Garlic is easy to grow, and Fall is the best time to plant it.  

Choose a sunny part of your garden with good drainage and access to summer watering.

Prepare your garlic bed with lime to adjust the pH, kelp meal, bone meal, and/or rock phosphate to build big bulbs, and soil amendments like compost or manure to ensure the overall health of each plant.

The best time to plant your bulbs is late September through October. Separate each clove from the bulb, keeping the skin on the clove. Plant each clove with the pointy tip facing up, 2 inches deep, and about 6 inches apart.

From planting time to harvesting time at the end of July, you can rest other than keeping your garlic patch clear of weeds. However, just as your garlic grows again in the spring, a shot of organic fertilizer like Liquid Fish or Liquid Kelp kicks up the size of your garlic bulbs.

Next summer, watch for the delicious garlic scapes to form in midsummer. Remove these sau,té them, and serve with pasta. These curly tips are the flower stalks, and if not removed, they can reduce the potential size of your growing garlic bulbs.

Harvest time is July to early August. Gauge your harvest time by your garlic tops. Your garlic tops will start changing from green to yellow or brown, and they are ready to harvest when they are 2/3rds brown. Withhold watering for a week or two before you harvest.

To cure, place your harvested garlic, with the tops still on, in trays, ensuring each bulb has airspace around it out of the sun and rain. Your bulbs will cure in about two weeks. If you prefer, you can hang your garlic to cure it, also out of the rain and sun. I like photographing my harvest with the variety tags to easily refer to how the varieties compare.

To store your garlic, wipe the dirt from the bulbs with your hands, trim the tops to a couple of inches, and place them in cardboard boxes. Choose a cool, dry, and dark location, similar to where you store your potatoes & onions.

So whether you are a first-time gardener or a seasoned garlic fan, let's prepare for planting.

Shauna Lambeth ©

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