Rutkowski Farm

So today I finished mulching the garlic for the winter months.  All in all, I’m really happy with how the field prep went for the actual planting. All my beds were uniform and straight, and there wasn’t a lot of organic material (ie plant stubble) in the field to wrestle with.  In short, I corrected a lot of the mistakes I made last year.  I’m hoping that I can carry that forward in the spring and do an additional mulching once it’s popped up.  I really need to do a better job of keeping the weeds under control this go around.

So, what did I learn this time while planting?

• The dibbler does not reach the ground when it’s mounted on the tractor.  I had the brilliant idea that I’ll pull the dibbler behind the tractor, so that my rows would be very straight.  I went as far as buying additional parts for the dibbler to adapt it to fit on my hitch.  Unfortunately, I mounted it and it just spun in the air. Doh!
• Any task that I’m going to ask others to help me with has to be done first by me.  I spent a good deal of time measuring and remeasuring to get more accurate numbers of what I was planting.  Because I spent the time, I have a great deal more confidence in my counts this year.  I’ve noticed that when I have others working for me, this kind of information gets lost.  I always appreciate the help, but I now see that I need to develop a methodology on my own before bringing others into the task.
• I can manage the whole process on my own.  That said, given my current task load, 10,000 head of garlic is a pretty realistic maximum.

As a side note, I’m hoping to make a batch of garlic powder soon.