How early would you remove mulch from garlic?

bower · April 27, 2018

We've been having a little heat wave here, unseasonably warm for April, and pretty much a certainty that there will be frosts ahead in May - our last frost date is June 6.
I mulched all my garlic pretty heavily with unshredded maple leaves and draped with chicken wire - some had kelp mulch already, some got leaves only, and one bed I had no wire over, the leaves blew away in short order and so it had only kelp mulch. That 'kelp only' bed has garlic up and getting bigger every day. I also saw a few tips up near the edge of the other beds, but nothing has penetrated or come up through the leaves...
So now I'm wondering, should I remove the leaf mulch this early?

April 27, 2018	#1
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,793	How early would you remove mulch from garlic? We've been having a little heat wave here, unseasonably warm for April, and pretty much a certainty that there will be frosts ahead in May - our last frost date is June 6. I mulched all my garlic pretty heavily with unshredded maple leaves and draped with chicken wire - some had kelp mulch already, some got leaves only, and one bed I had no wire over, the leaves blew away in short order and so it had only kelp mulch. That 'kelp only' bed has garlic up and getting bigger every day. I also saw a few tips up near the edge of the other beds, but nothing has penetrated or come up through the leaves... So now I'm wondering, should I remove the leaf mulch this early?