Planting garlic

A few weeks ago I planted garlic both at home and with my garden club at F.A. Hamilton P.S. Garlic is a great fall planted 'bulb' plant and requires minimal work. Bulbs planted now, can be harvested in late July.

There are three steps to planting a successful garlic crop:

1) Separate the individual garlic cloves, only plant the larger plumper cloves.

2) Place the cloves in a 3"inch deep trench, and plant them 5-7" inches apart.

3) Cover with soil and mulch with leaves or straw, wait for growth in the spring.

It's highly recommended that you buy seed garlic from a good source in order to avoid deceased crops. You can soak cloves in a mix of water, baking soda and liquid seaweed 2 hrs before planting to kill off bacteria and decease. I buy organic local hard-neck garlic to plant and I've never had any issues.

In a few months I'll have a great organic crop of garlic for all my cooking needs. One head of garlic can provide up to 6 cloves of garlic resulting in new heads of their own. I planted about three heads... so I'm looking forward to about 18 heads of garlic. I can't wait to braid them up for cold-storage!