Plant Garlic Now, Thank Yourself in July

Most of the garden is winding down by now. The tomato vines have gone black from frost, the squash is curing in the barn, and the hens lay a bit later each morning. Still, there's one more job worth doing before the ground freezes, and it might be the most satisfying one all year. October is when you plant garlic.

It feels backwards to put something in the ground just as everything else is going to sleep. Garlic needs the cold, though. A long stretch of winter is what makes each clove split into a full head. If you plant in spring you'll get small, single bulbs that taste fine but don't amount to much. Plant now and next July you'll pull up heads the size of a child's fist.

Start with good seed garlic

Don't use the garlic from the grocery store. Much of it is grown far away, and some of it is treated to stop it sprouting. Look for seed garlic grown somewhere with winters like ours. Hardneck types such as Music and Russian Red handle Ontario cold very well. They also send up curly scapes in June, and those are a treat on their own.

Break the heads apart a day or two before you plant, but leave the papery skin on each clove. Keep the biggest, plumpest cloves for planting. Big cloves grow big heads. The small ones can go in the kitchen.

Pick your spot and your timing

Here in Simcoe County, the best window usually runs from about the second week of October to early November. You want the cloves to put down roots before the ground freezes, but not send up much green. A good rule of thumb is to plant two or three weeks after the first hard frost.

Choose a sunny bed with loose soil that drains well. Garlic hates wet feet. If your ground is heavy clay, as it is in parts of the county, work in a few shovels of well-rotted manure or compost first. A raised bed works nicely too.

Planting, step by step

• Push each clove in pointed end up, about five centimetres deep.
• Space them fifteen centimetres apart, with rows about thirty centimetres apart.
• Firm the soil over them gently and water once if the ground is dry.
• Cover the bed with ten to fifteen centimetres of straw or shredded leaves.

The mulch matters more than people think. It keeps the soil temperature steady through freeze and thaw cycles, so the cloves don't get pushed up out of the ground. In spring it keeps weeds down and holds moisture. Pull it back a little once green shoots come through in April, but don't take it all away.

Then leave it be

That's really all there is to it. The bed will sit under snow all winter and you can forget about it. Sometime in early spring, often while there's still snow along the fence line, you'll see the first green spikes. It's one of the first signs that the season is turning.

In June, snap off the scapes when they curl into a loop. That sends the plant's energy back into the bulb. Don't throw them out. Chop them into scrambled eggs, blend them into pesto, or toss them on the grill with a little oil and salt.

Harvest usually comes in mid to late July, once the lower third of the leaves has turned brown. Loosen the soil with a fork rather than pulling on the stalks. Hang the garlic in bunches somewhere airy and out of the sun for three or four weeks to cure. Properly cured hardneck garlic will keep until well after Christmas.

A small act of faith

There's something we love about planting garlic. You're putting your hands in cold dirt on a grey afternoon, trusting that something good will come of it months from now. Our children help us every year, and they always remember come July which row was theirs.

If you're out our way this month, stop by the farm and say hello to the sheep. Then go home and plant a few cloves. You'll be glad you did when summer comes back around.