Growing Your Own Garlic

Some of 2018 Garlic Harvest

Garlic, can be one of the easiest and most rewarding vegetables to grow, providing you have a moderate amount of space and some spare time in October and again in June. The rewarding part does of course rely on you actually liking garlic!

Growing your own garlic can provide you with enough organic, traceable garlic, with minimal food miles (depending on where you source your seeds) and zero carbon footprint. Considering most garlic bought in Ireland and worldwide is grown in China, homegrown produce enures you know nothing has been added during the growing or harvesting process. You will also be able to have varieties that have superior flavour and are not usually available to buy.

Now is the time to get in your orders for the garlic cloves that you will be planting, as they need to be planted between October and February. Garlic needs at least 6 weeks below 10 degrees Celsius in order to break up into individual cloves, so before Christmas is an ideal time to plant them.  I’ve ordered mine for this year from West Cork Garlic but I’m not sure of their remaining stocks. Shop bought garlic is usually not suitable for planting, as it has probably been treated to prevent it sprouting.

Preparation

Cover the area where you will be planting them, with a layer of well rotted compost if you have it, manure or seaweed, to provide necessary nutrients as well as ground cover to suppress weeds. When you are ready to plant, dig the area well, mixing the manure and soil.

Separate out the individual cloves ready for planting. Plant the cloves by burying them, root / flat side down (pointy end up) 2 inches (5cm) deep, 6 inches (15cm) apart, in rows 6 to 10 inches apart. Some varieties may have different spacing requirements.

Progress – Our Garlic in April

With about 10 cloves of garlic per bulb, a bed 3 foot by 3 foot (90cm x 90cm) will be enough space to plant 5 bulbs of garlic to (theoretically) provide 49 bulbs of garlic, which if harvested correctly, will store for months. If the temptation is too much, you can harvest some of your garlic early and use as green garlic. Garlic scapes are also a home grown perk you don’t usually see in shops. Scapes are the flower bud of the Hardneck varieties of garlic plants and have a lovely mild garlic flavour.

We will follow up with our progress as time goes on.