Should winter garlic be covered for the winter: a mistake or a real benefit

Garlic is an unpretentious crop that tolerates both heat and cold well.

However, many gardeners consider it necessary to cover garlic for the winter.

Whether it is worth doing this is discussed by the expert of the online publication Belnovosti, agronomist, and landscape designer Anastasia Kovrizhnykh .

Do I need to cover garlic for the winter?

This question can be answered affirmatively in two cases.

First, cover the garlic that was planted too late.

Secondly, mulching is required if the region has very cold winters.

If the climate in the region is mild enough and the garlic was planted in a timely manner, you can do without mulching.

Garlic is covered a week or two before the first frosts. The height of the mulch layer should be at least 7 centimeters.

You can use industrial covering materials, or natural ones - straw, sawdust, leaves, peat.

Of the natural covering materials, peat is considered the best; it retains heat well.

But peat also has significant disadvantages: it increases the acidity of the soil and prevents the germination of young plants in the spring, since it becomes covered with a crust on top.

Sawdust and leaves also have good thermal insulation properties, but they stop letting air through when wet, so you will have to loosen them periodically.

It is better not to use branches and stems of plants as covering material, as this creates a risk of rotting.