How to Grow Garlic

Ranked #12,182 in Home & Garden, #161,808 overall

Growing Garlic Bulbs

Garlic is, by far, one of the most essential ingredients to have on hand while cooking. Growing garlic in the garden is easy and will insure that you always have plenty on hand when you need it.

Garlic is grown from bulbs, or rather the cloves of the bulbs. (That's a tongue twister!) A clove is what you call each section that you remove from the garlic bulb before using it in your cooking. The bigger the clove, the bigger the bulb of garlic will be produced when the plant is full grown.

Do not plant the cloves of the garlic that you have purchased at the grocery store for consumption.

How to Grow Garlic

Grow Garlic at Home

The actual garlic that you will be using grows underground and so you need to dig-deep when preparing a spot for growing garlic in your garden. Garlic needs full sun and well-drained soil that has a lot of organic matter in it such as peat moss. If you live in the southern hemisphere, it is best to plant your garlic in the fall for spring harvesting. If you live in the North, the opposite is true. Plant your garlic in the early spring to be harvested in the fall.

When growing garlic bulbs, plant them about an inch to an inch and a half deep, and approximately four inches apart from each other. The package may call for more space between them but I've had great success when using this method. Remember to plant the garlic clove with the pointy side up. The foliage of the garlic plant will grow anywhere from a foot to two feet tall and can be used in salads. It has a milder taste than the cloves. Be careful not to use too much of the foliage though as this will stunt the growth of the precious bulb beneath.

Keep your plants well-watered and weed free and before you know it, you'll have enough garlic to last the year.

Garlic photo appears courtesy of Valerie Everett

How to Prep Soil for Growing Garlic

Learn how to properly prep your soil for great garlic growing by watching this video.
Growing Garlic : How to Prep Soil for Growing Garlic
by expertvillage | video info

9 ratings | 6,812 views
curated content from YouTube

Growing Great Garlic

The Definitive Guide for Organic Gardeners and Small Farmers

Want to get serious with your garlic growing? Check out this great garlic growing book.

Growing Great Garlic: The Definitive Guide for Organic Gardeners and Small Farmers

Amazon Price: $10.42 (as of 06/01/2012)Buy Now

The first garlic book written specifically for organic gardeners and small-scale farmers
Growing Great Garlic is the definitive grower's guide written by a small scale farmer who makes his living growing over 200 strains of garlic. Commercial growers will want to consult this book regularly.
The author tells us:
*which strains to plant
*when to fertilize
*when to plant
*when to prune flower stalks
*how to plant
*when to harvest
Plus, how to store, market, and process the crop.
Growing Great Garlic makes a genuine contribution in the field of garlic classification that will help the public recognize several distinct varietal types of garlic.

Buy Garlic Bulbs and Garlic Seeds

check out the selection of garlic bulbs and garlic seeds available at Amazon.

Click any product description to be taken to Amazon.com where you can learn more, or buy your garlic for planting with confidence.
Loading

Garlic - Companion Planting

Garlic is a wonderful companion plant for roses. Don't worry it won't give your roses bad breath. Unfortunately, the roses won't make the garlic smell any better either!

Rose photo appears courtesy of ItsGreg

Roses Love Garlic

Companion Planting and Other Secrets of Flowers

Learn more companion planting tips and tricks in this great book.

Roses Love Garlic: Companion Planting and Other Secrets of Flowers

Amazon Price: $5.71 (as of 06/01/2012)Buy Now

This sequel to Carrots Love Tomatoes lists hundreds of herbs and flowers, with information on how their proximity can maximize the health and yield of vegetables, berry bushes, and fruit and nut trees. This edition features a dozen illustrated garden plans. 178,000 copies in print.

When to Harvest Garlic

When the foliage of the garlic plant dies back, it is time to harvest your crop. Using a pitchfork, very carefully, dig up the bulbs. You can leave the stalks of foliage on them if you like or remove them with a sharp pair of garden shears. Your garlic needs to cure a bit before you use it. To do this, you need to store it in a warm, dark place for a week or two. Afterwards, move it to a cool dry place for storage.

Photo appears courtesy of Iburiedpaul

Leeks Growing with Lettuce




Photographic Print">Leeks Growing with Lettuce "Lollo Rossa," Vegetable Garden

Photographic Print


Buy at AllPosters.com

Successful Garlic Growing

Loading poll. Please Wait...

Elephant Garlic

Elephant garlic is a type of garlic that has extremely large cloves and bulbs and has a milder flavor than the standard varieties. Elephant garlic is grown in the same way that regular garlic is with the exception that you should always start it in the fall no matter where you live.

