How and When to Plant Garlic

 Garlic among the gourds

Waiting to be planted

When we were at Seedsavers in Decorah, Iowa with friends a couple weeks ago (future post), besides purchasing packets of seeds for next spring, I picked up an instructional sheet for planting garlic. I've always meant to plant garlic, but it's supposed to be planted in October, and since everything else I plant gets planted in May or June, I never seem to remember the garlic until it's too late.

This year, however, I actually marked it on my calendar in big letters on the October page: PLANT GARLIC. The biggest cloves will produce the best bulbs, so I looked for garlic bulbs that had bulging huge cloves. As you can see in the photo, they were starting to sprout before I got around to planting them.

 The good man, working the soil

Grass clippings nearby and leaves (not so nearby) were mixed to make a nice mulch for the garlic after it was planted. I didn't want to put it on so heavily that it would smother or kill them, but enough so that it would help protect them.

 Potting soil and lime worked into the otherwise quite bland, sandy soil

 Garlic cloves, laid in the trench, root end down, tip side up

6-8 inches apart, with skins still on (do not remove the paper-like skin)

Cover with 2 inches of soil and mulch with a mixture of grass clippings and leaves.  (We did this on a rainy day, which I think was probably good.)

Right about here should be the photo of the planted and mulched garlic. I don't know how I managed to miss that photo op, but I suppose it was because I was busy getting Bridger's pic. He was lying nearby, watching the procedure.

In the spring, when the garlic begins to come up, and before May 15, it's a good idea to fertilize the garlic once or twice.
Do not fertilize after May 15.
Garlic needs 1" water per week during the growing season.
Do not water garlic after June 1.
Keep weeds under control. (The mulch you laid down when you plant the garlic will help with this.)
Harvest after the leaves die back and there are still five green leaves remaining on the plant. This will be in June or July.

Everything in the garlic planting guide indicated that garlic needs to be handled carefully so that it does not bruise and deteriorate. When harvested, tie 6-8 garlic bulbs in a bundle and hang in a shed or garage that is dry and well-ventilated until they're dried for about 6 weeks.

I have a friend who used to raise garlic and braid them to hang on her kitchen wall. It was beautiful!

This photo and a great tutorial on harvesting garlic are found

at Thy Hand Hath Provided

Check it out. Jane has several good tutorials.

In NW Wisconsin in July, it's pretty humid. I'm thinking that our shop/garage will not be a good place to dry the garlic. Maybe upstairs in the house where it's dryer would be better.

After that drying period, you can trim the stalks and roots and store the bulbs in old onion sacks or netting.

Optimum setting for storage: 45-55% humidity and a temp of 50-70 degrees F. Do not refrigerate.

The Supervisor

Now that you're armed with all that great information, be sure to go out and buy some nice big garlic bulbs and plant the cloves for next year's crop. I can hardly wait for the winter to be over* to harvest our garlic crop in June or July of next year!  I can't wait to try my hand at braiding the garlic.

* I know that winter hasn't even begun, but it's always this time of year during the waning hours of daylight that we get this sinking feeling...The Big W. is just around the corner!

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