Grow And Cure Your Own Garlic

Cooler weather means a change to your gardening habits. Our friends at the Old World Garden Farms point out that right now is a great time to plant one of nature’s most delicious crops: garlic.

Your gardening doesn’t have to end just because the sun is setting sooner. Garlic — especially the hardneck variety — is pretty happy in cooler weather, and autumn is the best time to plant it so you’ll have plenty of bulbs and scapes (the green, twirly necks at the top) to harvest in early spring or summer:

Although you can plant garlic in the spring, the best time to plant it is in the fall, allowing for a nice mature crop to be harvested the following early summer. We have grown it both in the spring and fall, and quite frankly, the spring garlic just does not have enough time to develop much bulb growth. Fall planted garlic can produce larger yields — and the taste is far superior than spring planted bulbs.

Best of all, all you need to plant your own garlic is some rich, loose soil, and a few cloves separated from their bulbs. The bigger the clove, the larger the resulting bulb. Toss it in the ground, cover it over, and you’re done.

Planting garlic is easy, and you can do it in your garden over the winter, or you can keep a planter or box on the balcony. Hit the link below for more instructions, and don’t throw out the garlic scapes when you harvest — they’re great in almost everything.

How To Grow, Cure And Store Your Own Garlic [Old World Garden Farms]