How to Plant Garlic

How to Plant Garlic!

Garlic.  It's the best.  I love everything about it.  Raw, cooked, pickled, whatever.  I love planting it, harvesting it, chopping it, and eating it.  I put excessive amounts in everything.  Here, however, I'll be focusing on planting it - this is the time to do it.  The worst thing about planting garlic is the planning - you typically want to plant it in the fall or early winter.  That's really the only downside.  Once it is planted, you do nothing to it until it's ready to be harvested. Traditionally garlic is planted on the shortest day of the year, but this is probably symbolic and not totally necessary.  I planted mine early January this year.  In more southern states, you can even plant garlic in early spring.  

Ideally, you'll want to plant hardneck garlic.  Hardneck garlic is a little harder to find (the majority of garlic at your average supermarket is not hardneck garlic), but can be found at farmer's markets and co-ops.  Standard white softneck garlic can totally be planted too, but the best part about planting garlic is the garlic scapes - the top part of the garlic, harvested just before it flowers.  It's soo good.  Slightly sweeter than garlic, but just as versitile.  Well, almost as versitile.  You don't get garlic scapes with softneck garlic, but you will still get a garlic bulb. To tell the difference, look for a hard fibrous stick in the middle of the garlic bulb.  Not there?  Then you have softneck garlic. 

To plant:  

1. Separate all the cloves.  You do not have to peel them. 

2. Plant approximately 4" apart, in rows a foot apart. Plant so that the sprouts will be going upward.

3. Cover with soil. 

4. Harvest the scapes in early spring, just before they are about to flower. To harvest the scapes, cut midway down the stalk.

5. Harvest the garlic bulbs in mid-late summer.  You'll notice the leaves left on the stalk start to die off once it's getting ready to harvest. 

That's it.  Now go plant some garlic!