Garlic for 2024, one new variety this year

[blissful]

@Kathleen, a raised bed will be drier since the soil is a bit above ground. You might have better luck. I hope you get the new raised bed in.
I'm not sure what you would layer in to make sure you have good drainage, @larry_stewart and @pepperhead212 will probably know.
I put in our lettuce garden in a slightly raised bed, starting with evergreen bush branches (from pruning that year), lime, soil, compost, soil. If your soil doesn't drain well, you might need sand added?

 

[larry_stewart]

I definitely had a few years of drainage problems ( among other things). I seem to have gotten I together , for the most part , this past year. These are the things I did, and didn't do, to fix the problem.

- I initially incorporated sand into the soil for extra drainage. Helped, but not enough, so I the following season I incorporated some perlite to again, help with drainage and also kinda fluff up the soil a bit so not compacted.

- In addition, I reduced how deep I planted ( probably from 6 inches to 2 - 4 inches). I figured, the deeper I planted, the more likely the bulbs were sitting in the wettest part of the soil.

- Another thing I noticed was that I heavily mulched the garlic with chopped leaves. This worked great to keep weeds from growing in the bed ( like %100 worked), but I think I maybe mulched too much, therefore , keeping the soil too wet.

- I also hand watered when I felt it needed it instead of having its on a regular watering basis. I actually did this with most the garden. This way I can water what is needed, when it is needed, and also shoot for the roots instead of getting ' rained on' from the sprinklers

- The final thing I noticed was I had 2 beds. One received more sun than the other. Not significant amount, but enough to notice. The sunnier location had dryer soil. Probably a combination from the more direct sun exposure, and that fact that the ones with the more sun exposure grew a little quicker, probably making better use of the water in the soil. At least that sounds kinda logical to me. Either way, they didnt get water logged. This year I am planting most ( if not all) of my garlic in that sunnier location. Rearranging things a bit to accommodate.