Planting Garlic In Your Fall Garden

Fall has descended here in the Pacific Northwest. The air has a chill, quite noticeable in the mornings, and the deciduous trees are turning tremendous shades of orange, yellow and red.

Fall happens to be my favorite of the four seasons we experience here. The heat of summer is behind us and my mind starts dreaming about what the next gardening season will hold. What new seeds will I start? How glorious will my harvests be?

But wait! There is one last thing I need to do before I can close the garden down for the winter and start making plans for next year. 

Garlic. 

Even if you are not quite ready to take the plunge into a full fall garden, you can still feel like a super hero and plant some crops that will come to fruition the following summer. 

What is fall garlic?

Around the end of September and into October and November, nurseries, co-ops and garden centers start carrying “seed garlic”. Basically, these are certified disease free garlic for you to plant in your garden. They look just like garlic bulbs that you buy at the grocery store.

They are super easy to plant, even if you have a total brown thumb. If you’ve never had fresh garden garlic, you are seriously missing out and should seriously consider giving it a go.

So, find a nice spot in your garden, in your front yard, a raised bed, a pot, or where ever, and try your hand at some fall garlic-or shallots! You wont be sorry!

Soft neck or Hard neck ?                Wait, garlic have necks?!

Ok, so you’ve decided to humor me and plant yourself some fall garlic, I can be persuasive like that. You went to the garden center and, gasp, there is more than one type of garlic! What should you do?

A. Run away

B. Buy all the garlic and hope for the best

C. Curl up in a ball and cry until someone who knows what they are doing comes to help

Answer: I’ve done all of the above.

Well, I haven’t actually cried in a garden center before, but there have been times I felt like it. Sometimes this stuff can be overwhelming! And that is why I am here to help you, so YOU don’t have to be the weirdo crying in the corner next to the potting soil.

Arm yourself with knowledge.

Softneck

Softneck garlic is what you would find in a grocery store. It’s pretty easy to grow, thrives in mild climate, is not too spicy and stores for a long time. Pretty awesome, right? When you break open the bulb, you will see up to several rings of little cloves. This is the kind of garlic that you see beautifully braided at the farmers market.

Hardneck

Hardneck garlic gets its name because early in the summer it will bolt and send up a scape. Don’t be scared, scapes are your friend. If you eat your friends, that is. You should definitely harvest this scape to eat because it is delicious, but also because if you don’t, the scape will flower, taking the energy from the bulb.

Harvest the scape, turn it into pesto, problem solved.

Hardneck garlic takes longer to reach harvest and can not be braided, but you get to eat garlic scapes, yum! I also prefer hardneck garlic because when you break open this bulb, there will usually be one ring of very large garlic cloves and they tend to be more garlicy than the softneck varieties. They don’t store as long either, but they are so delicious you will probably just eat them up anyways. They are hardier and fare better in cold winters, so this may be a good option for those in colder regions. Or those who like spicy garlic. Or those who freak out if they have to unwrap 100 tiny little garlic cloves-me!

How to plant garlic

Step one: acquire your certified disease free seed garlic.

Step two: Prepare your garden bed. Or, be responsible and prepare your bed BEFORE you go out and buy your garlic. Don’t be like me.

Step three: Peel the outer paper skin off the bulb of garlic, and then break the individual cloves off. Make sure to leave the skin on the cloves of garlic. 

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Step four: Plant your garlic cloves pointy end up, root side down, about 4-6 inches apart. You want to give them plenty of space on all sides so that they can grow to their fullest potential. Don’t give in to temptation to crowd them close together. Not that I’ve ever done that before…

Step five: Cover with soil and then a loose mulch like straw or leaves. Because it is fall, after all, and leaves are free.

Shallots

These same steps apply to shallots as well, except you don’t have to break anything off, you just pop them right in. Even easier!

Prepare, plant, cover, mulch. The end.

I know that I am reaching you now at the end of October, but it’s not too late! I’ve planted garlic well into November before with great success.

Hit up your local garden center, farmers market or co-op and start planting!

Happy fall gardening.