Hannah loves a good crop of home-grown garlic, and from March to June is the ideal time to put some cloves in. The crop will be ready to harvest in summer. Subscribe 🔔 ab.co/GA-subscribe
Prepare a site in full sun, ideally with some wind protection. Hannah aerates her soil with an aerating tool but you can use a garden fork, too. The key is to ensure the soil is well drained as garlic will rot in wet soil. Clay soils especially will need building up with lots of organic matter and gypsum.
Hannah tops her bed with a fresh load of compost but no fertiliser - too much nitrogen will encourage leaf growth rather than root growth, and cause sappy growth that attracts aphids and other pests.
There are lots of varieties of garlic, some suited to cold climates, others suited to warmer areas, and flavour variants too.
Buy cloves from a certified, local grower - don’t plant cloves bought from the supermarket as many are chemically treated so may not even shoot, and if they do they may not be suited to your soil and climate.
Choose cloves that are big, healthy, and firm. Hannah soaks her cloves overnight in a diluted seaweed solution to encourage fast root growth, as well as adding some beneficial nutrients.
Plant cloves in rows about 20-25cm apart, with cloves spaced about 10cm or a hand’s width apart. them with the flat bottom down, making a hole with your finger down to the second knuckle - the growing tip should be just below the surface.
Because garlic can take up to 6 months to grow, Hannah doubles her harvest in the valuable garden space by intercropping with some fast-growing lettuce. These will also help to keep down weeds, which garlic hates, but it’s important you don’t intercrop with plants that will compete for nutrients or water (such as other alliums).
Featured plant:
Garlic ‘Tasmanian Purple’ (Allium sativum cv.)
Filmed on Muwinina Country in Hobart, Tas
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13 мар 2023
