10 simple steps to grow great garlic!

Garlic is one of the best home garden crops you could grow, because apart from tasting great, it’s also easy to grow if you get the basics right.

I'm certainly no expert and I've had some failures along the way just like any other gardener, but this is what works well for me and hopefully it works for you too.

1. Use good quality garlic cloves. Garlic bought from supermarkets is often chemically treated to stop them from shooting out. Not what you want if you want to grow it in your garden. Use garlic that’s been bought from a garden centre or use some that you grew last season. The SA grown "Good Aussie Garlic" is the best of the best!
2. Position, position, position, a nice sunny spot in full sun is ideal.
3. Well drained soil makes it easier. No one likes to be cold and wet and your garlic plants are the same. Soggy soil = potential for garlic to rot over winter.
4. Soil preparation makes a difference, you get back what you put in. Compost, manure, organic matter, it’s all good especially if you want your garlic to grow.
5. Wait for shoots before you plant. It’s not 100% essential but it will speed things up.
6. Plant it deep, be brave! I’d never had much success harvesting good sized garlic until our garlic grower gave me this tip. The deeper you plant your garlic the wider the garlic you harvest will be (within reason). 5cm deep = 5cm across at harvest. That’s the theory and so far I’ve found it’s worked for me.
7. Look after them and keep them safe. Garlic likes to be watered and it likes to be fed, you'll get rewarded if you do. Also, garlic don’t get many pests but it’s not uncommon to get infestations of black aphids on the foliage during the growing season. Treat them with an organic spray like eco-oil to solve the problem. And keep the weeds away by mulching around them.
8. Be patient, garlic takes time to grow. It might not always seem like it’s doing any growing above the ground but your garlic is slowly fattening up underground.
9. Harvesting. the plant will tell you when it's ready. Have a feel of the width of the bulb and harvest when the leaves have died off.
10. Storage, keep them dry- hang up high.

Let us know how you go and hopefully you have a great garlic harvest this year. Chris.