Growing your own Garlic

With just a few tips, you can have a bountiful harvest of garlic next summer.  Fall is the time to plant garlic and with our warm and wet coastal winters anytime between October and December should work fine.  Do not wait too long or your garlic will not have time enough to develop strong roots and shoots.  Also, your plants need the winter’s cold temperatures to develop the side buds that eventually turn into the cloves that garlic is so famous for.

Choose a variety of garlic that is grown locally (if possible) and select the biggest and healthiest seed cloves.  You can go to either a local nursery for seed garlic, or to a supermarket that sells local organic garlic.  Be sure to prepare your soil before planting.  Garlic prefers deep, fertile, and well-drained soil.  Out here in the west, it is usually a good idea to add a dusting of lime several weeks before planting to get the soil pH above 6.0 (ideally it should be pH 6.5-7.0).  Then just prior to planting, add some compost and a balanced general fertilizer to the soil.

If your seed garlic cloves are still part of the bulb, break them apart and choose the biggest ones for planting.  The smaller weak cloves are likely to struggle over the winter.  Sow them root end down (pointy end up) and deep enough so they are covered with about an inch of soil.  Plant cloves 4 inches apart.  Any closer than that and they will be difficult to dig up in the summer without cutting into them with your spade!

Good drainage in your soil is key to keeping your garlic cloves from rotting over the wet winters.  On the coast we have a lot of sand, so drainage tends to be good, even with our copious amounts of winter rain.  You may need to add sand or other amendments to the soil if your live in an area that has poor drainage.

In the spring when the garlic starts growing, provide a light application of high nitrogen fertilizer every couple weeks.  Make sure to keep the area around the garlic free of weeds and water regularly.

When the leaves of your garlic plants begin to turn brown (typically around July but this can vary depending on weather), carefully dig up one of them and peel back the white sheaths surrounding the bulb.  There should be 2-4 sheaths left if they are ready to harvest.  If you wait too long, the bulbs start opening making it difficult to pull/dig them out of the ground.  Also, the garlic will not store as well for you if this happens.

After harvesting, keep the leaves on and wash your garlic bulbs and roots well and let dry out of direct sun for about a week.  Then trim off the roots, discard the outer most sheath if discolored, and braid your garlic for storage.  Hang them in your kitchen or other relatively cool, dry location, and enjoy your fresh homegrown garlic for months.  It probably will not really help keep vampires or politicians away, but it’s worth a try!

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