Kale, garlic, and bulbs in same bed?

[RyNJ]

A gardenable side of my garage faces south, and that's where I have some daffodils, hyacinths, and an iris from years back that I never do much with. But I do want to grow kale over the winter, as well as put in some garlic, and I figure this area will be the best growing area for the winter, besides the south side of my house which I can't actually do anything with.

I just don't know if these plants are gonna get along or not. I saw in the companion planting guide that cabbage doesn't like garlic, so might that mean that kale also doesn't? And will the excess of bulbs make it an irresistible smorgasbord for whatever goes after bulbs? Your thoughts would be appreciated

[soil]

most pests don't like dafodils, the gophers wont touch them around here. I would think garlic would be fine with it as long as the dafodils didnt grow too thick.

I also have kale growing with some garlic in my forest garden. garlic was there first, kale planted itself, been growing fine together for almost 2 seasons now. I wouldnt go plant a kale next to every garlic though.

[applestar]

My only concern would be that when you go to harvest garlic, you do have to actually DIG -- you can't just pull on the top like you do with carrots, etc. So there needs to be sufficient distance between the bulbs and the garlic.

Remember too that by the time garlic is ready to harvest, spring bulbs are likely to have gone dormant and lost their foliage, making it difficult to determine where they are.

I wonder if shallow rooted crops woldn't be better companion for the spring bulbs? My spring bulbs live under the wild strawberry bed.

[RyNJ]

I didn't know that about garlic, applestar. Ok, then I guess I can put the garlic in my main garden area, and super mulch once it begins getting cold. Then I can dig without worries. But I am gonna put the kale with the bulbs. I garden clawed the area really shallow, and pulling out the weeds and roots did a rather good job of breaking the soil.

[soil]

you can't just pull on the top like you do with carrots

I pull my garlic

[RyNJ]

Huh, then I might as well try some in with the bulbs. I can make much better use of garlic than I can of daffodils, so if I nick a few, oh well. I've been reading that you first soak the cloves in water with some baking soda, and then rubbing alcohol just before planting. Is this what any of you successful garlic growers do?

[soil]

I just plant the garlic, and wait. it grows and the next year I harvest.

[rainbowgardener]

Well maybe soil has super loose soil or something. But I planted garlic for the first time last fall and harvested it for the first time this summer. I was really surprised how hard it was to harvest. I had to dig and dig and dig. Maybe it would work better if you watered like crazy first.

[jal_ut]

I dig garlic. If I try to pull it, I just get the stem on hardneck, and the leaves on softneck. The cloves stay in the ground. It will depend a lot on the type of soil I think. I even have to dig carrots if they are any bigger than a finger.

I really don't think you would have a problem growing these things together. As with any planting, give the plant enough room, and it will do well. Kale leaves will spread to 2 feet wide. but if they are growing during winter when the garlic is likely dormant, it is not going to be a problem.

Can you really grow anything in winter? The only thing we grow in winter is icicles.

[RyNJ]

I'm gonna try, jal. That side of the garage gets all-day sun, plus the wall is white, so if I cover and put up a protective wall of leaves and mulch around the plants, I may be able to pull it off.

Turns out I overestimated my space, and only had room for one row of kale, but it's all good. Still gonna plant garlic, but in my main garden area where I can dig if need be (very clay-ey soil here, so even with lots of mulch I figure that might be the case).