Garlic

Growing Garlic!

One of the questions I hear the most..... "Is it too *soon or late* to plant my garlic?" 
insert a bunch of laughing emojis here! We ARE garlic lovers!!  :)

Now, we can get quite technical about what/how/when - and there are definitely times for that. But, I want to encourage more people to grow the food that they love! So, here are a few tips on growing garlic for the novice gardener:

1. Use ONLY organic garlic.  You can buy the bulbs from a nursery or from your high-quality grocer, but make sure the bulbs are tight and hard, ie. fresh.  If you use grocery store garlic, the grown bulbs may not get as big. 

2. Know the two basic kinds - hardneck and softneck. If you like the garlic you usually get at the store, that's probably softneck.  It's not cold-hardy, but you can easily grow it in your yard. It has a mild flavor.   
Hardneck varieties are cold-hardy, and they produce tall twirly scapes that you can harvest in the late spring while the bulb matures. The scapes are great to use in a stirfry, and the bulb flavor is much more bold.  

The planting is super easy. Be sure to separate the cloves from the whole bulb. You plant the cloves separately. Make sure you have chunky soil, adding organic matter until it looks like mine here. Dig a trench about 6" deep, then add back in half of that so the soil in the trench is loose. Plant the garlic cloves with the pointy side UP.  Fill in the trench and pat the soil firm. The rain should take care of the watering. In the early spring you will see the garlic start to grow. If you see the garlic coming up in the winter, cover it with more soil until the spring comes. 

​When I started growing garlic, I planted in the spring. I didn't really know what I was doing, and I did get garlic in the fall, but the bulbs were small. Then, I started following what others did, and I gained more success (and bigger bulbs!)  The general rule is to plant in the fall before frost, so the roots have a chance to become established before the freeze. If you miss that deadline, you can plant in the early spring, but you won't be able to have big enough bulbs to harvest until the next fall.  

Here's my garlic at the beginning of May. I'm waiting for scapes!  

A friend's very efficient drying method!  Garlic will store inside in a cool place for a long time!  ENJOY throughout the winter!

Plant at Halloween and harvest the 4th of July. Maybe those dates are approximate!!​ Just make sure to harvest before the first freeze or the garlic will become mush!

Harvesting & Cooking with Garlic Scapes!