How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Garlic

Here’s a fun truth: Growing garlic couldn’t be easier. It doesn’t require much, and once you eat homegrown garlic, you’ll want to grow your own all the time.

Many think of garlic as a Mediterranean plant that cannot be grown in cooler climates. But modern varieties that have been specifically bred for cooler growing conditions offer a good range of hard-neck and soft-neck varieties.

How to Grow Garlic From a Clove

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There are two types of garlic:

• Hard-neck garlic, which is easier to grow, is hardier but does not store so well
• Soft-neck garlic, which offers better and longer storage

Garlic prefers a longer growing season, so planting in October or November is best, although you can still have reasonable success from an early spring sowing. They need a sunny position and well-drained soil.

To sow garlic, buy a garlic bulb, split off the cloves and plant them, root side down, in a 3″ deep hole at 8 inches apart.

Supermarket garlic is from warmer-weather varieties, so stick to varieties that have been bred to grow well in a cooler summer. But, if you’d like to use spring/green garlic in salads and cooking, supermarket garlic works well. We buy our garlic at COSTCO and in the spring plant a whole bag of it for salads: best garlic ever!!!

You can also sow garlic in the spring, but it might not do as well.

If your soil is prone to waterlogging, it is well worth dibbing a deeper hole and dropping some sharp sand in before the garlic clove, or you could sow in the greenhouse and plant out in the spring.

There is very little more to growing garlic; just keep it weed-free and water it in a dry spell, and you should have plenty of bulbs in the summer.

Plant a few of these garlic companion plants.

What’s The Best Soil for Garlic

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Garlic likes loamy, sandy soil, but does not do well in waterlogged soil, so it is worth adding sand or grit to the whole bed or under the dibbed holes you plant the garlic in to help keep cloves in free-draining soil.

If your soil is particularly wet over the winter, it may be worth planting cloves in 3″ pots in the greenhouse and planting it out during the spring.

Like all members of the allium family, garlic likes an application of some wood ashes.

Garlic Pests And Diseases

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Garlic is pretty trouble-free as long as the temperatures and weather stay steady. If the temperatures are a bit haphazard or extremely wet, there are a few things to watch out for.

Fluctuating temperatures could do several things:

• Send your garlic into flower
• Cause the bulb to split into cloves and regrow
• Get bulbs growing above the ground along the stem

How to Harvest Garlic

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Harvest garlic in mid-summer when the leaves start to turn yellow.

Although bulbs can be used straight away and wet garlic is often sought after by chefs, you will need to store most of your garlic harvest. To store, let the bulbs dry for a week. Once dried, strip off the dirty skin, cut off excess roots, then braid (plait) and hang.

Storing garlic in a dry, warm place, not in the refrigerator, will prevent it from sprouting too soon. You’ll have fresh garlic for months, all the way through winter.

How to Braid Garlic

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Braiding garlic is both a practical and beautiful way to store your harvest.

Once your garlic bulbs have been properly cured—typically for two to three weeks in a warm, dry, and well-ventilated area—you can begin the braiding process. Start by gently cleaning off any dirt and trimming the roots to about ¼ inch. To make the stems more pliable (if needed), soak them in lukewarm water for 15–30 minutes or wrap them in damp towels. Select three large bulbs and cross their stems over one another to begin the braid. Add one bulb at a time, weaving its stem into the braid as you go.

Once you’ve added about 12 bulbs, secure the top with twine and hang the braid in a cool, dry place with good airflow. This method not only keeps garlic fresh for up to six months but also adds rustic charm to your kitchen or pantry.

Different Garlic Varieties to Consider

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As mentioned before, there are two types of garlic: the soft-neck and the hard-neck.

Soft-neck garlic is not very hardy, but it stores better. Choose either Chesnok Wight for a strong flavor or Red Sicilian for a good roasting bulb.

Hard-neck garlic tends to be hardier, but it doesn’t store so well. Solent Wight is probably the best known and most popular of the hard-neck types.

Elephant garlic is a giant bulb that is becoming more and more popular. It’s great for roasting whole and has a good, sweet flavor. But contrary to its name, Elephant Garlic is not really garlic; it’s actually more closely related to leeks.

Now that you know how to grow garlic from a clove, you’ll never need (or want) to buy garlic again!

Cooking with Garlic

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Adding garlic to your meals is not only healthy but absolutely delicious! We add it to our summer salads (the fresh, green garlic is sooo good!), roast it, make garlic mayo that we add to home fries and baked fish, and, of course, we add it to everyday cooking (like this butternut soup).