Saturday, March 19, 2011

Garlic

Garlic and Beedy's kale, 3-17-11

     I started growing garlic only two years ago, yet now I will never stop.  Garlic should be planted in November or early December by separating a head into the individual cloves.  Plant each clove about one inch deep on four to six inch centers.  The garlic will overwinter in some pretty serious winter areas, and grow to be ready for harvest in June.  You must dry the garlic properly to get good storage time.  My garlic from last year is now either sprouting or drying, so we will need to buy some garlic.  Gasp, grumble.  But those cloves that are not edible now, are certainly destined to go back in the ground for another try.
     The picture above is of some garlic and Beedy's kale that wintered over without protection.  Hard necked garlic puts up a flower stalk that eventually curls like a pig's tail.  The flower will mature to a seed head, that will have lots of mini garlic bulblets.  You can plant those bulblets, but they will take two to three years to mature to edible garlic.  The small plants at the top of the above picture are from bulblets started on my porch from last fall.  Their pictures have graced previous posts referenced to garlic.
     Finally, in an earlier post I had concluded that I had a couple of leek volunteers growing from some blown in seed.  Well I tasted a leaf on each plant, and they are garlic!  My palate will probably remember that they are garlic for a couple of more days.  You can use the stalks and leaves of garlic as "green Garlic".  Just google that and you will get lots of ideas and recipes.

5 comments:

  1. I never knew you could plant garlic in the fall and overwinter it! Ive never grown it before, but i should because i put garlic in everything. Do you get your starts just from the grocery store? I know some people say to use "certified starts" that you buy at the nursery, but to me that seems like it might not be necessary.

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  2. Lisa, there is a saying about garlic, to plant by the shortest day of the year (Dec 21st) and harvest by the longest day (June 21st). That works out to be close enough. It is well worth planting. So far I have used only the store bought bulbs for starter cloves, as I am loath to buy catalog garlic at $18 per pound. If I find some one to trade for the good stuff, that would be great.

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  3. I haven't tried Garlic yet. You've inspired me to give it a try! It's great to see all the veggies in your header photo!

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  4. Yum! I'm planning to do garlic this winter, so hopefully I'll get hooked too!

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  5. I just sampled a few of the leaves from my garlic plants, and they were amazingly potent with a delightful garlicky undertone.
    Thanks for the suggestion to try green garlic! I'm now debating whether I really want to let all of my bulbs grow to maturity...

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