Garlic

Grow Your Own, Organically

'The Stinking Rose' as it's called, is one of the finest multi purpose tools for an organic sustainable garden.

How to grow Garlic

Some soft neck varieties are available from growers and seed companies for planting in fall, or in the spring.

Avoid the grocery store garlic, as sometimes this is grown with large amounts of pesticides, or even sprayed with an anti-sprouting chemical, so they won’t grow anyway. I plant them at close spacing due to the small amount of garden I can allot to my organic garlic.

Split the bulbs into the four to six cloves that each papery wrapper will contain, and plant them so the pointed end is up, and just under the surface of the soil.

Usually, about 10cm between cloves will give each bulb enough room to grow to a good size. For elephant garlic allow a little more room. This spacing is dependent on your soil type, as well as how nutrient rich it is.

Preparing the ground is important as garlic needs lots of nutrients to give it that delicious flavor. It prefers a loose open sandy soil with plenty of added compost or leaf mold.

My secret ingredients are wood ashes liberally applied, and also a good helping of glacial rock dust. If your area is sandy and acid, such as that where pine trees like to grow, then add some dolomite lime too.

Garlic doesn’t mind a fairly shallow soil, so those places that aren’t suitable for plants with a liking for deep soils will be perfect.

Lots of water is required while the garlic is forming roots in the fall and also while in fast growing mode in the spring and early summer.

While the bulbs are forming, not so much irrigation is needed, although you will probably have already mulched with garlic’s favorite, alfalfa green feed or hay. If you can grow alfalfa as a green manure cover crop in a mulch bed and cut before it blooms, this will add most of the needed nutrition, along with a few applications of compost tea.

When the scapes emerge – those long fantastically shaped curling and twisting flower heads – you can cut them off and use them for a special flavor in cooking. Some people pickle them to use in Caesars or as a garnish for other foods.

I’ve also left them to ripen in a basket then planted the tiny little garlic bulbs that result.

It will take at least two seasons to grow big enough to be edible, but this is one way you can quickly increase your stock of your favorite variety.

Plant them in a nursery bed to grow undisturbed for the summer, then dig and grade them in the fall. You can plant them at substantially closer spacing than the larger cloves from the parent plants.

The leaves of your garlic crop will eventually show signs of withering and browning, after you see this, stop watering and let the bulbs mature.

It’s recommended to dig the bulbs, not just pull on the tops as this can damage the attachment making it possible for infection during storage, but if the soil is light and friable enough this shouldn’t hurt them.

Storing Garlic

I use old window screens to allow lots of air flow in my greenhouse.

Sort them into different grades depending on the ultimate use: medium sizes are best for cooking, and the largest and best shaped should be saved for growing your next year’s crop. Small or misshapen or damaged bulbs should be used right away as they won’t keep as well.

After the leaves are dry and brittle, you can make garlic braids of the varieties known as soft neck, with no problem.

The hard neck varieties are a little more difficult to braid, and not as beautiful to display but it can be done. That way you can hang them in your kitchen and have easy access when you need that delicious garlic flavor in your cooking.

Storing them at room temperature (not in the refrigerator) will ensure that you have fresh garlic for most of the year until your next crop is ready.

Using Garlic as a Repellent

The lovely lush blue green leaves add a certain panache to a bed of roses or perennial flowers. This is known as companion planting, where the chemicals released by one plant can be used to protect another plant from its pests.

Making a Garlic Spray

This spray has some residual effect as many insects are repelled by the smell, and it will kill any insects that it is sprayed directly on.

Of course, you will be careful with this spray, as even though it’s organic, it can still harm fish if sprayed in a garden pond, and bees can be affected – spray only on a calm day so there’s no over spray.

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Sustainable Gardening

Make a Garlic Braid