress weeds and pinned it down amply.

I kept extending the fabric. We have a real issue with Stinging Nettle under the peach and pear trees. The chickens had pushed it down, but it returned once they were moved.

I added in 3 hog panels, with each one being held up with two T-posts. These will be used for growing cucumbers, beans, and such, which need about 3 feet of height to grow.

I still have plenty of rocks to move, to fill the walkways. In a month it will look so different.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Preserving

Seed Saving: Heirloom Bean Seeds We Grew in 2023 And Saved

March 22, 2024 Sarah

One of the most important things you can do as a gardener and homesteader is to preserve open-pollinated/heirloom seeds that grew well for you. Keep growing them, but also share with others so they can keep these seeds going. One single bean seed can produce many, so even 6 to 8 shared seeds is huge. By the second year of growing, you will have enough to eat.

These are the shelling beans we grew in the summer of 2023. Shelling means you can let the bean pod dry up on the plant and seed the pods once the outside is crispy dry. They can be stored in mason jars for eating in the cold months. They work well as beans in soups and cassoulets. If rain is predicted, we will pull beans by late August and let them finish drying on the counter or greenhouse.

Tiger’s Eye Beans. Originated from South America: Chile, and Argentina. Bush bean.

Hidatsa Red Indian Bean. One seed can produce a plant that produces 100 pods. Each pod holds 6 to 8 beans. They are called” half-runners” because they grow about 3 feet tall. They are drought-resistant.

Painted Pony Bean. It is a prized bush bean, and the markings often survive the cooking process.

Scarlet Runner Bean. It is an incredible bean known for its pole-climbing ability. It’ll grow very tall, so start building a teepee even before you plant it. Massive pods. It’s very popular for children’s gardens, and pollinator friendly.

Yellow Indian Woman Beans, also called Buckeye Beans now, were brought to the US from Sweden and grown in the harsh climate of Montana by the Indigenous people. They are bush beans.

Jacob’s Cattle Beans. Bush plant.

Rockwell Bean. This bean is named after the late 1800s pioneer Elisha Rockwell, who came to Whidbey Island and farmed in the now-Ebey Preserve. It’s a smaller bean and doesn’t grow as tall as some, making it perfect for the PNW region. It is a bush bean, but needs to have something to trellis on.

Orca Bean. Also known as the Calypso bean. It is a bush bean, with 4 to 5 beans per pod.

~Sarah