Elephant Garlic Bulbs

Buy Elephant Garlic Bulbs at Amazon

Elephant Garlic 3 Cloves - Be Healthy & Heart Smart!

Amazon Price: (as of 06/01/2012)Buy Now

3 Garlic Cloves
Each clove will grow a bulb of 3-6 ounces.
3-5 cloves is sufficient for most gardeners.
Mild garlic-like flavor. Elephant Garlic is not a true garlic at all, but an enormous bulbing leek.
Shipping: Begins Mid September

Cooking with Garlic

Garlic is mostly used as a seasoning in many dishes and sauces.

Photo appears courtesy of sciondriver

The Garlic Lover's Cookbook

by Gilroy Garlic Festival

The Garlic Lovers' Cookbook, Vol. II

Amazon Price: $199.66 (as of 06/01/2012)Buy Now

From its humble beginnings more than a quarter century ago, the Gilroy Garlic Festival has exploded into an all-out lovefest of 125,000-plus ravenous ravishers of the fragrant bulb. On the first weekend in July, fun and feasting take over the bustling community of Gilroy, California, as garlic lovers gather to live, breathe, and, of course, taste their favorite clove in a variety of culinary incarnations. The centerpiece of all this aromatic activity is the Great Garlic Cook-Off, a unique venue for amateur cooks and professional chefs from around the country to compete head-to-head. Now back in print, the second volume of the festival's recipes brims with prizewinners, crowd-pleasers, and palate-teasers, proving the endless possibilities of glorious garlic.

Find Garlic on eBay

Garlic Products available at eBay

I've said it before and I'll say it again, you can find just about anything at Ebay, even garlic!

Click on any product description to be taken to eBay.com where you can learn more or bid and buy with confidence.
Loading

Find More Garlic Growing Tips Here

Best of the Web Tips for Garlic Growers

Follow thiese links to find more great garlic growing tips.
Growing Garlic
Growing Garlic in the Home Garden

Many people grow garlic themselves - it's easy and fun, even if you're not
usually much of a gardener. You also get to
the reward of eating your home-grown garlic crop!Garlic is a member of the allium family which also includes leeks, shallo
Gourmet Garlic Gardens Growing Tips - How to Grow Garlic
A Garlic Information Center where you learn about the 17 different kinds of garlic.
Buy rare gourmet garlics and Alliophile apparral and learn all about garlic and how it affects the human body.
How to Grow Garlic Bulbs
Growing garlic is easy. Learn how to grow garlic bulbs in your vegetable garden. Elephant Garlic.
How To Grow Garlic From Seed
By: Nikki PhippsOnce in awhile someone wonders how to grow garlic from seed. While growing garlic is easy, there's no sure way to do so ...
How to Grow Garlic - wikiHow
wikiHow article about How to Grow Garlic.

Are you Ready to Grow your own Garlic?

Please leave your garlic growing tips, tricks, comments or questions here.

  • my2165 May 8, 2012 @ 8:11 pm | delete
    came here to look at answers to when I should harvest my garlic, I started about 2-3 weeks ago, all of them are growing except 1 which might catch on, might not, can't tell as of now, anyway great lens very informative, didn't know you had to cure the garlic after harvesting, I was just going to wash it and stick it in the fridge!
  • lbrummer Apr 20, 2012 @ 6:13 am | delete
    Just the information I needed. This lens answers one of the top searched questions on Google in 2011, therefore it is featured on my new lens "Squidoo Answers Googles Top Most Asked Questions in 2011."
  • alysaa Apr 6, 2012 @ 8:49 pm | delete
    This what I do to my garlic and it comes out pretty good http://howtofixstuff.blogspot.ca/2012/04/how-to-grow-organic-garlic.html
  • JennySui Aug 26, 2011 @ 6:02 pm | delete
    Nicelens. I love garlic and I like to grow vegetables in my garden.
  • clouda9 Mar 26, 2011 @ 9:50 pm | delete
    I feel lost in the kitchen if I don't have garlic on hand to season my recipes...it is certainly a fave in our house. Enjoyed the read.

    PS The Amazon Elephant Garlic Still Life Artwork must have been moved, it is not showing on the lens.
  • Load More

You Might also Enjoy

Garlic and Gardening

Loading

by

rms

Robin Svedi is a Community Organizer and the QuestMaster for Squidoo. You can keep up with her at rms on Squidoo. She's also the author of Eye Popping... more »

Feeling creative? Create a Lens!