Growing Garlic

It's mid October (can you believe it?) which means if you are planning to plant garlic the time is now! You can plant garlic in the winter or in the spring. Planting at this time of the year means that the bulbs will have a chance to grow roots before the ground freezes and it will be ready to harvest in early summer.

You can buy seed garlic from seed supply stores and there are a ton of fancy varieties available. If you are like me and forgot to plan ahead you can use garlic bought from the grocery store. The generic white boring kind. Next year I'll be prepared. There are a ton of interesting garlic varieties I'd love to try.

 When preparing your beds loosen the soil in your garden bed to 12 inches deep. I am planting mine in the center of one of my straw bale beds.

garlic is going in here!

• Separate the cloves of garlic. This is called "cracking" pull the clove apart and pull away the separate bulbs.  Each bulb you plant will grow into it's own clove.

• Size matters so choose the largest cloves and the largest bulbs from those cloves. The larger bulbs will produce the biggest cloves.

• Plant your bulbs about 6 inches apart and 3 inches deep.

• Be careful not to over-water . Garlic doesn't like to get too wet and it might rot if the soil stays too soggy.

• Growing garlic in your garden is a great way to help prevent pests. The smell will deter them. Consider planting garlic around the borders of your garden.