Growing garlic is easy. Here’s a few tips.
Garlic is a long term crop. You’ll be waiting six to eight months from planting the cloves to harvesting the plant.
I like to plant my garlic cloves anytime in March or April as this encourages good growth before winter.
To start with, get your hands on some quality local garlic. Don’t bother with the imported, treated and often bleached garlic (plus I think it’s illegal to plant imported bulbs).
More and more people are understanding the importance of knowing where their food comes from. Most of the garlic imported into Australia comes from China (which is the world’s main producer of garlic). We also import garlic from Mexico, Chile, Spain and Argentina.
Preparation for planting.
Ensuring you plant your cloves into free draining soil is important as garlic doesn’t like wet soil. Enrich your organic-rich soil with compost and worm castings a couple of weeks prior to planting.
Pop your cloves around 3-4cm into the soil with the pointy end up. If you’re planting rows of garlic, space them about 25cm apart to avoid overcrowding.
Garlic likes regular watering when planted but cut back the watering leading up to harvest time so the soil is dry before you pull the plants up.
Harvesting.
Around late November, you can start harvesting your garlic. You’ll know when to harvest the plants as the leaves start to die off.
Once you’ve pulled the bulbs up, lay them in the sun for a week or so if the weather is dry. Then you can hang them in a well ventilated, cool place.
You don’t need a lot of space to get a lovely crop of fresh, home grown garlic.
