Growing Garlic

Time to read 2 minutes

So we had some garlic in the pantry which had started to sprout- the organic kind naturally tend to do that in Spring.

So rather than rush to use them up, compromising the taste – garlic tends to lose flavour once they begin to sprout, I decided to plant them.

Planting Garlic

So there are two types of garlic grown: soft neck, which produce smaller bulbs, that you plant in Spring and will be ready to harvest by late Summer, and hard neck varieties that need a period of cold weather so you plant them in Autumn and are ready to harvest by Spring.

I will be planting soft necks in Spring.

1. Remove the “little paper jackets” from the bulb

2. Plant in peat-free compost. I tend to plant garlic in pots.

You don’t need much compost at this stage. Garlic produce shallow roots and I will add more compost as they grow.

Each clove will give me a brand new bulb of garlic.

I will earth up (add more compost) as the bulbs grow.

I will keep the garlic in the greenhouse for now because sometimes the birds like to dig up the cloves to eat, if they can see them so they’re in there for their own protection. Some netting over them until the sprouts turn green works too.

Care

Garlic are pretty easy to grow and care for. Keep weed free, water when dry and fertilize with a balanced vegetable feed every 4 weeks.

Stop watering and feeding about 3 weeks prior to harvest.

Harvest when the top leaves turn brown and dry at the end of Summer.

Harvesting and Preparing Garlic for Storage

Once the stems start to brown on garlic, they can be pulled.

I tend to shake off any excess compost and store in a dry cardboard box with the lid open for a few weeks in a dry, dark place like a garage.

Ensure the space is well ventilated because garlic give off a strong smell when curing. You want for the outer skins around the bulbs to dry out and become papery to protect cloves for longer term storage.

After a few weeks, you should have fairly dry stems which can then be braided, which looks pretty, or tied with twine, and hung up.

I am a little sensitive to the smell of onion and garlic so as much as I would love to store the lovely looking bundle of garlic in my kitchen pantry, it smells a little too strong for me, so I store it in the garage.

If stored in a dry place, garlic should keep for 6-12 months.

• Animal Husbandry
• Cooking
• DIY
• Gardening
• Homemade Personal Care
• Knitting
• Knitting Vlogs
• Uncategorized