How To: Grow Garlic

I am one of those people who puts FAR too much garlic in every single dish I make. I am a MASSIVE garlic fan, I do love it. I don't like to let it just sit on the shelf, I get through about 3 bulbs a month, so it only seemed logical that I grow my own.

We often think of garlic as a crop grown in hotter countries, but it's a member of the onion family, & can actually be grown in the UK. 

To grow good garlic, you need good stock. There's no point in trying to grow from a bulb bought in a supermarket. Chances are it's Spanish, bred for a warmer climates & it will not thrive in a British summer. You need to buy varieties suitable for our weather. I asked my local greengrocer, who was a gem & actually got me some British grown garlic specially, & he didn't charge me a penny (bless his cotton socks).

Usually garlic is best planted around October/November time. Use a dibber to make holes around 4" deep & about 8" apart each way. Break the bulb into individual cloves, be careful not to damage them, & drop into the hole pointed side up. Fill with soil & more or less forget about them until spring.

I actually also put down a bit of card as mulch, so that the growth of the garlic is not stunted by weeds, & the bulbs are also protected over winter. I will obviously remove this card after the worst of the winter spell is over with.

The bulbs are harvested when the leaves begin turning yellow in the middle of summer. If you leave them too long, the cloves will split apart & you will have problems storing them. Use a fork to dig them up carefully.

Sometimes the garlic plant will grow a flower spike or scape. Snip this off as soon as possible. These are actually quite tasty snipped up small & used as a spring onion in a salad, but with that garlic taste which is soooo good. If you leave them, the plant puts energy into seed rather than fattening the cloves.

Updates will follow, when my garlic has grown a bit more....