| Allotment Crops - Garlic |
Garlic needs a long growing season and so needs to be planted in Autumn, before Christmas, for a crop the following Summer.
It is Winter hardy and so will survive the weather once its established and has roots down.
In fact it will benefit from cold weather later on, as this will encourage the growing bulbs to split into garlic cloves.
Opinions vary as to the best time. One old saying goes:
"Plant on the shortest day, harvest on the longest day."
But it can go into the ground earlier in Autumn.
This year I decided to get mine in early, in September, to help it get established before the Winter weather.
You can buy garlic from seed /plant suppliers - and this may deliver the best results.
This year I saved a little money and bought two nice looking fat garlic bulbs from a local greengrocer. One thing I checked was that this was a British grown variety. European bulbs,often from Spain or Italy, may not do so well in our weather conditions.
I split the bulbs into individual garlic cloves. I then planted these in rows, about nine inches apart and with the tip of each clove about two inches under the ground.
I covered these with a net cloche, mainly to protect them from birds pulling them up.
This is not absolutely necessary if you don't have cloches.
If you don't have an allotment, or have limited space, garlic can be grown in pots in the garden.
In fact you could do this in addition to your allotment crop, as you will have a supply outside the back door in easy reach of the kitchen.
