In most areas, garlic is planted in the Fall for Spring harvesting. Of course you have to get the variety that works best for your climate. There are hardneck and softneck varieties.
For us, we get softneck. Growing garlic is much easier than you think. You just get your bed ready, poke holes, drop the cloves in, cover it all up, mulch it and then just water occasionally (usually our Winter weather provides enough regular rainwater). Water in the Spring if no rain and by late May or June, you have garlic ready for drying. A few years ago, after a couple of earlier not so great attempts, we finally found a variety, the LORZ Italian, that worked great for us.
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| Garlic drying in the barn |
We ended up with a LOT of garlic drying in the barn.
The thing is, you have to order now (and in the next few weeks) for delivery in the Fall. By the time we post about planting it in the Fall, it's too late for readers to order so we figured we'd be proactive and let you know now and remind you that if you want to plant garlic, in most places, now is the time to order it.
I put it off one year and by the time I tried to order, they were already out. Last year with the pandemic I just plain forgot about it and sure enough, sold out! So this year, 2nd Man has been reminding me to order it and I waited for it to show up and I ordered some.
Here is where we ordered ours from:
We do not get anything from them and this is not a paid endorsement, this is just us recommending a great company that had a quality product compared to what we had found elsewhere in prior years.
Here is the description from their website:
"Good at tolerating the heat of summer. Lorz Italian excels in mild winter climates but is suitable for even the furthest north growing regions. This robust, easy to peel artichoke cultivar imparts bold garlic flavor. Very large bulbs with a storage life of about 10 months."
We found that to be 100% accurate as they did well for us and we had plenty of cooking garlic for almost a year. A one pound bag gave us 36 great heads of garlic when we harvested. There probably were about 48 if we used a bigger bed and we just might try that this fall by using the larger 4x8 raised bed.
Anyway, wherever you order from, now is the time to order garlic for the Fall!
If you have more garlic that you can't use up in a period of time; garlic can be frozen.
ReplyDeleteWishing you yet another pumper crop for next year.
https://www.alphafoodie.com/how-to-freeze-garlic/
We started freezing garlic not too long ago. We never realized you could do that. It works great. This link you posted has some great ideas. I really like the one with the pureed in the food processor and put into frozen 1 tsp amounts. Cool!
DeleteThanks for the reminder and info. I just placed an order with them. Looking forward to planting garlic for the first time.
ReplyDeleteI think you'll do well with it. You know how to reach me if you have questions, ha. We'll probably get ours shipped at the same time as yours.
DeleteHave you considered saving some from your harvest to replant for the next season ?
ReplyDeleteWe have, thank you for the reminder. We considered it but last time we ate it all ha.
DeleteI ordered garlic from True Seed, a "local" seed vendor here in North Carolina about 4 years ago and never looked back. It's my favorite crop to grow and oh-so easy! I save my best heads for the next year's planting. Thanks for the heads up! You'll be saving a lot of people aggravation!
ReplyDeleteBe Blissed!