How To Grow The BEST Garlic

Everything you need to know about growing garlic

Here are all of my favourite tips on growing garlic! Garlic is my favourite thing to grow because it is easy, low maintenance and it stores well! Their are two types of garlic that is commonly grown, soft neck and hard neck. This blog post has everything you need to know about growing hard neck garlic!

When to plant:

I live on the west coast, and my gardening zone is zone 8. I typically plant my garlic in early November. However a good rule of thumb is to get it in the ground 4-8 weeks before the ground freezes. After planting, it is a good to cover it, not only to provide some warmth but also for protection, as it is in the ground for a long period of time. I use leaves raked up from the lawn, as we have a lot of maple trees near us but straw or mulch works as well. In the spring when the garlic sprouts, remove whatever was used to cover.

Feeding:

Garlic is a heavy feeder, so it needs lots of nutrients. When growing garlic I always try to rotate where I plant it every year, planting your garlic in the same spot every year is going to deplete the soil of all the necessary nutrients that garlic needs to grow. Their are also 3 specific times when I like to add fertilizer to my garlic. The first is when I plant it. Garlic requires lots of nitrogen, so its a good idea to amend the soil with some type of manure. Then I add an organic fertilizer. I use Gaia Green 4-4-4 Organic Fertilizer. I also add the same fertilizer again around mid spring when the tips of the leaves start to yellow. Yellowing on the tips of your garlic leaves can mean it is lacking nitrogen. I then like to add fertilizer one more time when the scapes begin the grow.

What are garlic scapes and what should I do with them?

Garlic scapes are essentially the plant going to seed, if left attached the scape will produce a flower and then release seeds. This is the plants way of reproducing, however if left attached the plant will put all of its energy into creating those seeds and the energy will not go into the bulbs. This is why we snap off garlic scapes once they begin to curl, this forces all of the plants energy into the bulbs to make them as big as possible!

But don’t throw away the scapes! Garlic scapes are delicious, they have a mild garlic flavour and can be used many different ways. I like to saute them up in butter. or they can be dried to make a powder and more!

When to harvest?

Your garlic will begin to dry out towards the end of summer. You will notice that the bottom leaves are going to start dying off, once the bottom 3 leaves are fully dead then it is time to harvest your garlic. For me in zone 8 this is typically around mid to late July! This should also be around 4 weeks after snapping off your scapes.

Drying and storing your garlic:

To be able to store your garlic it needs to be properly dried. You can do this a few ways, one way is to lay them out onto screens, another is to hang them up. The key is to make sure they have a good amount if air flow but you don’t want them to be in the sun. I usually hang mine in the garage and will make sure the door is open for a few hours every couple days. Your garlic will need to dry for about 4 weeks. After that, cut off all of the greenery which should be brown now and then store the bulbs in a box in a cool dry spot, I keep them in my basement!

I hope you found this article on growing garlic helpful, and if you have any questions please leave a comment!! happy gardening:)