How to Grow Garlic

You can’t beat the flavour and freshness of homegrown garlic and it’s an excellent pantry staple. As a bonus, Australia has a great climate for growing garlic from bulbs and you can easily plant enough to keep you well-stocked for most of the year. In fact, just a single clove of garlic planted will grow into a beautiful full bulb by the end of the season.

In this guide, we’ll help you maximise your crop and teach you everything from how to plant garlic to when to harvest garlic and more.

Garlic Classification

Group

Garlic.

Family

Amaryllidaceae.

Garlic Varieties

Vampires look away now because there are eleven garlic varieties available. Three of these (silverskin, artichoke, and Middle Eastern) are classified under softneck garlic and hardneck varieties are divided into eight groups, which are:

• Porcelain
• Rocambole
• Purple stripe
• Glazed purple stripe
• Marble purple stripe
• Asiatic
• Turban
• Creole

When to Plant Garlic

Before you decide when to plant garlic, you need to know when to buy it, and our advice is to get your hands on garlic bulbs as early as they are available as stocks are limited.

Mr Fothergill’s stocks seed garlic from February to June, earlier than the main summer-ready bulbs. For planting your garlic, aim for March to early April in most of Australia, while colder climates may plant later in autumn and winter.

Should You Plant Supermarket Garlic?

Garlic from the supermarket isn’t the best choice for starting a new garden crop, primarily because it can come from all kinds of regions or countries with different growing conditions to Australia’s. This can lead to low-quality crops and potentially introduce diseases into your garden.

In comparison, true seed garlic (which is actually a bulb!) is grown on controlled production farms. These farms take great care when planting and storing their garlic, which ensures you aren’t introducing new diseases into the garden.

Of course, the best place to buy seed garlic is here at Mr Fothergill’s. As well as guaranteeing the highest quality, we also offer our growing guarantee where we guarantee to replace your bulbs for free if you aren’t fully satisfied (subject to growing conditions).

Soil Preparation

Garlic is best grown in full sun and fairly rich, friable weed-free soil with a pH between 6 and 7. A top tip is to work in plenty of aged cow manure and garden compost to improve your garden bed before planting. The added organic matter will improve drainage and replenish the soil.

Work the compost throughout the soil with a garden fork, breaking up any big clumps as you go. You want the soil to be broken up to a depth of at least 20cm to give the garlic plenty of soil depth to thrive.

How to Plant Garlic

Before you go ahead and plant your garlic, gently break apart the bulb into individual cloves. Plant each clove 5cm deep and 10cm apart in rows, with the pointed end to the sky. This is where the new stem will grow.

After all your cloves are planted, apply a layer of mulch in between the rows to suppress some of the weeds. You can also add a light layer of mulch like sugarcane on top of the rows if it’s thin enough for the growing cloves to push through.

Growing Garlic

If your soil has a bit of natural moisture, you shouldn’t need to start watering your garlic until after the crop has started to sprout, which can take a few weeks. Super sandy dry soils will benefit from a bit of additional watering, but don’t add too much as you don’t want the dormant cloves to rot.

Keep the soil moisture steady throughout the full growing season of the garlic but never waterlogged. A way to check soil moisture is to dig down past the mulch to the level where the cloves are. If the soil feels cool and damp to the touch, leave the watering for another day.

Top dress your garlic regularly with an organic fertiliser such as poultry pellets. This might need to be done every couple of months, depending on how much manure and compost you worked into the soil at planting time.

Weeds can easily overrun garlic crops soil, so remove them regularly. This will improve airflow to the bulbs and should make harvesting a breeze, which brings us to the next step.

Harvesting

Garlic will take time to be ready for harvest, anywhere from five to eight months, depending on your growing conditions and planting times. If you’re considering when to harvest garlic, it’s crucial to wait until the crop is ready unless you want to pick the garlic as young green garlic, which will have a short shelf life.

To check the progress of your garlic, gently dig into the soil around the base of the plant to see if the bulb has begun forming. If there’s not much growth, don’t panic! The plant just needs more time to mature.

Once the bulbs have begun to swell and you notice the leaves start yellowing, the crop is almost ready. When this starts to happen, delay watering so you can help your garlic dry down. After a couple of weeks, the garlic leaves should have yellowed a little more and the bulbs should be nice and plump.

To harvest your garlic, grab a garden fork and gently loosen the soil around your rows and be careful not to puncture any bulbs. If the soil isn’t loose enough, you may find the stems rip off the bulbs, which can make the curing process a little more difficult.

Once you have gently removed all of your garlic, hang it up in a dry airy spot to cure.

Plant Care & Tips

Curing Your Garlic Crop

Gently brush off the large chunks of soil from your garlic and don’t worry about peeling off any of the outer skin because you want it to dry. You can either braid the stems of your garlic in a chain to cure or tie them into bunches of ten or so bulbs with twine.

Hang them up in a dry airy spot, out of the weather with plenty of airflow between each bundle. After a couple of weeks, the stem should be completely yellow and crispy dry, then you can work on cleaning up the bulbs.

Cleaning Cured Garlic

To clean your garlic bulbs, use sharp secateurs to trim the stem off the garlic, leaving a couple of centimetres of dry stem still attached. You can then brush off the dry outermost layer of skin on the bulb and the dirt should come off with it.

Use the secateurs or scissors to trim the roots off the bulb and your garlic is ready for the pantry!

Garlic Storage

Keep your garlic in a dark dry spot in your pantry in a breathable bag. Whole bulbs should last like this for around three to five months. Any broken bulbs may not last as long, so use those first.

For long-term storage consider freezing some of your garlic cloves.

Buy Garlic Bulbs at Mr Fothergill’s

Seed garlic bulbs are available for purchase between February and June each year. You can find them in our collection of spring flowering bulbs. If you have any further questions about how to grow garlic or about any of our products, don’t hesitate to contact us or take a deeper dive into our garden advice blog!