Love to add garlic in anything and everything you make? Then we have got your back with this easy step-by-step way to grow your own garlic in the home garden or terrace garden. Well, growing your own garlic at home is easily one of the most satisfying plantations you can take on in a garden. It requires very little space, survives freezing winters with minimal effort, and rewards you with a harvest that tastes remarkably fresher and punchier than anything sitting on a supermarket shelf. Read on and try it out.
Everything begins in the fall with picking the right stock and getting your timing down. Rather than using supermarket garlic, which is often chemically treated to delay sprouting, grab seed garlic from a local nursery or garden center. Hard neck varieties do best in cold winters, giving you large cloves, while softneck types work better in milder areas and keep for a long time in storage.
Try to plant your cloves in late autumn, about four weeks before the ground freezes for the winter. That gives them just enough time to grow strong roots underground without putting energy into leaf growth before the cold sets in.
Now, pick the biggest, healthiest cloves, for the garden and then push each clove two inches into the soil spacing the cloves about five inches apart. Make sure you set them with the pointed tips facing up toward the sky and the flat root bases facing down, then lightly pat the soil smooth over top. Mulching for winter protection To protect your investment through the coldest months, immediately blanket the entire bed with a thick layer of organic mulch like clean straw or fallen leaves. This insulator guards the soil against dramatic temperature swings, prevents winter frost-heaving, and keeps unwanted weed seeds from taking hold come spring. During the winter, you can completely ignore the bed while the cloves rest peacefully underneath the snow and soil. As spring arrives and green shoots break through the mulch, your garlic requires just a bit of steady attention. Keep the soil consistently moist with about an inch of water a week, taking care not to overwater since soggy conditions can quickly rot the expanding bulbs. Keep the bed meticulously weeded, as garlic has a shallow root system that struggles when competing for nutrients. If you are growing hard neck garlic, you will notice curly flower stalks called scapes emerging in early summer. Snip these curling stems off near the base as soon as they appear, forcing the plant to redirect all its energy down into swelling the bulb below rather than forming flowers. By mid to late summer, the lowest foliage will begin to turn brown and dry up, signaling that your harvest is ready. Once about half of the leaves have browned while three or four upper leaves remain green, carefully loosen the dirt around each head with a garden fork and lift the whole plants out. Brush away loose dirt without washing the bulbs with water, then hang them in a dry, shaded, well-ventilated space for three to four weeks. Once the skins feel crisp and papery, trim the roots and stems back, leaving you with a long-lasting, homegrown harvest ready for the pantry.