Garlic is one of those things you either love or hate. Very
few people have ambivalent
feelings about it. In my cooking, garlic goes with almost
everything, and I’m looking for
a good garlic dessert recipe.

The onion (Allium) family includes onions, garlic and leeks.
Regular garlic (Allium
sativum) is the garlic most often found in home gardens,
in several cultivars.

Elephant garlic is a different species (Allium
ampeloprasum) and has a milder
flavor than regular garlic. It’s so mild it can even be eaten
raw.

Besides garlic’s culinary and medicinal uses, it will add
color to your landscape with
its dark green foliage.

Plant Garlic in
Fall

Garlic has long been planted as a companion plant to ward
off pests from some vegetable
and herb plants. However, very little research has been done to
substantiate the effects
of this practice.

The best time to plant garlic in Georgia is the fall —
October through November. In
south Georgia, the planting season extends from October to
January.

If your family really likes garlic, you’ll need 4 to 5 feet
of row per family member.
If you’re planning for roasted garlic, you may need more.

It’s a good idea to practice rotation when planting garlic.
Don’t plant it where onions
or a member of the onion family has been grown before.

Start Preparing the
Soil

Plant garlic in full sun in a well-drained bed with organic
matter worked into it.
(Work organic matter into your garden soil now for fall
planting.)

Garlic likes well-drained soil, and adding organic matter
will help even the hardest
clay become more friable (easily crumbled). And, since garlic
requires six to eight months
to mature, plant it in an area where it won’t be disturbed.

Start with a complete fertilizer broadcast over the bed at
planting. A slow-release
fertilizer will provide continuous feed during the fall.
Fertilize it again in February,
mainly with nitrogen. Base all fertilizer on soil test
results.

When selecting garlic to plant, you can order bulbs or buy
them from the grocery. Just
make sure the bulbs are firm, without any sign of disease or
insect damage.

How to Plant

Plant garlic by dividing the cloves. Garlic bulbs have
several cloves when mature.

Cloves from the outside, which are larger, will produce the
largest bulbs.

Bulbs can be taken up each year, divided and cloves
replanted. Plant each clove as a
set (a small bulb or section, like an onion set), 4 to 6 inches
apart. Plant elephant
garlic at least 12 inches apart.

Push cloves about 1 inch deep into well-prepared soil. Make
sure you have the correct
end of the clove pointing up (the top is the more pointed
end).

Fall plantings usually mature late May or early June. If you
plant late, the harvest
will be later. To produce larger cloves, remove flower stalks
when they come out.

Harvest garlic when leaves begin to turn yellow and fall
over. Take up the plants and
lay them in a warm, shady, dry area for several days.

Most varieties will keep for six to eight months in a
well-ventilated, dry area.
However, elephant garlic doesn’t keep or store as well as other
varieties.