For those that are into their garlic dishes – we certainly are – autumn is the time to get your garlic growing ready for harvest next summer.
Believe it or not, garlic is actually very easy to grow and is resilient over the winter months.
Garlic can be planted either in the ground, in trugs or in planters – it’s not that fussy. As we are due to expand our vegetable patch this winter, we are putting our garlic into fabric pots.
If you have not come across fabric pots yet, you are missing out. They save a ton of space over conventional pots and are much much better for the plants. These really are great and I am going to dedicate a post to them shortly. We personally use a brand called GardenMate, who are based in Germany, that offer a number of different sized pots to cater for different needs. They really are great and you can read the reviews yourself on Amazon
Anyway, back to business. Here is what you need to do:
Purchase Garlic Bulbs
Got to be careful here. You really need to get these from a gardening store or seed store online. You don’t really want to be planting garlic from the supermarket as you don’t really know where it has come from. What I mean by this is not that the garlic itself isn’t good, it just might not be suitable to growing in the environment in which you live. If you are in the UK, I would used a company like Suttons who are very reputable and trusted.
Where To Plant Them
As said above, garlic really doesn’t mind where it grows. You can grow it in trugs, pots or more naturally, in the ground. The particular garlic clove that I use withstands temperatures down to -16, so even here in the UK, I don’t need to be worrying about the frost getting them. This is another important factor to consider when choosing which garlic to plant.
Preparation
Firstly, you will need to break the bulbs open so that you have individual cloves that you can plant into the ground. Whilst you shouldn’t have any bad ones if you buy them from a reputable source, check them for damage and any discolouration. If you find any, just chuck them away.
Planting
The general rule of thumb is to plant the cloves roughly 15cm apart and 5cm deep into loose soil. They should be planted with the pointy (small end) facing the sky. You can still apply this rule if you are planting the garlic in stand alone pots. It is just important that you leave enough space for it to grow. You can see from the picture at the bottom of the page how much space they take up – not that much.
Once they have been planted, simply cover them over with soil and water them in like you would with any other plant.
That’s it. There literally is nothing further to do until Spring next year when they start to sprout.
Once you have harvested them, you will be able to enjoy them for the months to come and get another batch in for next summer.
ENJOY!
