GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: how to grow garlic

How To Plant Garlic In The Fall – GF Video
I made this video to show you how to plant garlic in the fall, which is the best time to plant garlic, FYI. Watch the vid then read through the how to notes below, there’s lots of info here!

To Plant Garlic, Do These Things:
- Order garlic ahead of time
- Prepare the garden bed
- Separate the cloves
- Plant root side down
- Wait Until Next July
Probably the biggest mistake people make when they want to plant garlic is to wait too long before ordering some seed garlic. The stuff sells out fast, so order early. The seed garlic supplier will ship just before planting time in your area. I order from Filaree Farm. Most seed garlic is not cheap, but keep in mind you will get many plants from one bulb. You can save your own seed garlic going forward.

You can obsess about prepping the garden bed for the seed garlic, or just do as I do. I make sure the bed has a good mix of compost and soil. Loosen the soil up with a garden fork. Garlic likes some nitrogen, so I sprinkle over the bed some time release fertilizer. I do add some rock powder like azomite, but I can’t say it makes a big difference, its just feels right. I can say that garlic does not like clay soils, or soils that are too sandy, but isn’t that true for most garden vegetables?

The ideal is to plant garlic 2 weeks before the hard frost in your area. For those in warm weather areas, you will usually plant between November and January.

Why Separate The Day Before?

Depending on who is doing the talking, some say you must separate the cloves of the garlic bulbs the day before, I don’t. Usually because I forget, and I have yet to see a difference in doing so. I would suggest getting some help splitting up the bulbs. Many hands make light work.

I plant garlic about 6″ apart in rows about 8-10″ apart. Its not rocket science. Garlic doesn’t like to be crowded, and it doesn’t do well with weeds. Plant about 2″ down, with the root tip facing down. The grow tip should be about an inch below the soil.

I don’t mulch my garlic with straw. I will put down a light layer of leaves I have run through the mulching mower, but its not a thick layer.

If your garlic starts to grow in the fall, don’t worry, the green tip will die back a bit with the frost, and will restart in the spring.

What to do in spring? Watch more of our how to grow garlic vids here.
November 30, 2016
How To Harvest Garlic – Grow Garlic Video Series – GF Video

Learn you how to harvest garlic properly, and how to store your garlic. We showed you how to grow garlic in the first of our grow garlic videos – link below – and now its the middle of summer and time to harvest and store the garlic.

The question I get most often is when to plant your garlic, the second is when to harvest it. Garlic is usually harvested in middle to late summer, when the plants start to turn brown, but not completely brown. If you let the plant go completely brown, the bulbs will be falling apart and starting to rot. Pay attention to the scapes to see if they are pointing straight up, and then the plant will start to go brown. Pull a bulb or two and check the condition of the bulb.

Grow Garlic, Then Harvest It

The bulb will still have a lot of moisture in it, and most people will air dry the bulbs before using them or selling them. I’ve even seen farmers who put the bulbs in large plastic trays, stack the trays, and then put a fan underneath the trays to push air through the stack and dry the garlic. Personally, I tie the garlic into bunches and hang it in the shed for a few weeks. Avoid putting the garlic in damp areas, which will invite mold to start, which is not a good thing.

If some of your garlic has brown spots on it, it is still ok to eat, most people just cut around the spotty areas and you are good to go. If you want to save garlic seed, set aside the largest cloves for the fall planting. The idea here is that the largest cloves will yield large bulbs. Check out Filaree Farm to order garlic.

Let us know your thoughts on garlic growing.

October 15, 2013
Foraging For Wild Garlic : GF Video

Foraging for edible plants in the spring includes looking for edible wild greens like wild garlic, also called spring garlic. This edible wild food is one of the first plants to start growing after the long winter, and is ready for your dinner plate. Wild Garlic looks like a young scallion plant or chives, and is edible. The taste has a slight garlic aroma, but its definitely in the onion taste family. You can find this edible plant growing in lawns and forest edges. Many consider it a weed, however we think it a great addition to salads or meals.

Be Safe In Your Foraging!

Double check with a good plant identification book! At the end of the post are some books we suggest. Always be sure with your plant identification before adding this to your soup.

According to Wikipedia, when cattle eat wild garlic, it can give a garlic-like taste to the milk and beef, interesting. It is native to Europe and considered an invasive here in North America.

