Growing Garlic

Earlier this week my little boy and I planted out two rows of garlic. Applying the principle that in a small suburban garden every inch of space should be used, we planted the garlic in the strips of dirt in front of two low box hedges just outside our back door. We used Australian garlic purchased at our local supermarket.

Before planting I consulted several gardening books about when and how to grow garlic, and here is the information that I gleaned.

When to plant: There is much conflicting information on when to plant garlic, with various sources advising from late summer to mid winter. The most common advice is to plant in the autumn when soil temperatures are cooling. However, an adage I came across several times was "plant garlic on the shortest day of the year and harvest on the longest".

Soil Preparation: Garlic likes slightly alkaline (limed) soil and grows plumper cloves if given a top dressing of blood and bone. If you have a worm farm, diluted worm juice can be watered on throughout the growing season.

How to plant: Break the 'head' into separate cloves. Plant the cloves pointy side up about 7 cm or 3 inches apart.

When to harvest: The garlic 'scapes' or greens can be harvested as soon as they grow. If you want to harvest the whole bulbs for storage, wait until the tops begin to yellow and the garlic develops a papery outer layer, then dig up and hang to dry. For a traditional farmhouse look, you can braid the stems and hang the garlic in your kitchen.