This is part of a new series of blog posts for beginner gardeners. These posts may be a little shorter and more specific in nature.

I grow lots of lots of garlic, and I wanted to tell you all not only how to grow it, but also what to do with it, once you have a bumper crop.

Before we start, you should know that there are two major types of garlic, hard necks and soft necks.

There are many varieties of both types. The hard neck type will send up a long spear in early summer/late spring. This will become a flower. You should snip these off before the flower opens up, as the flower will take energy from the developing bulb. The good news is that you can eat those flower spears. I cut them up and add them to stir fries. I find only one negative trait in the hard neck type – hard necks don’t store for nearly as long a time as soft necks.

Soft neck types have more cloves in the bulb, and they do not send up a flower. They store for a much longer time than hard necks, and they can be braided. I prefer to plant mostly softnecks, so that I have plenty of garlic for the coming year, but I add a few hardnecks which will get used up first.

The time to plant garlic in the temperate northern hemisphere is Fall.

You can plant it now through December. I’ve planted garlic in late September, October, November, even mid December, and it’s always done fine. If you live in a very cold region, just make sure you plant it about a month before your soil freezes solid.

You can plant rows or a whole bed of garlic, but you can also tuck it here and there. We usually have rows, but then I tuck a few among the leafy greens, in the hope of warding off caterpillars.

Here’s how: 

First, make sure you’re using organic garlic. Other garlics have likely been sprayed with toxic chemicals, including some that inhibit germination. Those garlic cloves will probably not sprout. 

Second, pull apart your garlic bulb, separating all the cloves, but DO NOT PEEL THEM. Leave the papery skins on.

Third, make holes in your soil big enough for each clove, and deep enough that the clove will be about an inch below the soil surface. It’s best to plant the cloves about 5-6 inches apart, depending on the type (some garlic varieties are bigger than others). Imagine each clove as a whole bulb, and space them accordingly.

Fourth, poke the cloves into the hole, pointy end up. Think of it like this: when you hold a head of garlic in your hand, the part where the cloves are all attached is the bottom. Plant your cloves that way, with the part where they were attached on the bottom. Make sure the tops are about an inch below the surface.

Fifth, cover over the clove-filled holes with soil, and then mulch them with an inch or so of compost.

Sixth, water them in, but don’t drown them. You probably won’t need to water them very much, unless you have very dry winters (for example, in parts of California).

Now that they’re planted, just keep an eye on them. You’ll eventually see small green spears coming up. They don’t grow very fast during the winter, but don’t fret. They’ll grow more in the spring. 

You may want to add some compost now and then. Garlic is what’s often called a heavy feeder. Some people will pour on some fish emulsion once or twice during the spring, but if you have rich compost, it’s not necessary. 

If you have hardneck garlic, cut off the flower shoot when it emerges and eat that.

When to harvest:

There isn’t one specific time for harvest, as it varies with climate, but usually it’s ready in late spring/early summer.

Rather than calculate weeks and months, it’s best to become acquainted with the plant and learn how to judge when it’s ready.

A rule of thumb: when three of the outer leaves have died back, dig one up one plant and see if the bulb looks big. Once you’ve decided that it looks good, dig  up the rest. Make sure to shake off all the soil from the roots, and, if you can, trim the roots to about 2 mm long and leave them and any soil right there on the ground, to return as much of the plant matter and nutrients as possible to the soil. 

Now it’s time to cure your garlic.

That just means you have to set all your pulled plants in a shady spot to harden up. I lay mine on my front porch, away from light, on top of some newspaper or cloth. Wipe off excess dirt, but don’t use water. Make sure they don’t overlap, and turn them every day or two. Eventually, you’ll find that they have developed a papery skin, and the stalks are all dried out. Once that stalk is completely dry, you can braid your soft neck garlic. 

If you grew hard neck varieties, you can’t braid them, but you still have to cure them. Once their stems are dry, snip the long stem off, leaving at least an inch of stem. Store your garlic in a dry place, away from direct light. 

There are too many ways to cook with garlic to list here, but I will tell you that if you have too much to use up before it begins to sprout, you can dehydrate it. To do that, peel the cloves, slice them about 1-2 mm thick, and dry in the food dehydrator until they become dry like a cracker. I store them this way, instead of powdering them all, to preserve flavor. When you need garlic powder, grind some of these dried slices in a coffee grinder. You can also toss the slices into a soup or stew.

And if you STILL have too much, give it to a friend or a food pantry! There are plenty of people who would love to receive garlic.

Note:

The only year we had trouble with our garlic was when we had rust, which had moved north from California. Rust will ruin your garlic, leek, and onion plants – you have to throw them out (NOT compost them!) and not grow alliums in the beds where you’ve had rust for a few years. This had nothing to do with when we planted.

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