Growing Garlic

Allium sativum : Amaryllidaceae / the onion family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N Dec
  P P                  

(Best months for growing Garlic in USA - Zone 8a regions)

  • P = Plant cloves
  • Easy to grow. Plant cloves. Best planted at soil temperatures between 50°F and 95°F. (Show °C/cm)
  • Space plants: 4 - 5 inches apart
  • Harvest in 17-25 weeks.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Beets, Carrots, Cucumbers, Dill, Tomatoes, Parsnips
  • Avoid growing close to: Asparagus, Beans, Brassicas, Peas, Potatoes
  • Mature cured garlic
  • Almost ready to harvest
  • Garlic cloves
  • Mature cured garlic
  • Young garlic shoots

Garlic is traditionally planted in cold weather and harvested in summer ("plant on the shortest day, harvest on the longest"). Plant the cloves (separated from the bulb), point upwards, deep enough to just cover with soil. A fairly tough and easy-growing plant but in better soil with regular watering you will get a better crop. On poorer soil, and forgetting to water them, you will still get some garlic, only not quite so much, maybe just a single large bulb.

Leave a garlic to go to seed, and you will probably get plenty of self-sown plants the following year.

To keep for later use, dig up and leave to dry out for a day or so after the green shoots die down. To use immediately, pull up a head when you need it, or cut and use the green shoots.

Culinary hints - cooking and eating Garlic

Cut the growing shoots or use the entire young garlic plants as 'garlic greens' in stir-fry.

Your comments and tips

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We have put in about a 1/4 acre of Australian White garlic after successfully trialing some last year. We are growing it organically which means hand weeding and mulching with four kids in tow in the middle of winter. We plant in early May and harvest when only a few green leaves are left, the others having turned brown. We didn't fertilise and had great size cloves so we were lucky. I've heard it can be very site specific. We'd be happy to sell mail order bulbs come Dec/Jan when we harvest. If anyone knows of an effective dab-on organic herbicide please let us know, or if you have detailed info on how meticulous the weeding has to be, as the sites I've read say garlic does not compete well with weeds. The mulching really helped with the weeds last year and we found we didn't need to water as the mulch kept the moisture in (we have a nice wet block which also helps).

- Kylie

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This planting guide is a general reference intended for home gardeners. We recommend that you take into account your local conditions in making planting decisions. Gardenate is not a farming or commercial advisory service. For specific advice, please contact your local plant suppliers, gardening groups, or agricultural department. The information on this site is presented in good faith, but we take no responsibility as to the accuracy of the information provided.
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