Hi Elisa. Garlic is fairly simple to grow. 1) You need a lot of time. I plant mine in early October for a May/June harvest. Your timing might be different depending on where you are located, but plan on them being in the ground about 7 months. 2) Order early – most seed company’s garlic becomes available to purchase in the earlier part of the summer. You buy then and they will ship it to you in the fall. Popular varieties sell out fairly quickly. 3) There are two kinds of garlic, soft neck and hard neck. Hard neck keeps in storage much longer. 4) Once it is in the ground you just need to make sure the soil stays consistently moist and weed free until the last couple of weeks. Then you let the soil dry out before harvest. 5) Garlic should work in a square foot garden. Each bulb is planted 4 inches apart. 6) You could have a go with just a head of garlic purchased at the store. Seed companies tend to sell at minimum three heads at a time. Just depends on how much space you have.
How many heads do you grow? I am splitting our 59 with a another family. We have another variety still in the ground, not getting very big. It came up much later, so I am giving it more time. I am setting aside about 8 heads for this year’s planting and am hoping that the rest will be enough garlic until the next harvest. We’ll see. This is the biggest harvest I have had in a long time.
Last year we ended up with about 60 heads and we saved about a third of those to grow. We wanted to expand our harvest as our initial seed heads were given to us by friends and we love the idea of helping someone else to get started now that we’re self sufficient in garlic for the year. It’s such an easy crop, as you note and it’s given me a real boost to be able to grow enough of a crop for our annual needs.
How do you preserve your garlic for eating during the winter? Do you just put the heads somewhere dry and cool? Last fall we split the heads, peeled the cloves and I put a big sealed glass container of the cloves in my freezer, ready for cooking, and I loved how easy that made life in the kitchen. The friend who gave us the original garlic likes to freeze hers already minced in small jam jars, which is another way to go.
Growing Up in the Garden 
That looks wonderful! I can’t believe they are done already!
Thanks! In Southern California we do an October planting for a May harvest. Some varieties take until June.
Looks delicious and abundant!
Thanks. Abundant, yes. Delicious, I hope so. So far the heads we have eaten “green” have been nice. The dry ones will be stronger in flavor.
OK! What do I need to know to grow some garlic? Would it work on a square-foot garden bed?
Hi Elisa. Garlic is fairly simple to grow. 1) You need a lot of time. I plant mine in early October for a May/June harvest. Your timing might be different depending on where you are located, but plan on them being in the ground about 7 months. 2) Order early – most seed company’s garlic becomes available to purchase in the earlier part of the summer. You buy then and they will ship it to you in the fall. Popular varieties sell out fairly quickly. 3) There are two kinds of garlic, soft neck and hard neck. Hard neck keeps in storage much longer. 4) Once it is in the ground you just need to make sure the soil stays consistently moist and weed free until the last couple of weeks. Then you let the soil dry out before harvest. 5) Garlic should work in a square foot garden. Each bulb is planted 4 inches apart. 6) You could have a go with just a head of garlic purchased at the store. Seed companies tend to sell at minimum three heads at a time. Just depends on how much space you have.
Good luck!
Very nice! We also do a late October planting, but ours won’t be ready until early to mid July. Enjoy!!
How many heads do you grow? I am splitting our 59 with a another family. We have another variety still in the ground, not getting very big. It came up much later, so I am giving it more time. I am setting aside about 8 heads for this year’s planting and am hoping that the rest will be enough garlic until the next harvest. We’ll see. This is the biggest harvest I have had in a long time.
Last year we ended up with about 60 heads and we saved about a third of those to grow. We wanted to expand our harvest as our initial seed heads were given to us by friends and we love the idea of helping someone else to get started now that we’re self sufficient in garlic for the year. It’s such an easy crop, as you note and it’s given me a real boost to be able to grow enough of a crop for our annual needs.
How do you preserve your garlic for eating during the winter? Do you just put the heads somewhere dry and cool? Last fall we split the heads, peeled the cloves and I put a big sealed glass container of the cloves in my freezer, ready for cooking, and I loved how easy that made life in the kitchen. The friend who gave us the original garlic likes to freeze hers already minced in small jam jars, which is another way to go.