Time to Plant Garlic

Winter is coming to my part of New York. That means it’s time to plant the garlic that will be harvested next July.

Garlic is one of the easiest things you can grow in your garden. But did you know, 50% of the garlic consumed in the US comes from China. California used to supply US garlic. That industry isn’t what it used to be, thanks to cheap imports.

There are many stories about Chinese garlic and you can read about it here.

I don’t want to get into the details about imported garlic and why you shouldn’t eat it. The article is about growing your own healthy supply. It’s better to take positive actions than to whine and complain about the status quo. As with everything else, vote with your dollars.

Here’s a picture of my garlic planting bed.

I’ve removed all the weeds and top dressed with a couple of inches of screened compost. (You do make your own compost, right?)

I practice no dig gardening. It’s better for the soil and everything that lives in it. Digging destroys the soil structure. Besides, I’m getting older and digging is hard work.

Another benefit of no dig is, fewer weeds. Every time you turn the soil you bring hundreds, maybe thousands of weed seeds to the surface. Once at the surface, they germinate and grow, making more work for you.

If you want to learn more about No Dig Gardening here’s an expert, Charles Dowding

When the soil is ready, grab your garlic. Here’s some of the garlic I planted last year and harvested this summer.

This garlic has been hanging around drying in the garage. This variety is a hardneck garlic. Hardneck garlic is hardy in my climate zone. Pick the biggest and best garlic bulbs for your planting stock.

Break the garlic bulb apart into individual cloves. Each bulb will have 5 to 8 cloves.

Now it’s time to plant the garlic cloves. I plant them about 3 to 4 inches deep. When planted deep, the squirrels don’t dig them up and the freeze/thaw cycles doesn’t heave them out of the ground.

For the larger bulbed garlic, like this variety, I put them 6 inches apart.

After the garlic is planted, I tamp the soil lightly over them. I like to add a couple inches of chopped leaves as mulch too.

Now all that’s required is waiting. If the winter is mild, I may begin to see green sprouts during February thaws. As the garlic grows keep it weed free and give it enough water.

When the lower leaves begin to yellow and dry, it’s time to dig the garlic. That’s sometime in early to mid July for me.

Enjoy! And repeat in the Fall, for a never ending supply of home grown, organic, delicious garlic.

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