Easy Tips for Growing Garlic in Your Garden

What do you do when your garlic has popped out of the ground and those little sprouts are growing quite well.  Garlic is really quite easy to grow.

Easy tips for growing garlic in your garden

There are a few things you need to remember if you want your garden to grow perfectly.

• We like to keep our garlic weeded.  Weeding while the weeds are small is important.  If you start pulling weeds when they are grown and deep rooted you risk the chance of pulling out your garlic bulbs or possibly uprooting them just enough to disrupt growth.
• Remember one year of weeds means seven years of seeds.  While making a point to keep your garlic weeded this year will make a big difference in the years to come.
• Once your ground starts to dry out from your spring rains it is important to water your garlic.  Not too much though.  Just keep them moist allowing your soil to dry out a little between waterings.  Remember garlic is a root crop.  If you allow your garlic to get too much water or to sit in water the bulbs will start to rot.
• Since it its a root crop make sure your ground is tilled deep and loose when planting. If the soil was not tilled deep enough the garlic will not be able to grow.

I remember the first year we planted our garlic in the fall.  It was growing really well throughout the spring and the summer.

When the leaves start to turn yellow

As we approached the middle of July the leaves started to get just a little yellow and dry looking.  We were worried, had we killed our garlic.  We thought maybe we needed to water it more.

We started to do our research and found the garlic was almost at the end of its growing season.  We  learn new things all the time.  So when this happens to you don’t panic.  When it is close to the end of the growing season allow the garlic to start drying out a little and get ready to harvest.

As the growth progresses the garlic will send up stems called scapes.  These will put on a seed pod as the harvest gets closer.  The scape will tell you when it is time to harvest.time to harvest.

What can you do with the garlic scapes?

What can you do with the scape?  Have you ever heard of garlic pesto.  There are many things you can make with a scape.

The scape as it grows will have a curl to it.  This is interesting to watch as it progresses from curly to straight.  It starts out very curly.

Something important to remember is if you want to use your scape to make pesto it is best to cut it while it is young and tender.  We cut all of the scapes but 2 for each row.  This way we can use our scapes for cooking and we can use 2 of them to let us know when it is time to harvest.  

Have you ever lived by someone you didn’t like?  Just like people, plants have other plants they would really rather not live next to.  Garlic is no different.  Garlic likes to live with onions, chamomile, dill, savory and parsley.

It is also good to plant garlic with beets, sweet peppers, spinach, lettuce and parsnips. Garlic is also helpful to repel insects in strawberries and peaches.

As you can see growing garlic can be very interesting.  There are so many healthy benefits when using garlic.

Garlic, a great addition to your garden!

I hope you enjoyed my post.  Feel free to share it with others.  Let us know how you’re garlic grew.  Leave us a comment below.