Garlic is easy to grow in your garden

By Melanie Mathieson
Gardening Guru

Garlic is very versatile and is a healthy addition to any dish favourite with most people. . Garlic is easy to grow in your own garden and you do not need that much space to produce some hearty bulbs in the fall.
Garlic is a member of the Allium family just like the onion and the ornamental Alliums you may grow in your flower garden. But unlike the ornamental Alliums, garlic produces a very distinct tasting, edible bulb.
In order to grow garlic in our region, you must pant it in the fall and let is overwinter in the ground, just like tulips, daffodils and hyacinths. If you want to try planting garlic, buy garlic bulbs at the nursery in late fall or early winter.
You are going to plant garlic in the early fall in our region, at least six weeks before the soil freezes. You plant garlic the same time of year that you would plant flowering bulbs. Garlic needs approximately eight months of growing time to mature properly hence it needs to be planted the fall before.
Choose a garden site that gets full sun. Prepare the soil by tilling and removing weeds from the area you wish to plant. Add compost, decomposing leaves or manure to enrich the soil. Till the area again to work the organic matter into the soil. Make sure you keep the area weed free the entire time so the weeds do not rob your garlic of the soil nutrients it needs to develop.
When ready to plant, break apart your garlic bulbs, separating them into the individual cloves. It is not necessary to remove all the papery skin. Plant only the largest cloves from the bulb, and discard any that are pitted or tinged blue-green as both are signs of mould. Just like with flowering bulbs only plant the ones that look good enough to eat.
Set unpeeled cloves, pointy end up, 2 inches deep and 5 inches apart. For giant “elephant” garlic, increase the depth to 3 inches and the spacing to 10. Cover the plants with compost and mulch for the winter with a thick cover of leaves or straw to retain moisture and deter weeds. This also protects the plants from the cold. Remove the mulch in spring so the sun can warm the soil, then add a fresh layer of compost or peat moss when the new growth begins. Make sure to add fertilizer to your garlic patch when you fertilize the rest of your garden.
Once the garlic begins to grow, green shoots will grow out of the top of the clove and be visible above the surface of the soil. These shoots are called garlic scapes. In order to direct the energy back into the garlic bulb cut the scapes back and do not let them gorw really tall. Be careful though, not remove any more than 1/4 of a plant’s top growth or you’ll reduce bulb size. The bonus is that scapes are delightfully edible and are great in salads, stir-fries and other oriental recipes, used like chives or sautéed as dish on their own or mixed in with other fresh vegetables.
Scapes cut at 4 to 6 inches long are at the peak of tenderness for eating, around early to mid-June in our area. But keep an eye on them depending on when our spring occurs because if the weather is unseasonably hot they may be ready to harvest earlier. They will toughen up as spring turns into summer and they become no longer edible. Scapes have a mild garlic flavor and nutty earthiness and are an elegant addition to any springtime meal. Don’t let them go too long as longer, curlier scapes will generally be too tough and woody to eat, but they look stunning in a vase and can be added to any flower arrangement or left on their own. If kept in water, the bulbils on the scapes will continue to develop and eventually open, leaving you with topsets. You can also save these tiny bulbs/seeds in the topsets to plant the following spring and you’ll have a garlicky scallion to enjoy in addition to the regular garlic bulbs and scapes.
As your garlic grows make sure it receives ample moisture, at least an inch of rain or water weekly. Keep watering the entire season and into the fall until the foliage turns yellow or falls over. This is the indication that bulbs are nearing maturity. Begin harvesting bulbs when about 3/4 of the tops are yellow.
When it is time to harvest, pull up the bulbs, leaving the leaves and roots attached. Lay the garlic bulbs in an area that’s protected from sun and rain with good air circulation to cure. Alternatively, hang the garlic bulbs up with string in an area where the temperature is ideally 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Dry the garlic bulbs with fans or a cross breeze. Allow them to dry until the outer skins to become papery and the inner bulbs to retain their moisture and oils. Bulbs may take up to two weeks or more to dry. Check them daily. Cut or pull off the roots and dried leaves. Watch any bulbs for signs of mould developing and discard any with evidence of mould. Store garlic in dark place around a temperature of 60 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now your garlic is ready to use all through the winter and into the spring. When you grow your own you will end up with a bulb for each clove that you planted. You can reap quite a harvest with only a small initial investment of the original bulbs. And of course, you can use some of the bulbs you just harvested to plant for next year’s crop. You may also finally get to try that 40 garlic clove chicken recipe you never had enough garlic for in the past.
I encourage you to try planting garlic next fall as it is an easy crop to manage and with the bonus of the scapes in the spring, you’ll be amazed at the results. And look for scapes for sale at the farmer’s market this spring. Once you try them it will be all the encouragement you need to plant garlic come fall.