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Growing Garlic
Where To Grow Garlic
Grow your garlic in full sun - garlic needs to grow quickly in order to produce good sized bulbs. Pick a site that is not prone to waterlogging, this will ensure the bulbs do not rot over winter.
Plant Garlic
The secret to growing garlic is to plant it in October - spring
planting is possible in warmer areas, but even then, better sized bulbs will result from an autumn sowing. Dig the soil well to a spade's depth before planting, incorporating as much organic matter as possible to assist with drainage - garlic will rot in waterlogged conditions. If you can purchase and dig in some sand (from your garden centre) at this stage, the drainage will be improved even further. A couple of handfuls of bonemeal should also be incorporated every square metre (yard).
Garlic bulbs for planting in Spring need not be bought from a
nursery - simply choose the largest ones possible from your
greengrocer or supermarket. If planting in October, choose a hardier variety such as 'White Pearl', these need to bought from your local garden centre. Each bulb will consist of up to 20 individual cloves, and it is these cloves which are to be individually planted. Gently remove the outer skin from the bulb (not the cloves) and separate into individual cloves - see the picture on the left. On the right is a garlic clove and on the left is the bulb. Select the largest eight or so of the cloves which will be on the outside of the bulb.
Plant the cloves in an upright position 2cm (1in) below the soil
surface - looking at the clove in the picture above, the bottom of the clove should be lowest in the ground. Space each clove about 10cm (4in) apart - if you are planting rows, space each row 45cm (18in) apart.
Care of Garlic
Garlic thrives on a well fed soil at the correct time, so in late
March and again in mid May, feed the soil with general purpose
fertiliser such as Growmore. If you can do this once or twice a
month, so much the better. Apart from this, their only other
requirement is to keep them free of weeds and in dry conditions water them. They will produce green foliage starting around April time.
Harvest Garlic
Garlic is normally ready for harvesting when most of the foliage has turned yellowy-brown - this will be around mid-August time. The problem with harvesting garlic is knowing when they are ripe - harvest too early and the bulbs will be small, harvest too late and the bulb will have split making harvest difficult and the cloves of low quality (they will have commence their growing cycle for next year).
Problems will occur mainly in wet summers - the leaves may only have started to turn yellow but if the garlic is left in wet ground at this stage, the bulbs will very quickly become diseased. For this reason a second method is needed to determine what stage they have reached. If the weather is wet in early August, pull up one bulb and see how many sheaths (very thin papery layers around the bulb) you can peel off the bulb - if there are only three, harvest the bulbs, if there are four or more, wait another two weeks or until most of the leaves have turned brown.
When harvesting garlic bulbs, gently ease them out of the ground with the assistance of using a trowel to loosen the surrounding soil - be careful not to bruise them with the trowel because they will then not keep for long.
The absolutely best garlic is fresh from the ground (known as wet garlic) - this garlic is sweeter, lees pungent and far more
digestible than dried garlic. So make sure you use some cloves as soon as possible. The majority though should be be washed and dried and then placed in a warm dry place in the garden (bring indoors if rain threatens) to dry out - these bulbs should keep in good condition for 3 months or more.
Propagating Garlic
A GardenAction tip - don't try and propagate you own bulbs for two reasons. Garlic by nature is progressively diseased when growing in the soil - it is really a race against time to harvest them before their natural diseased condition affects their taste. Propagating your own garlic is a recipe for bad crops next year and also for introducing disease into your soil. The other reason for not propagating garlic is that a trip down to the supermarket or greengrocer is so cheap!
Container Growing Garlic
Garlic itself loves to be grown in containers - the soil will be
well-drained and they can be fed easily. The problem is one of space and the fact that they are not particularly attractive plants. However, if you are new to gardening and want to give it a go, the garlic plants will be very happy. Use normal potting compost and feed and water regularly.
Source Unknown
My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view.
H. Fred Ale
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In most areas, dig and store caladiums for winter. Let leaves die, dig tubers, let dry in the shade, and store, not touching each other, in an onion mesh bag filled with dry peat moss in a 60F room.
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