Planting Garlic

It is almost time to plant garlic for harvesting next July.

I've been growing garlic for many years, and it is one of the easiest things to grow: it isn't damaged by any insects or disease/blight, and it requires almost no attention after it is planted until it is time to harvest. I also love that it is planted in the fall which means there is one less thing to plant in the busy spring planting season.

There are a few things to consider if you plan to grow garlic, and once you get in the habit of it, it is really simple.

You need to decide how much garlic you want to harvest next year and how much space you want to devote to it. It is possible to store garlic for the year so that you are using your last cloves right before your current garlic is ready to pick.

But do you have a space to store the garlic in the house? I don't actually know what the experts would say about this, but for me, after I pick it and let it dry out completely on the kitchen table or the porch out of the sun, I keep it in an open-air box in a dark closet in the basement. It is cooler down there, and we have a dehumidifier that keeps the air from getting too damp. My garlic lasts for several months, but I never grow more than about 5 to 6 months worth.

And then there is the decision about if you want to grow enough to plant next year. I have to confess that I have never really figured this out. Every year I end up doing something different. And I never grow enough to do both. This year I decided I'm growing twice as much as normal, and I'm planting what I harvested this year, because I think it is really high quality and I want to improve the strain. So I've been buying garlic at the farmer's market to actually eat.

So here is what I'm going to plant this year, and I have a decided to devote 20 sq ft in one of my raised beds for it.

Here are the steps:

Garlic should be planted some time between late September and mid-October. You can use garlic you've grown, but the next best option is to buy garlic at the farmer's market, because you know those varieties grow well in Minnesota. Garlic costs about $1 a head there.

Ideally, a week or so before you plant, you will prepare the bed by pulling up weeds, hoeing to loosen the soil, and amending the soil. Adding compost or worm castings is always a good bet. But most beds will benefit from gypsum or bone meal or lime. Just do not add nitrogen fertilizer -- like manure.

You can let these amendments sit for a week or so until you are going to plant, and then hoe or spade them into the soil. I do this because I always have weed roots that I missed the first time around, and this usually gets most of them.

Now the soil is loose and you can break your cloves apart from the head and put them into the soil until they are just barely covered. Do not peel. Put the "root" side down and the point side up. And space the cloves about 4 inches apart

Afterwards, you should water; or, if it is going to rain in the next few days, go ahead and leave it. After you water, or it rains, then cover the cloves with dried leaves about 3 to 5 inches thick. Leaves that are small or chopped up fine are best because they won't blow away. This will protect your garlic over the winter and will amend the soil and suppress weeds in the sprint when the garlic really gets growing and starts to send up green shoots.