How to Plant Garlic

February 02, 2018 The Provident Princess 0 Comments

I am really excited to share this post today. It's all about how to grow garlic at home.

Growing your own garlic is so easy! Anyone can do it. Seriously.

Have you ever had some store-bought garlic so long that it started to sprout? Perfect, you're halfway there. If you just stick that clove in the ground and it will grow into a head of garlic next summer.

Now is the perfect time for planting bulbs; flowers or garlic. Anytime after the weather turns cooler in the Fall is a great time to plant. You just need make sure you plant before the ground freezes. Luckily, with how weird the weather has been this winter our growing/planting season has been extended.

Charlotte and I spent a wonderful morning in the garden and it was so fun having her help me with the planting. Though of course she just wanted to dig them all out afterwards.




Directions:
All you need is a head of garlic from the store. Just the regular kind you buy to cook with.

Break apart the head of garlic to get the individual cloves. One clove will grow into an entire head of garlic next year. One of my friends brought me home some popular garlic from a recent trip to California. I'm really excited to plant it. It's been so hard not to use it all because it is so delicious, I hope it grows well here. Fingers crossed.

You only want to plant the biggest ones because they will yield the biggest crop next year. Just save the small ones to use in the kitchen.

Go out to your garden and turn the earth under. Basically just loosen up the dirt and add in any compost you might want to.

Once your dirt is turned over, dig holes 6 inches apart all the way around and about 3-4 inches deep. If you don't have raised garden beds you might want to think about leaving space for a walkway depending on how many cloves you plant.

I use a stick like this to dig. I feel a little like a cave woman digging in the dirt with a stick but hey, it works. And Charlotte loves it too.


Next stick your garlic clove in the ground with the point sticking up. You will want the top of the garlic about 2 inches from the top of the dirt once you fill it in. And, doesn't everyone garden while juggling a baby? Charlotte is learning young.

 
Cover and repeat for all remaining cloves.  I like to dig one hole at a time because my dirt is really loose and falls back into the holes easily making it harder to go back and stick the cloves in. But you could dig all your holes first, then stick in all the garlic cloves, then cover all at once.

You're done.

See what did I tell you? Easy! And you'll love cooking with your homegrown garlic next year.

Tips:

• you may want to put a layer of mulch like leaves over the dirt to help insulate the garlic over the winter.