Garlic is related to the onion, leek and chives. You can tell this by how this vegetable grows; underground with long leaves above ground. You can grow garlic yourself quite easily in your garden. We show you step by step how to do it.
1. Garlic seeds
You don’t need special seeds for garlic; you can just plant a number of garlic cloves. So all you need to start is to buy a bulb of garlic. Choose garlic that is fresh and of high quality with large cloves. Do not use garlic that has gone soft. Each toe will grow into a garlic plant, so keep that in mind.
2. Garlic soil
Garlic is best planted in heavier, fertile clay soil. Preferably use soil that has been used as a vegetable garden before.
3. Planting garlic
Stick the cloves into the soil. Point the ends upwards and plant them about 20 cm apart. If you plant the garlic in the spring, then you only need to insert the bulbs 2 to 3 inches into the ground. If you choose to plant in the fall, do not plant them deeper than a maximum of five centimeters. This way they get enough moisture.
4. Harvesting garlic
You can harvest the garlic as soon as the leaves on the plant start to turn yellow. Do not wait too long! Remove the bulb from the ground along with the foliage. You can then leave the garlic to dry. Do you prefer to eat fresh garlic right away? Then harvest it when the leaves are still green.
Tip: Use a few cloves from your new garlic harvest to make this soup with celeriac. Delicious for lunch with a piece of fresh bread!
Garlic harvest
The earliest you can harvest garlic is from the end of June. When two-thirds of the plant’s foliage turns yellow, it is ready to be grubbed up with foliage and all. Do so carefully so as not to damage the bulbs. Let the crop dry in the wind but make sure it does not get wet. Then braid the bulbs with the foliage into a strand or cut off the foliage and store the bulbs separately. After about two weeks of drying, the bulbs are ready to use in dishes.
Good to know
- For garlic you should also use crop rotation: do not plant the cloves in the same place every year; there should be about six years between them.
- It is better not to plant cloves from bulbs sold in supermarkets, as these are often treated to prevent sprouting. The organic supermarket or greengrocer’s is the place to go.
- Garlic planted near roses keeps aphids away.
- Make sure they have room, because after planting the narrow leaf forms, which stops growing as soon as it gets quite cold. In spring it grows leaves again.
When to plant garlic?
The best time to plant garlic is from September to mid-November or after the first night frost. Around this time, you probably have some space in your containers. Many vegetables have already been harvested and there is not much left to sow and plant.