Home & Garden Information

Growing Garlic Made Easy

Garlic is a spice you love to put on your dishes. It adds that unique flavor to gravies, tomato sauces, soups, stews, pickles, salads, dressing and breads. Hence it is only logical to grow garlic in your own vegetable garden. Before starting to plant garlic in your garden, it is always best to have a background on how garlic is planted and maintained. Here, we’ll give you a quick look on how garlic is cultivated.

A loamy soil enriched with organic matter provides a suitable environment for planting garlic. If you are familiar with growing onions, then you won’t get lost in growing garlic since their cultivation are similar. Generally, three pounds of 10-10-10 fertilizer is recommended for every 100 square feet. You can also use manure or compost every year to keep the soils nutritional content in balance. Moreover, the soil should hold enough moisture to avoid getting bulbs of irregular shapes. Take note that clay soil will also produce irregular bulbs.

The time of planting is also critical to the growth of garlic. This crop grows best on long days and warm temperatures. In addition, you should also plant the cloves early to allow for the development of the leaves and the stems during short and cool days. Planting during this period ensures a good harvest at the end of the season.

In planting the garlic cloves, they should be placed three to five inches away from each other and a half to an inch deep. Make sure that they are in an upright position in the row. Remember that a decreased yield will occur when the bulbs are divided into cloves long before they are planted. This will cause the cloves to dry up and become unsuitable for planting.

Knowing when to harvest this delightful vegetable is easy. You only need to see if the top of the bulb is starting to dry. This indicates that the garlic is ready for harvesting. In harvesting, don’t pull the garlic to avoid damaging the steam. Instead dig them up and allow them to dry.

Garlic is an indispensable ingredient in the kitchen so it is necessary to include them in a vegetable garden. In planting this flavorful crop, these are basic things that you need to know. It involves, soil requirements, time of planting, spatial requirements, and method of harvesting. After getting a bird’s eye view on these considerations, you are now ready to include garlic in your home vegetable garden.