In which the weather is cold and wet and horrible, so let's plant stuff

 I'm serious.  

I know the weather is awful.  Believe me--I know.  This year is also weird, weather-wise, because we still haven't had a really hard freeze and I can still pick a couple raspberries out of the garden every few days!

Still, my cute summer sneakers are stacked away in the back of the closet and my wool sweaters are now out on continual rotation. 

Which means...it's time to plant garlic!

If you wanna harvest garlic next July you gotta plant it pretty soon.

In my region (Hardiness Zone 8b, for those who are counting), we usually plant garlic between Hallowe'en and Thanksgiving, but if that doesn't work for you it can go into the ground anytime between now and Xmas. 

Your goal is to get garlic in the ground 4-6 weeks before your first hard frost.  It's a nice goal.  Don't worry if you've already missed that window.  Put the garlic in now and you'll be fine.

Interactive hardiness zone maps are available free from the USDA HERE

Do I need to talk about Hardiness Zones?  Leave me a comment if you want me to write a "Quick and Dirty Guide to Hardiness Zones and Why They Change Sometimes and Are Important But Not The Word of God."

Garlic is one of those garden plants that needs vernalization,  which means it's gotta have winter in order to be garlic.

In warm climates (NOT MINE), that means you need to plan ahead and stick it in the fridge for 6-8 weeks to simulate winter.  Without vernalizing, garlic plants may just grow leaves, fail to produce cloves, and just end up becoming a pathetic version of leeks.

Leeks are awesome, but they aren't the same as garlic.**

**except ELEPHANT GARLIC, which actually is a leek, but gets cultivated
and cooked like garlic, so that isn't confusing at all

Hardneck, Softneck, or Elephant?

In my region, we can grow all the varieties of garlic, and I do.  

Hardneck Garlic has a (surprise!) hard woody stem running through the middle of the bulb, and grows best in cold climates.  Hardneck garlic produces fewer, larger cloves around that central stem AND hardneck varieties also produce an edible "scape" flower before the bulb is ready to harvest--a free second crop.  

Recipe for Garlic Scape Aioli is HERE and it is amazing.

Softneck Garlic has a pliable stem, and grows well in warmer climates.  It stores longer than hardneck, and those soft stems can be braided by people who are more coordinated than me into pretty presentations.  

This is as pretty and Pinterest-y as I get with garlic.  Note the clothespins.  So classy.

Elephant Garlic is actually a leek, but it tastes like garlic and grows like garlic and is cooked like garlic.  So, consider it a garlic for most purposes.  It grows a huge, very mild-flavored bulb with only a few cloves (but since they are mild + massive, you get more bulk for approximately the same amount of garlic flavor as regular garlic).

This whole crop of elephant garlic was grown from just three bulbs of seed garlic,
split into cloves and planted.

Can you grow garlic from the grocery store?  Maybe.  Some grocery-store garlic is treated with an anti-sprouting agent, so it won't grow well.  If you are new to growing garlic, your best bet is to go to your local farmer's supply store and get some seed garlic--they will sell varieties that are appropriate for your area.  Once you are experienced at growing garlic, set aside some of the biggest bulbs at harvest-time to plant for the next season.

First step for garlic planting:  prepare the soil. 

Garlic prefers nice, light soil with plenty of compost and mulch dumped on the top.  If your soil isn't perfect, no worries:  add a couple inches of compost, stall cleanings, and/or leaves to the top of whatever you have, and use that.  No need to dig it in, or double-dig, or whatever your grampa did.  Dump amendments on top and let the worms and weather drag all the nutrients down for you.

I talked a lot about soil prep in THIS POST

Because most of my garden beds look alike in winter, I mark the beds with the garlic using fiberglass fence posts.  I'll take the posts down once the garlic is well-sprouted.

Can you grow garlic in a container? Absolutely!

Make sure the container is big and deep enough to give the bulbs plenty of
room and nutrition to develop

Make a hole or a trench about twice as deep as the garlic clove is "tall."  In warm climates you could leave the tip of the garlic above the soil, but I find that the root (the food!) grows bigger and the stem grows stronger if it's further down.  Some people report that shallow-planted garlic is a target for birds and rodents too.  So, go ahead and bury it.

Research says plant the BIGGEST cloves from your bulb of seed garlic, and eat the rest.

Break apart your garlic bulb into cloves just prior to sticking them in the ground. Leave the papery covering on each clove in place, but don't worry if it tears.  

Put the flat part (basal plate, i.e. "the part where the roots come out") down and the pointy end (where the stems come out) pointed up.  Cover up the clove and pat down gently.  No need to stomp it down.  Drag your compost and mulch up over the top, and label where you planted them.  Water them.  In my climate, that will be the last water from me until summer.

Eventually, they will sprout.  If your weather is cold and dry, they might sprout in January or February.  If you have a warmish, wettish autumn, they may sprout in early December.

Garlic bulbs don't grow during the cold part of the year, but they also don't die.
They just hang out, waiting for spring.

Come Springtime, they will GROW.  

Stand back.  This is elephant garlic, and it gets BIG.

If your weather gets hot and dry, you will need to water.  Reduce the amount of water needed by adding a mulch of garden compost, straw, or grass clippings, which will keep the soil cooler and help retain moisture below the surface where your garlic can get at it.

A couple weeks before the garlic bulbs are ready to harvest (usually late June, but the weather and the varieties can change that up to a few weeks in either direction), they will send up flower stalks, called "scapes."  Cut the scape stalk down as soon as it begins to curl, and chop it up to use in the kitchen as you would green onions.

These scapes aren't quite curly enough to harvest, but almost!

I usually stop watering after I harvest the scapes.  Sometimes the sky continues to water the crop, though.  Sigh.

When at least half the leaves turn yellow or brown, it's time to harvest!  Usually July.  Sometimes late June.  Sometimes early August.  

Dig (don't pull) up the bulbs and, if the weather is dry, and lay them on top of the soil for a few hours to dry.  If it's raining or fixin' to rain, put them in a dry place to cure.

Sometimes I tuck the stalks between the ridge pole and the sheeting of my small greenhouse roof.

In really wet years (which is most of them), I set up a rack in the big greenhouse to let them
dry out and cure.  They can stay in there for months.

If you store your garlic in the house, cut off the stalk and the roots when everything is completely dry.  Dust the dirt off the outside of the bulb with a brush (I use a mushroom brush).  

The softneck garlic varieties will store longest, so use up hardneck garlic bulbs first.  Save back the biggest and most-perfect bulbs to plant again next year!

Haiku Farm Spaghetti Sauce, featuring our tomatoes and garlic,
will feed us all winter.

I want your favorite garlicky recipes!  Leave 'em in the comments!