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iffiTimniiii* good growing
It’s Time to Plant Garlic
GET FLAVORFUL BULBS FOR JUST A LITTLE BIT OF WORK
By Erin France news@flagpole.com
For the effort and taste, you’ll find garlic
a worthwhile plant in winter. Plant garlic
bulbs in Northeast Georgia from September
through the beginning of December. Garlic
grows best in loose soil, with plenty of com
post and mulch on top to protect against
hard winter freezes.
“Plant the garlic when the
kids go to school and harvest
when they get out,” is the rule
of thumb I heard in North
Carolina, and it seems to be true
in Georgia as well. Northeast
Georgia gardeners can stretch
the garlic planting season until
December because in recent
years, freezes have come later
in the fall. Cold fronts lower the
temperature of the soil much
more slowly than the tempera
ture of the air. As I write this,
the air outside is 24 degrees, but
the soil temperature, according
to the State Botanical Garden’s
weather sensor, is 52 degrees.
Garlic germinates best in the
range of 40-50 degrees.
Homegrown garlic, like toma
toes and cucumbers, taste better
than what you can buy in the
grocery store. It’s also a bulb that
springs up surprisingly green
and tender in the coldest part of
the year. Garlic makes a garden
look less empty and forlorn.
Garlic isn’t a picky plant: You
won’t need frost cloth or special irrigation.
The plants will require a layer of mulch for
hard late-winter freezes, but that’s about it.
There are a dizzying array of garlic vari
eties to choose from, usually broken down
into softneck and hardneck types. More
experienced Athens-area farmers swear by
softneck garlic as the best for Northeast
Georgia. Inchelium Red is a popular variety.
Last year—my first growing garlic in my
own garden—I could not find a softneck
garlic in stock on four different websites.
I ended up buying the hardneck Pehoski
Purple, a lovely stripy purple garlic bred
especially to handle frigid winters. The
garlic didn’t grow super large, but they did
grow, and they tasted great. Don’t let inde
cision stop you from trying a variety you
could love. I bought a softneck variety this
year, along with last year’s Pehoski Purple,
and I’m excited to see (and taste!) the dif
ferences during harvest.
Hardneck garlics produce scapes, a
winding stem that will, eventually, lead to a
blooming flower. For the best hardneck gar
lic harvest, you’ll want to snip the scapes.
Otherwise, the plant will move its energy
into producing a flower, and then seeds,
instead of storing more energy in the bulb.
Garlic scapes are edible and taste like fresh,
green garlic. You can sub scapes in for garlic
in recipes like pesto, or fry them in oil and
add them as a topping to dishes needing an
extra pop. Softneck varieties do not pro
duce scapes.
Once you choose your garlic, you’ll need
to separate the cloves right before you plant
it. Keep as much skin on the cloves as pos
sible. The papery skin is a protective layer
that helps the bulb stay fleshy and not dry
out. You’ll want a fairly fluffy soil mixed
with some compost. If you don’t use a tiller,
you can use a shovel to cut into the dirt a
few times and break up any clod bigger than
a fist. Dig a hole 2-3 inches deep. Place one
clove per hole, with the pointy end up and
the nubbin bottom (where it was connected
to the rest of the bulb) pushed lightly into
the soil. Bigger cloves grow into bigger
bulbs in the spring, so I usually discard
the smallest clove bits. I planted my garlic
cloves 8 inches apart this year. Last year, I
used 6-inch spacing, and it was a little tight
for easy spring weeding and early summer
harvesting.
You’ll want to mulch before January. Try
to find a mulch a little lighter than bark or
wood chips. Pine needles, torn leaves or
straw are easy-to-access options. Whatever
mulch you use will get mixed into the soil
after your garlic harvest, and chunks of
wood take longer to break down than other
mulches. The wood can bind
nitrogen, depriving future plants
headed into the same area of a
needed nutrient. I used wood
chips for my garlic rows last year
and noticed a loss of fertility,
despite adding compost.
Irrigation becomes important
with garlic in the spring, when
the bulbs start sizing up. Too
much rain, and the garlic could
rot before you have a chance to
pull it up. Too little rain, and
you’ll have undersized bulbs.
Depending on variety, weather
and when you planted, your
garlic will be ready to harvest in
May or June. Harvest hardneck
varieties a few weeks after you
cut the scapes. When a majority
of the garlic leaves start droop
ing and turning brown, that’s
the time to grab your shovel and
start digging up those bulbs.
You’ll want to cure your garlic
harvest—leaving it to dry in a
sheltered spot for two or more
weeks before cooking with it.
Some folks braid the garlic leaves
together, but I worry too much
about mold and mildew infiltrating my
carefully cured produce. I cut the leaves off
and leave the garlic with a little stem on top
before storing.
Growing garlic takes work, but not much.
For a backyard garden, there aren’t many
other plants that require as little room and
pack as big a flavorful punch as garlic. ©
Cured and cut Pehoski Purple, ready to cook or store.
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NOVEMBER 30, 2022- FLAGPOLE.COM
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