Time to Plant Garlic (With Growing Tips)

Reader Contribution by Melodie Metje
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Garlic is rich in lore. It has been reputed to repel vampires, clear the blood, cure baldness, aid digestion over the ages. Today’s studies have shown is garlic antibacterial, anti-fungal, antiviral. And, it tastes great! Garlic has been around for thousands of years. It originated in Asia, was cultivated in Egypt and has been a Mediterranean staple for centuries.It is easy to grow and has few pest issues. All you do is throw them in the ground in the fall in late September/early October in our Zone 6 garden and by early summer, they are ready to harvest.

The clove puts out roots in the fall. Depending on how warm the winter is, there can be green shoots showing through the cold months. Garlic will be some of the first to start growing. The stems resemble onion greens. The garlic flower, or scape, has a cute little curl in it. It grows on hard neck varieties. They are great in salads. Harvesting them also gives you bigger bulbs.

You should choose the biggest cloves to plant. The bigger the clove, the bigger the harvest! Cloves like other root vegetables like loose soil, compost and steady fertilizer. Like carrots, radishes and beets, you can add sand to give a looser soil structure in your garlic bed. Compost and mulch well in the fall before cold weather sets in. Plant the cloves root side down, 1-2” deep, and 4-6” apart. For planting by the cycle of the moon, garlic should be planted during the waning cycle of the moon. For our Zone 6 garden, this is September 9-23 and October 9-22. After the greens sprout to 6”, add compost or fertilizer as a side dressing. Garlic does not need a lot of nitrogen so compost is a good choice.

Harvesting Garlic

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