Related articles
Growing Elephant Garlic

Introduction
In the shops, most fresh garlic (Allium sativum / ophioscorodon - 'hardneck') is poor quality. Much is from China, and it is kept in cold storage for months. It may be cheap, but it is rare to find big, crunchy and juicy cloves on shop shelves. The poor range of varieties on offer is another reason to grow your own.

Another advantage is that you can then cook and eat 'new' garlic – the freshly pulled bulbs with a milder taste. These are hard to find in the shops. (Try roasting and adding to mash). Also try growing elephant garlic.

With garlic, each clove you plant will mature to form a whole bulb of a dozen or so cloves. Ideally plant in November, which will give the cloves that you plant time to form roots before the frosts. Garlic then needs a period of proper winter temperatures (a month or so) for the clove to 'vernalise' - split into more cloves.

Planting

All the books tell you to buy your garlic from a seed merchant, rather than using bulbs from the supermarket. Well, they would say that, wouldn't they? In reality, you may well get good results from shop garlic.

But, in an ideal world, there are good reasons for buying garlic from seed merchants. Firstly, the varieties in the shops may well not be well suited to our climate. Secondly, you don't know if they have been treated, for example with an anti-sprouting agent.

.

The depth you plant the cloves depends on the soil. In a light soil, think around 10cm - less in heavier soils. The key thing to remember is to plant them flat end down, pointy end up, about twice their own depth. Don't use the smaller cloves in the centre of the bulb - keep them for cooking.

Spacing
Approx 17cm (each way) or 10cm in rows 30cm apart.

Growing notes
Garlic is actually a biennial - if left to its own devices it will take two years to set seed. But we eat it as an annual.

You can plant the cloves direct into the ground. Or start them off into modules first, and then plant out. (You could also start them off in toilet rolls in winter, one clove each). Leave them outdoors so that they receive the cold temperatures that they need to vernalise, planting out in spring. They are also suitable for growing in containers. 

Consider using an open cloche over garlic through winter.

The gap between cloves will determine how large they will grow. They do not need an overly fertile soil, especially one with high levels of nitrogen. (It's a bad idea, for example, to grow garlic in soil that has been recently manured).

Garlic likes a light soil. If yours is heavy, you might want to ameliorate it - for example by making a ridge of potting compost / soil, perhaps with some extra sand.

If your cloves fail to split and form a bulb, then you can dry and replant the next autumn.

Garlic likes potash, so if you have ash from a wood fire you can dig some into the soil too.

Rotate as with other alliums.

Containers
Garlic gets on fine in containers. But bear in mind that they are a long season crop. You may want to intercrop with other edibles such as salads. The Garlic Farm advises planting '3 cloves to a 6 inch pot, 6 to an 8 inch and 8-10 to a 10 inch. ... Feed February to April with a standard plant food.'

Harvesting
Look for when the leaves turn yellow and bendy. Use a fork to lift them so that you don't damage the neck - this can invite disease. Dry for a week or so. Traditionally, they are plaited. Or dry loose, 5-10°C.Stored dried garlic can last for around nine months.

Pests and disease
Birds sometime uproot the cloves. Poke them back in. Diseases include white rot, rust, onion fly and rust.

Varieties
Solent White, Thermidrome, Printanor. Cristo (good for spring planting). Try the Garlic Farm.

Cooking
As a basic principal, the finer you chop the garlic, the stronger the taste. There are several tricks for unpeeling the cloves. Firstly, you can quickly get off the skin by bashing the whole clove with the flat of a knife then peeling the skin off. Also, to make a paste of the garlic clove, sprinkle some salt on the chopping board (this grips the garlic), bash the garlic clove with the flat of a knife blade then hold the knife at 45 degrees to smooth it to a paste.

Whole cloves have a different, more subtle flavour. Slowly cooking garlic also softens the aggressive flavour and brings out the sugars. Try roasting a whole head of garlic by chopping off the top of a whole bulb of garlic to expose the cloves, drizzling with olive oil, then wraping in tin foil and popping in a low oven for around forty minutes or until soft. 'Bagna cauda' - an italian recipe for poaching garlic - makes for an excellent starter. With 'new', fresh garlic you have a more subtle taste. Try roasting the whole bulbs, then squeezing them out onto toast.

Did You Know?
The Egyptians gave a daily clove of garlic to the slaves who built the pyramids.
Garlic has been cultivated in Britain for around 500 years.
Botanically, the cloves are a form of leaf.

© City Leaf Ltd