Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Planting garlic – time to order
If you want to plant garlic, you’d better start ordering your bulbs or finding them at local nursery centers now to get what you want.
For those of us in cold climates, we plant our garlic in October…
and look forward to our harvesting in late July/early August. That does NOT mean we eat it then. The cloves need to be cured.
I planted garlic for the first time in 2020 and I must say, those cloves were delicious! I chose Duganski, an Elephant ear and a purple ‘Deerfield’.
There are a LOT of varieties of garlic but the best type for our cold zones, 3 to 5, is a ‘Hardneck’ variety.
Hardneck garlic has a hard stalk at its center, the skin is generally thicker and more brittle. Softneck garlic stalks are softer (they’re what you see braided), their skin is more papery and a bit more difficult to peel.
Garlic grows best in sandy loam soil due to its texture and draining capabilities. However, I don’t have that but mine turned out pretty darn good! Add organic matter to your planting area for optimum growing. A raised bed is a great option.
Plant cloves pointy side up about 6 inches apart in rows about 24 inches apart. Three to 5 weeks after planting, mulch your garlic bed with a 3 to 4 inch layer of straw to keep temperatures more moderate. The cold isn’t the problem, it’s the ground-heaving that can push the bulb out of the ground. Here’s more information on growing garlic from a previous Garden Bite.
This year I had planned on 3 varieties but discovered the price was more than I wanted to pay! So, I chose 2…