I see this edible plant growing in yards a lot. I’m sure the homeowners don’t realize they have food growing in their yard! To harvest the wild garlic, its best to use one of those 3 pronged garden fork hand tools. You have to dig down a bit to get out the bulbs, or you can snip off the green stems and they will grow back. As the plant matures, unfortunately the stems get woody and aren’t good eating. If you pull this plant out of a park or someone’s yard, make sure it hasn’t been sprayed with an herbicide. Not a good thing to be eating that stuff.

Let us know what you know about this plant or any questions below:

June 7, 2013
How To Grow Garlic, It’s Not Rocket Science – GF Video
Watch our video on how to grow garlic, then go out and plant your garlic! There are a few keys things that we go over below.

Wondering how to grow garlic?

Its not rocket science, as even Eric can grow garlic. Its is easy to do, garlic does not have many diseases or pests, and its pretty low maintenance. Our how to plant garlic video steps you through the process.

Couple of key things to keep in mind:
- For most northern climates, you plant garlic in the fall
- Order seed garlic as early as you can, most garlic growers sell out.
- I don’t mulch my garlic bed, you can if you want.
- The garlic may start to grow in the fall, that’s ok.
- And learn how to harvest and how to cook garlic scapes in this video here.
You can buy seed garlic, which is basically the largest bulbs of a particular strain of garlic from Filaree Farm, you can also find them at your local farmers market. Buy the largest, healthiest bulbs the farmer has.

Garlic is broken down into a few varieties, Rocambole, Purple Strip, Porcelain, Artichoke, Silverskin, and a bunch more. We plant hardneck garlic here in New England, softneck Italian style garlic does not do well here.

Maybe one of your neighbors already grows garlic and you can get a few heads of garlic from them to plant. I’ve heard stories of families who have brought garlic over from Russia or Poland, and keep the variety going in the backyard. Getting garlic from the local farmers market means those particular bulbs will grow well in your area, maybe ask the farmer, I’m willing to bet they’ll talk all you want about growing garlic.

How To Grow Garlic, Start With Soil Prep:

First of all, you can grow garlic in regular garden soil, nothing special needs to be done. Plant in the fall, before frost, when the leaves are starting to drop off the trees, rather than the spring. Break apart the cloves a day early, if possible, and let them dry a bit. The flat end of the clove goes into the bottom of the hole. Space the garlic about 6″ apart in rows 12″ apart.

It is possible to plant garlic in the spring, but the yield will be much lower. I have never done it.

Mulching your garlic is a personal think. I don’t think its necessary, and i’m all about simple.

The garlic may sprout before winter, this is OK. Just leave it alone. The grow tip will wilt in the snow, and then the plant will start to grow again in the spring.

In late winter, this same growth and wilting from cold weather may happen again, its OK. The weather will warm and the garlic will kick in soon enough. Let the plants grow, however harvest the scapes in early summer, and then harvest the garlic plants when the stalks start to go brown at the base.

What have been your experiences with growing and cooking with garlic? Let us know below, be great to hear from people!
October 25, 2011
How To Cook Garlic Scapes – GF Video

You can cook garlic scapes, who knew? Here is a video I made about how to. Scapes taste great, and are easy to cook.

Why Cook Garlic Scapes?

To me, garlic scapes are free food. You are growing the plant for the bulb, but up come these curled stems with immature flowers on them. You can cook garlic scapes as you would scallions, but they also make a great pesto. Be aware, its a powerful pesto, maybe you want to add in some parsley too.

When growing garlic, you want all the energy the plant creates to go in to growing the bulb, so the scape is something farmers want to get rid of. Thankfully, scapes taste great. If you are harvesting scapes in your own garden, keep a few on the plant, they serve as a sign that the plant is ready for harvest. Scapes uncurl and point up when its time to harvest the garlic bulb. (Bet you didn’t know that)

If you want to order seed garlic to plant this fall, I suggest Filaree Farm. I’ve listed a few suggested garlic growing books below as well. Watch our garlic growing videos here.

Scapes are like most alliums, they will keep for a while in the fridge, but they get kinda soft. The flip side of that is when you snap off the scape, you don’t want to cut it off to far down the stem, or it is too stiff. Kinda like asparagus that way. The most common way of cooking scapes is a simple saute, but the get along well with other foods.

Like we show in the video, I think grilling the scapes is the way to go. Especially if you want to show off the neat taste scapes have by themselves. Salt them after cooking, it works nicely.

June 29, 2006