Growing garlic: Cultivation, care & harvest

Growing garlic: Location & soil

As long as the location is right, growing garlic is not particularly difficult. The bulbous plant likes to grow in a sunny, warm place. Although garlic likes warmth, the soil should not be too dry, otherwise the shallow-rooted plant will run out of water in summer. To protect it from the garlic fly, choose a well-ventilated location. The soil should be loose, humus-rich and nutrient-rich. But be careful with over-fertilization, too much nutrient content reduces the aroma. With less nutrients, the bulbs will be smaller, but the flavor will be more intense. The planting material also determines the result. Therefore, always choose healthy cloves for planting.

When to plant garlic?

Garlic can be planted at two times of the year. In the spring or in the fall. For newcomers, planting from February to March is recommended. Although the bulbs have less time to develop and remain somewhat smaller, they can then be harvested in the same year. Garlic can also be planted in October. It is then harvested in the summer of the following year. As the plants can grow longer, the bulbs will be larger. When planting in the fall, the planted area should be protected with a layer of leaves or mulch.

Planting garlic: how it works

Before you can plant the garlic, you first need to prepare the bed. It should be finely crumbled and have some fine compost worked into it. Then you can plant the seedlings. If you use bulblets, i.e. the "seeds" of the garlic plant, these are planted 1 - 2 cm/0.4 - 0.8 in deep at a distance of 10 - 15 cm/3.9 - 5.9 in. Please note that it takes two years to be able to harvest garlic from breeding buds. If you use the cloves as cuttings, first divide the bulbs into individual cloves and then plant them 15 - 20 cm/5.9 - 7.9 in apart and 5 - 7 cm/1.9 - 2.7 in deep. Both bulbils and cloves are planted with the tip pointing upwards. The row spacing is 30 - 40 cm/11.8 - 15.7 in. Tomatoes, carrots or cucumbers can be planted in between for a mixed crop . The garlic also keeps pests away with its scent.

Garlic in a raised bed

If you don't have the right location for your garlic in the garden, you can also easily plant this shallow-rooted plant in a pot or raised bed. The latter has the advantage that it can be planted earlier in the year due to the rotting materials and the resulting warmth. The water can also drain away very well.

Have fun experimenting with planting garlic! If you have any questions or comments, please write to us at [email protected].

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Image by Paul Neumann on Pixabay