This is exciting. The folks at Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply (PVF) have asked Gardenerd to participate in their Garlic Planting Party this week, and you reap the benefits. One lucky Gardenerd reader will win a Garlic Party Prize Package (details below) to enhance your garlic growing experience this fall.
But first, a little about the subject at hand. Here in Southern California, we typically grow softneck varieties, though I know someone who grows hardnecks because he didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to grow them here. Seems to work for him. Anywho… we plant in October, it grows through winter, and is harvested sometime in May through June.
Early California Garlic is great for storing and braiding.
Garlic is one of the easiest crops to grow, with relatively few pests or diseases. We have rust fungus in our soil, so we rotate garlic to a new location each year to keep it at bay. PVF has a great instructional video on how to plant garlic, so check that out to get started.
In the south, California Early White is a popular variety to grow. It is a Silverskin variety, which tends to keep longer, and produces between 12-16 cloves per bulb. Long-storage softnecks are best for garlic braiding, so California Early is a good choice if you plan to braid your harvest.
Our year supply of garlic grown in 7 square feet (using Square Foot Gardening plant spacing).
When it comes to harvesting, we wait until only 5 or 6 leaves are still green, we stop watering and wait a few days for the soil to dry out before pulling the bulbs. We cure the harvest for several weeks on newspaper out of direct sunlight and then it’s ready for braiding.
Check out our Garlic Braiding Video learn how to store your harvest in style.
Now – on to the Garlic Party.
This is a chance to learn more about growing, harvesting and cooking with garlic and shallots from bloggers all over the country. Each blogger will be giving away a different variety. Here are my cohorts and their respective giveaways:
Susy Morris at Chiot’s Run (Garlic combo)
Gen Schmidt at North Coast Gardening (Russian Red)
Jodi Torpey at Western Gardeners (Purple Italian)
Theresa Loe at Living Homegrown (German Red)
Chris McLaughlin at A Suburban Farmer (Purple Glazer)
Charlotte Germane & Cindy McNatt at Dirt Du Jour (Shallots)
Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply at PVF (Bogatyr)
If you want to win that variety of garlic or shallots, leave a comment on the respective blog. You have until midnight PT, Wednesday, October 17th to post. Winners will be chosen at random and here is what you’ll win:
Garlic Planting Party Prize
- 1 pound of organic seed garlic (each blog will have a different variety)
- 1 quart of our Liquid Kelp (for soaking the cloves overnight before planting)
- 10 gallon Smart Pot (to plant some in a container)
- 1 Garlic Twist (clever kitchen gadget that minces the cloves when you twist it; easy to use and clean)
- 1 5×7 photo print of the garlic variety
More about Garlic
Before we get to the contest question, here are some great Gardenerd blog posts about garlic that can help you this season:
The Trick to Bigger Garlic
Storing Garlic: Sprout Not My Friend
Okay – now for the question: What’s your most successful garlic experience? This includes growing, cooking or eating it. Leave your comment below (be sure to include an email address) and we’ll announce the winner next week.
Happy garlic-ing!
I’ve never grown a garlic that could be braided. Great garlic flavor, winter growth, and beauty too! What could be better?
Garlic — the first time I sauteed it … amazing!
This year was the best — perfect June, sans torrential downpours let us keep the garlic in the ground a few weeks longer (and bigger), then slow roasting a few heads , popping them out of their skins and smearing like butter on still-warm homemade French bread…no idea what the rest of the meal was! The garlic bread was the star.
Thanks!
My most memorable garlic experience was years ago when I was a young adult. My grandfather was a gardener and the he is the one responsible for my love of gardening. He loved his tomatoes and garlic. He planted them every year all around the house at the foundation, the way some people have hedges around their house. Grandpa never planted a tomato plant without it’s companion cloves of garlic. He taught me the value of companion planting.
He got sick that year, just before time to plant. He had started his tomato seeds weeks earlier and just didn’t have the energy to plant them out. For a week, each day he put off planting his sets. Then he died, peacefully, in his sleep.
I planted his tomatoes alone that year. Just the simple act of planting his tomatoes helped me deal with his passing. Grandma said it was “the way of things”, that each must die but another life is born. But Grandma told me NOT to plant the garlic…. and one did not question Grandma.
At his funeral, Grandma carried a satchel. After the service she gave each of their closest friends and each person in the family 2 cloves of garlic. She said on was for them to plant at their house to remember him, the other was to plant at her house to remember her.
At Grandma’s house, after the funeral, the entire family shared a single trowel…from the toddlers to Grandpa and Grandma’s remaining brothers and sisters. We went around the house to every one of the planted tomatoes. Dressed in our finest Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes, we each planted a single clove of garlic.
I always think of grandpa when I plant tomatoes, but planting garlic reminds me of grandma, and the ties that bind a family together.
I have never had success growing garlic indoors; but outdoors there is no problem. I would like to be able to grow garlic all year long.