Garlic Plants
How to Grow Garlic Plants
If you are a garlic lover, you should try to grow some garlic plants in your garden. Unlike other kinds of vegetables, you do not grow garlic by buying plants and usually not with seeds either. You buy garlic bulbs that have been treated and stored in such a way that they will grow new bulbs. It does not work to use store-bought garlic bulbs when gardening.
Garlic likes cool temperatures so garlic plants are started in the fall. Experts advise to plant garlic about two weeks after the first frost in the fall. In Europe, there is a tradition of planting your garlic on the shortest day of the year, but this is not terribly practical if you live in an area with lots of winter snow and cold.
In order to get nice looking garlic plants, you need to plant your garlic cloves correctly. The first thing you do is separate them from the bulb, the same way you would if you were going to cook with them. You should space your cloves of garlic about six inches apart and stand them up so that the tip is pointed upward. You should plant them around three inches deep.
Garlic are often grown in beds. This always helps save garden space. You can also grow garlic in the traditional rows--the garlic cloves should be six inches apart with at least two feet between the rows. The leaves of the garlic plants will turn brown when the garlic is ready to harvest. Don’t let all of the leaves turn brown though, dig up your garlic when around half of the stalks have changed to brown. Garlic can be stored all winter in a cool, dry place.
If you live in a climate that is warm year-round you are not at an advantage when growing garlic. The garlic bulbs do best when allowed to sit under the ground in the cold for six months. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t grow garlic at all. The first thing you should try to do is select varieties that have been especially developed for warmer climates. You should still plant your garlic in the fall, although later than people farther north. November and December are OK for people in warm locations.
If it is mild all winter, you can expect to see your garlic having top growth all winter. If you should get an unusually cold spell, don’t worry, it won’t hurt the garlic. You will have flowers appear in very early summer and then the leaves will start to turn brown. When one-half of them are brown, start your harvest.
Although garlic is not as prolific in the southern regions, you can still grow a nice crop. There are very few vegetables that like cold weather so this is one of the few times when northerners do have an advantage. Once you have tasted freshly grown garlic you will never want to eat store-bought again. You will be determined to have a garlic patch in your garden every year.