growing garlic Archives - Mother 2 Mother Blog

Types of Garlic for Home Gardens

Today, I’m sharing gardening tips on the types of garlic for home gardens. Fall is the perfect time for planting garlic in my home gardens. I have planted garlic in the spring, but I didn’t get the big bulbs that I had hoped for. So, planting garlic cloves in the fall for harvest the following summer works best for me. When I take this step, I harvest huge, flavorful garlic bulbs.

When I first started gardening I was amazed at the different types of garlic available. I was used to the garlic in the grocery store. However, I had no idea what type of garlic I was purchasing. It came in a pack of 4, and that was good enough for me.

I was visiting a farmer’s market one Saturday, and picked up a few cloves of garlic. I used the garlic in a dish shortly thereafter, and it was than that I realized the flavor was unmatched. It was hot and spicy, just the way I liked my food. I visited the market again to have a chat with the vendor, and we ended up in an hour discussion about planting and growing garlic.

At that point I decided to start growing my own and I haven’t looked back. I love checking out the catalogues and websites, and deciding what I want to plant each season. If you want to grow garlic, there’s few things to consider before purchasing. For example, do you like mild or spicy garlic? Do you plan to store the garlic through the winter? Do you want large cloves etc.? Making selections for home gardens can be confusing. So, here’s a few tips.

Types of Garlic for Home Gardens:

Subspecies of Garlic:

Hardneck – Most of the garlic that I plant is hardneck. The neck is the stalk that grows from the clove of garlic. Hard neck garlic produces a scape or flower stalk. It is recommended that the scape be removed in the summer to avoid robbing the cloves of energy. If the scrapes rob the cloves of energy, the plant will produce smaller bulbs. Some gardeners remove the scrapes to make garlic pesto, add the scrapes to a salad or use it in stir fry.

Hardneck garlic grows best in colder zones. I live in Zone 6B, so hard neck garlic is perfect for me.
Easier to peel
More flavorful
Cloves are larger

Soft Neck – Next, I do plant a few varieties of soft neck garlic, but not many.

Local grocery stores usually carry the soft neck variety.
Grows best in warmer climates.
Perfect for storing over the winter.
Usually lasts 9 – 12 months after harvest.
Great for braiding too. Unfortunately, the cloves are not uniform. Some are large and some are small if that matters.
Softneck garlic is not as flavorful or spicy as the hardneck varieties.

Elephant – Last, I have never planted Elephant garlic in my home garden. But, if you like mild varieties elephant garlic should be at the top of your list.

Elephant garlic cloves are huge compared to the hard neck and soft neck varieties.
Doesn’t have the health benefits of regular garlic or the flavor.
Elephant garlic is more in the family of leeks and onions.
Rather than having several cloves, it is one bulb like an onion.
If you love roasted garlic, elephant garlic is perfect.

There are approximately 100 varieties of garlic under the subspecies of hard and soft neck varieties. Since I like spicy garlic, I purchase from the hard neck categories. My favorite garlic is Spanish Rojo. However other spicy varieties include: Tibetan, Korean Mountain, Shantung Purple, and Chet’s Italian Red.

If you like mild, but flavorful garlic try these varieties: Transylvanian, Early Italian, or Texas Rose.

Check out the different varieties of garlic that you can grow. There are just too many to name here. Most importantly, you want to purchase garlic that suits your individual taste and your growing zone. Before you leave, check out my article on 13 Ways to Use Garlic for Health and Food Uses and Planting and Harvesting Garlic.

Planting and Harvesting Garlic

September 15, 2018 by Rhonda Gales

Are you wondering how to plant garlic in your backyard garden. Planting garlic in your backyard vegetable garden will give you a reward for sauce, salsa and more. Today, I’m sharing gardening tips on how to plant garlic in your backyard garden. You see I planted garlic last year and had no success. So, I decided to try again in the fall. Look at the nice healthy garlic plants that I harvested from my backyard kitchen garden below.

I planted onions in this space last year and they did great. So, I decided to amend the soil with my homemade organic compost. My compost is leaves and kitchen scraps. The garlic cloves loved it.

Harvesting garlic was at the top of my list this week. The size of the bulbs were glorious! However, harvesting garlic requires muscle. The roots at the end of a garlic bulb run deep. As a result, you can’t pull the bulbs out as you would an onion. Since this was my first year planting and harvesting garlic, I didn’t realize how much muscle would be required.

To avoid damaging the bulbs, you must remove the dirt until the entire bulb until it is exposed. Once the bulb is exposed, it is easier to get to the bottom of the bulb. First, I used my garden shovel and my hands to remove the dirt around the bulb. Please wear a good pair of gardening gloves to protect your hands and nails. You will be digging!

Next, I place the shovel under the bulb and worked it until the garlic bulb became loose and I was able to pull it out. Nice way to get an upper body work-out, trust me. I recommend lifting weights during the winter so you can be prepared for this job in the summer!

It’s amazing what can happen in 2 – 3 weeks in the garden. Take a look at the picture directly above. I harvested the bulb on the bottom 3 weeks before I harvested the other plants. You can see how much smaller it is than the other cloves, but it cured beautifully. It is actually ready to use.

Some people braid their harvest, but I’m just going to store mine in a garlic bag in a corner on the counter since it’s a small batch. It won’t take me long to use it when I make tomato sauce.

The newly harvested bulbs will cure for 3 – 4 weeks. Once they turn white and achieve a covering like paper on the garlic bulb, I’ll shake off the dirt. I cut off the roots and stem with gardening shears and they’re ready to go. Some gardeners leave their harvest in the garden to cure. But, I brought mine in the house and allowed them to cure in the kitchen. Stay tuned for a post on what it looks like after it has cured. Do you plant garlic? How do you allow your plants to cure?

You may also like What You Should Know Before Growing Garlic.