How to Grow Garlic

Garlic is such a vital part of cooking, isn’t it? I can’t imagine not using it for practically everything I make for dinner. But did you know it’s easy to grow your own? Well, in this week’s “Everyone Can Grow a Garden” video, I take you through the steps of how to grow garlic.

You plant garlic in the fall and harvest it in the summer, when the lowest two pairs of leaves have turned brown.

In the photo to the left, you can see part of our garlic harvest from this summer. We put it through a drying stage before cleaning it up and storing it indoors.

You can find wonderful varieties of garlic at your local garden center or from online sources. The photo below is part of the garlic display at my favorite local garden center, Northwest Seed & Pet, in case you’re wondering.

We primarily grow hardneck garlic here as Bill — who is very fond of garlic — has certain varieties of that type that he really likes. Those include ‘German Red’, ‘German Porcelain’ and ‘Inchelium’, which are what we’re growing for next year.

One thing I didn’t clarify in the video is that while fall is the time to plant garlic, it’s best to wait until the soil and air temperature have cooled down. Ordinarily, we would plant ours in late October or early November but I wanted to shoot this video early enough so you would have a reference for planting yours. (wasn’t that nice of me, LOL?)

In the video, I also planted shallots. They can be planted in the fall or the spring but we like to do everything at the same time in the fall.

If you have any questions, just drop me a note at Susan@SusansintheGarden.com.