Garlic is a bit of a garden anomaly.
Still, its one of the easiest plants to grow, with exceptional yields.
Every year you gain more garlic.
There are technically two kinds of garlic: soft neck and hard neck.
The neck is the stalk that rises through the center of the garlic.
Soft-neck garlic has a neck you’re able to cut through, and hard neck doesnt.
Garlic needs loose, loamy, rich soil.
Heres where you want to focus on good compost and start with a well-cultivated bed.
A slow-release fertilizer is ideal to sprinkle into the soil and work in.
Each year, your bed’s soil compacts, and you lose some soil as you harvest.
Usually you top off those beds with compost.
I dont do that, which means my beds are a little low when its time to plant garlic.
I rake the bed smooth, and sprinkle on my fertilizer.
Then I take my cloves and plant them in a grid, eight inches apart.
I then cover that with a few inches of mulch.
(I use wood chips.)
Garlic has two harvests: scapes and heads
Plants sprout with the intention of forming seeds.
Forming roots, forming greenery/flowers, or forming seeds.
Once they start to produce seeds, the rest of the plant is done.
At the end, youll be able to see a bud of a flower.
The trick is waiting long enough so the scape is edible.
Then break it off as close to the base as you’re able to.
The real harvest comes mid summer, when it is time to harvest the bulbs.
By now, youll have tall green stalks rising from the soil for each bulb.
The outside of the stalk has papery layers, like an onion.
The rule is that when the two to three lowest leaves/layers turn brown, its go time.
To harvest, do not pull on the necks of the garlicuse a hand spade.
This will loosen the garlic so it’s possible for you to pull it out.
Be methodical, going along the grid.
Processing your scapes
Scapes are pungent and concentrated in flavor.
Mix well and then allow to ferment in a jar.
Curing your garlic
The heads themselves need some work when they come out of the soil.
They need to be cured so you can last a few months.
This involves cleaning the garlic and then exposing it to a nice breeze and dry but cool conditions.
To clean up the garlic, pull off the lowest leaves altogether, leaving a nice clean bulb.
If you intend to braid your garlic, leave the stem on and braid away.
If youve ever french braided hair, it’s the same method.
Start with three heads of garlic making a basic braid.
On each subsequent crossover, add a head of garlic and add the stem to the crossing handful.
You dont have to braid garlicyou can simply store it.
In this case, trim it off five inches above the bulb.
So lay them out or use chicken wire suspended in the air that you stick garlic heads through.
If youve braided the garlic, hang it up.
When the whole stalk is brown and outer layers are papery, your garlic is ready.
This takes from two weeks to a month.
Once cured, you want to store the garlic someplace it gets airflow and cool temperatures.
