What To Do with Garlic you Planted Last Fall

July 14, 2017 - Blog, Featured, Gardeners Corner - Comments: 
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Freshly dug and ready to be cleaned and dried
Freshly dug and ready to be cleaned and dried

If you planted garlic cloves as I suggested last fall, you will be rewarded with complete garlic heads this month.

If you plant in the fall, June supplies tasty garlicscapes that should be cut off and can be used to flavor your oil for stir fry veggies or other dishes that need a light garlic flavor. Or they can be discarded, because you do not want the plant to flower in order to get the best bulbs.

When a garlic head has stopped growing, the foliage looks like this.
When a garlic head has stopped growing, the foliage looks like this.

When your garlic leaves are half to 2/3 brown, you can dig out the bulbs. Don’t try to yank them out of the ground, or the stem may break off.

If you have a garden fork, use it to loosen the surrounding soil. Be careful not to get the tines too close to the underground garlic head because damaged heads will not store well. Any damaged heads should be used first.

Remove the flowering head of the stalk several weeks before harvest.
Remove the flowering head of the stalk several weeks before harvest.

After harvest, remove as much soil as possible from your garlic heads. At this point you can examine them and put them in a shallow box, out of direct sun, to begin the drying process.

Turn them and check them every few days, then trim off the roots and leave about 1 inch of stem on for the remainder of the drying process and storage.

If you are interested in growing garlic this season, now is the time to go to the local farmers market and look for a vendor selling locally grown garlic. Purchase a few different heads with the intention of planting them in late September or October.