Garlic is one of Mother Nature's most versatile herbs, with qualities both culinary and medicinal. It's one of the easiest plants you can grow, and it also happens to be one of the few things you should plant right now — in the fall. (Unless you live in Wasilla, Alaska, in which case it's probably too late for you this season — but feel free to bookmark this article for next year!)

GROWING GARLIC
For those of you with still-unfrozen ground, here are a few resources to help you get started:

• Plant Now for Great Garlic 
• Plant Garlic this Fall 
• Gourmet Garlic from the Ground Up 
• Growing Garlic Scapes 
• Garlic: A Plant to Love 
• Harvest Time and Planting Time 
• Garlic Seed Sources 
• A Few of My Favorite Garlics 

GARLIC FOR HEALTH
Garlic is one of nature's greatest nutritional powerhouses. Learn more about the long list of battles it fights so well:

• Great-tasting Garlic is Good for Your Heart 
• Garlic and Your Health 
• Garlic: Nature's Gift for Life 

GARLIC IN THE KITCHEN
And now for some super garlic recipes to put those beautiful bulbs to work:

• Garlic Scapes 
• More on Scapes 
• Garlicky Bruschetta
• Extra-creamy Roasted Garlic Guacamole 
• How to Roast Garlic
• Easy Refrigerator Pickled Garlic
• Make Your Own Garlic Powder 
• Great Garlic Recipes 
• Garlic Makes It Good 

Love garlic/Don't cook? Check out these Specialty Garlic Restaurants.

If you're a serious garlic fanatic, you will want to try growing your own garlic. It doesn't take up much room, but it can be a little tricky. Check out Plant Now for Great Garlic to learn more about garlic cultivation. And here are your best bets for seed sources:

• Bobba-Mike's Garlic Farm (Orrville, Ohio)
  
• Boundary Garlic Farm (Midway, British Columbia)
  
• Cornerstone Garlic Farm (Reidsville, N.C.): 336-349-5106
  
• Filaree Farm (Okanogan, Wash.)
  
• G & H Garlic Farm (Littleton, N.H.) 
  
• Girardin Gourmet Gardens (Randolph, Minn.): 507-263-5897
  
• Gourmet Garlic Gardens (Bangs, Texas)
  
• Seed Savers Exchange (Decorah, Iowa)
  
• The Garlic Store (Fort Collins, Colo.)

If you are aware of more great sources for garlic gardeners, please use the comments section below to tell us about them.

Garlic — delicious, hardy, and packed with health benefits — is a low maintenance and cold-hardy crop that actually grows best if planted in the fall. Follow these tips to help you get started.

Garlic grows best when its foliage has plenty of time to develop. The more leaves on the plant, the bigger and tastier the bulb. By planting the cloves in the fall, the plants can establish roots and get a head start. Leaves then grow in the crisp, short days of spring, and the new garlic bulbs develop as days lengthen and temperatures climb. For this reason, (and because gardening in October is usually preferable to being outdoors in February), it is best to plant your garlic now.

Can't I just buy garlic?

Garlic is not just the standard variety available at the grocery store. In fact, there are hundreds of unique varieties. They vary in flavor (from pungent and spicy to mild and sweet), appearance (from purple to silver), and climate preferences.

There are two main types of garlic — soft-neck and hard-neck. In general, soft-neck garlic is best suited for warmer climates, and hard-neck garlic can bear and indeed prefers a colder winter season. To reduce the risk of disease, it is best to start your garlic from a reputable seed supplier rather than store-bought cloves. Though you may initially invest around $15 a pound for garlic from a seed supplier, it is a one-time investment and will yield more varied and plentiful results than simply using grocery-store garlic.

Best of all possible soils

Garlic does best in soil that is enriched with organic matter. Plant bulbs 3 to 4 inches deep and in rows 5 or 6 inches apart. Plant them sometime before the first hard frost in your area, so that roots have time to develop. You can then cover the bed with either straw or shredded leaves to protect the garlic from winter cold, and sit back and relax until next summer, when your bulbs are ready for harvest and — the best part — consumption.

For more information and a list of mail order garlic suppliers, see our article Plant Now for Great Garlic.