How To Plant Garlic
Kids love to help plant garlic and that’s because they love garlic fingers !
If you don’t have kids, borrow some. It’s about community and passing on skills.
How to :
Separate the bulb into cloves. Keep the paper on the clove and distribute one clove to each child. If you have more kids than cloves, let the other children dig the holes for planting. Get a stick to act as a divot maker. These kids can dig small holes in a straight line about twice the depth of the size of the clove.
The more space between holes, the larger your cloves can grow. If you have a smaller garden bed, stagger the plantings in each row so they are not side by side Have the remaining kids line up to carefully place one clove in one hole, with the pointy part up.
Plant All Garlic First, Then Cover
I recommend not filling in the holes with dirt, until all the cloves have been placed in their holes to be sure you have one in each hole and that they are placed the right way up.
When the cloves have been checked, fill in the holes with loose soil, and cover the bed with leaves, or straw. See tip below for protecting from chicken threat.
One last chore is to mark the planted area to be sure everyone knows the area is planted and to keep kids from playing or digging in that garden bed.
This can be done in the early spring with soft necked garlic (which does not store a well as hard neck garlic ) to be harvested late fall. Hard neck garlic is usually planted late fall to be harvested mid summer. Both work to give you beautiful bulbs.
Garlic does not do well with repeated freezing and thawing so be sure to keep those beds covered up during the winter months.
I do not plant my hard neck garlic here in zone 6b (southwest Nova Scotia ) until late October /early November . It is still too warm in early fall and your garlic will start to sprout .
Growing Tips
Garlic likes to grow in full sun. It is a heavy feeder, which means it requires a lot of organic material and compost to keep it growing happily.
Be sure to plant garlic in an area that is free of weeds and in an area with good drainage so the bulbs don’t rot.
I cover my straw mulch with pine boughs so my chickens don’t accidentally on purpose dig up my cloves. This does add some beautiful nutrients to the soil as well.
Garlic Fingers
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Use homemade or store bought dough and fit into a pan.
Mix 2 cloves of minced garlic with ½ cup of butter. Brush liberally onto dough.
Top with mozzarella cheese, and bacon bits if desired.
Bake for 15 minutes or until crust is browned. Enjoy!
Storing Garlic
After curing garlic in the barn for a few months after harvesting, I bring it in and clean and trim for storage or braiding .
This is when I sort my garlic for seed as well. I keep out the biggest nicest bulbs to replant again in the fall.
With the rest, I just use scissors to trim off the stem and the root strings and peel off the fried first layer of paper. I compost all this discard.
I set aside anything less than stellar to use right away or to make garlic powder. Find those instructions here Here