garlic mulch

a series of natural events left me with time to get out to the garden early today and get the garlic mulched...it looks like it came through yesterday's storm fine ( top photo ) but forecast lows in the upper twenties will do the fall growth in so i decided to preempt the weather and get this accomplished...using landscaping staples ( second photo ) i stapled a piece of agribon row cover fabric i had precut to size at home down along the bed on the windward side of the garlic ( third photo )...then i stuffed around six inches of straw under the fabric, making sure to loosen the compacted straw so there would be pockets of dead air, under the fabric along the length of the bed ( fourth photo )...after the straw was in place i stapled the rest of the fabric edges down, leaving behind the finished mulch on the garlic ( bottom two photos )...when i first purchased this fabric i was uncertain of how well it would work ( i was not accustomed to seeing the straw through the fabric ) but it proved to be a very durable fabric throughout last year's harsh winter so i am confident there will be no crises of escaped straw...all i have to do is check the staples to make sure frost heave doesn't push them out of the ground...the garden never really sleeps and maintenance never ends.