While all the other vegetables in my garden are calling it quits, there’s one crop is just getting ready to grow. Garlic is one of my favorite veggies to plant. I don’t know why more people don’t grow their own garlic. It’s easy and tastes magnificent!
What’s nice about garlic is you plant it in fall when little else is happening in the veggie garden. You could plant garlic in spring, but you’ll never get the full sized bulbs you get from a fall planting. Plus, it’s productive! Every clove in a garlic head is planted and can become a new bulb. Sometimes there are up to 10 cloves per bulb. 10 new bulbs from one old one is a good return in my book. A small 4-foot by 6-foot bed can supply a household of 4 with enough garlic to last the whole season. Unless you’re like me and you inhale the stuff, then you might want a bigger patch.
Garlic comes in so many more varieties than what you find in the grocery store. Each has it’s own flavor and sometimes different color. They’re broken into two types: softneck and hardneck. Hardneck varieties, such as ‘German Extra-Hardy’ and ‘Russian Red’, are hardy, intensely flavored, and produce a scape or flower stalk in midsummer. You’ll want to remove the scapes when they form because they take energy away from the developing bulb. However, don’t throw them away. They are tasty sautéed in olive oil or used in stir fries.
Softneck varieties, such as ‘Silverskin’ and ‘New York White’ are less winter hardy, but produce larger bulbs and have soft tops that are good for making garlic braids.
Wait until October to plant garlic, but buy the bulbs now while they’re still plentiful. However, don’t plant the grocery store garlic because they tend to be varieties from California that aren’t adapted to our climate.
A few weeks before planting build a raised bed and amend the soil with a 1- to 2-inch thick layer of compost. Work the compost in well and remove any sticks and rocks in the bed. Break apart the garlic bulbs into individual cloves. Plant cloves 6 inches apart in rows 10 inches apart. Stick the bottom of the cloves into the soil so the tops are just showing above the soil surface. Water well.
Around Thanksgiving time, mulch the bed with a 6- to 8-inch thick layer of straw or hay. Don’t use leaves because they mat and can cause the bulbs to rot over winter. Don’t be worried if the garlic sprouts this fall. That’s natural during warm spells and they won’t be injured by the cold. As soon as the weather warms in spring, the garlic will start growing. Remove the mulch, apply a balanced organic fertilizer, and water. You’ll be harvesting garlic come July.
You’ll be amazed at the size, quantity, and quality of the garlic bulbs that you produced with very little work. It’s enough to make even a novice gardener proud.