Growing Garlic

Hard neck German Reds

   I grow some fresh veggies and mushrooms in and around the house mainly for health reasons and cost. This year is my second year for garlic.
    The unusual thing about growing garlic is that you plant in the fall and wait until June or July to pick. In my zone (6b) you plant it in October.
    It's a fairly easy plant to raise. I use a raised bed, tilled the soil, added some compost, and then planted each clove separately with the pointy end up, about an inch below the soil and about 3 inches apart. You then water and keep the soil nice and moist. During November I pile on the leaves and water one more time and then wait for the magic to happen in May. This year I did one soft neck and one hard neck garlic.
  

 The soft neck was California early. I had a terrible time with this garlic. It sprouted two weeks after I planted it, it's not supposed to sprout until June, and I had a poor crop because of it. The bulbs were really small and I lost quite a few due to the early sprouting. I was able to save these few by piling extra mounds of leaves on top of them.

California Early "crop"

  You should add leaves in the fall to the garlic for warmth but they shouldn't sprout. They shouldn't do anything until May.
    The German Reds, however, came out great. They sprouted in May and I left them in until July. I got about 18 bulbs compared to about 6 of the California Early. You should get at least one bulb for every clove that you plant.
      In June I got garlic scapes from the German Reds!
These are small bulbs that grow from the center of hard neck garlic. If not picked they will turn into a beautiful flower and cause your garlic to be smaller. Being pretty doesn't always add up.

Scapes galore!

The scapes are very pungent and are a nice preview to what the garlic might taste like. Some people like to make pesto from it or I like to just use them as garlic cloves in cooking.
   So now I have about a years supply of garlic and them some for roasting!