subject: How To Plant Garlic - Planting Garlic Is Easy And Very Rewarding [print this page] How to plant garlic, planting garlic is easy and very rewarding. Below are some simple steps to growing great garlic.
Soil preparation:As with any vegetable garden you want to provide the best soil you can. Rich in nutrients with not too much clay or sand so that you get perfect drainage. Seldom you ever find perfect soils but you learn what works best in your area and when and how much to water with time and experience. Ask a neighbor!
Seed selection so you want to plant garlic, what kind? There are many varieties to choose from if you live in a place with a cold hearty winter then you should take advantage of the hardneck varieties they taste better, they look better, and they thrive in the cold. If you live in warm climates hardnecks dont seem to perform as well. Choose your best bulbs for seed stock break them into cloves and plant the cloves. If you plant small cloves you will find you get smaller bulbs for harvest time.
When to plant garlic, this will vary depending upon where you live. Generally you want to plant in the fall a couple weeks before the ground freezes so that you can get good root development but the tops dont break the surface. If you live in a warm climate early spring is best.
When youre ready to plant garlic I prefer beds rather than rows. I plant them with 6-8 inch spacing and four wide and three inches deep. I like to have raised beds this gives me a little more control with water. If it happens to be a really wet spring then I know my garlic wont be sitting in too much water because of the raised beds. Also with them being spaced out in beds of four wide I feel I get the most out of my area and find the weeding much easier. You can plant garlic five wide but I found the weeding to be a little more difficult. You can choose to mulch or not to mulch both have their advantages and disadvantages. Mulching can be an article all of itself to simplify I would recommend what nature would do; which is to have a little mulch, in nature the dyeing vegetation lies down for the winter giving the earth a little blanket before the snow settles in.
Await the winter and welcome the warmth of spring, keep your garlic weed free and dont over water. When to harvest will vary depending upon your area I harvest in late July and early August. Enjoy your fresh home grown garlic.
