Growing Garlic – Plant Now for Summer Harvest

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Last year, we had our first successful garlic harvest.  This week, I am breaking apart two heads of garlic to replant, and so that we will have another harvest this coming summer.  It’s the perfect crop to get started in your fall garden!

Garlic cloves are the individual bulbs that when planted will each become another head of garlic. So my 2 heads of garlic, plus some soil, water, and sunshine will grow into about 18 heads of garlic over the next few months.

Planting & Growing Garlic

Split your heads of seed garlic into individual cloves. You want to keep as much of the paper on each clove as possible.

Plant the garlic cloves 1-2 inches deep, with the green tip (narrowest tip) pointing up.  Space your cloves at least 4 inches apart.

Since it’s winter, you don’t need to water the bulbs now, however when they begin to sprout in spring (after St. Patrick’s Day), you want to water the garlic to keep the soil moist, but don’t turn it into mud.  Stop watering a few weeks before harvesting.

Harvest the garlic when the leaves begin to yellow and die back. Don’t wait for them to completely yellow, or your bulbs will have split.  Harvest is usually late July to early August.

After you harvest your garlic, knock the dirt off of them, and then allow the garlic to cure for two weeks.  We cure out garlic in the shed so that its out of the elements.  Once your garlic is cured, it is ready to use through out the year or save for future planting.