Garlic

Origin & history

Garlic comes from Central Asia and is among the oldest cultivated plants of all — it was already a staple for the pyramid workers in ancient Egypt. In Central Europe it has been a fixture of monastery gardens since the Middle Ages. Flowering garlic barely sets viable seed in our climate, which is why it is propagated exclusively from cloves.

Varieties

There are hardneck and softneck types. Hardneck produces a stiff flower stalk, is markedly hardier and more aromatic but stores less well — usually the right choice for German gardens. Softneck keeps longer and is the type sold in plaits. Supermarket garlic makes poor planting stock: it often comes from warmer climates and may have been treated to suppress sprouting.

Care

After autumn planting garlic needs almost nothing — it sits through the winter and starts into growth in spring. What matters is a weed-free bed that is not too wet; waterlogging over winter rots the cloves. On hardneck varieties cut out the emerging flower stalk in June so the plant puts its energy into the bulb rather than the flower.

What can go wrong

The commonest mistake is planting too late: without the winter cold garlic forms a single round bulb instead of separate cloves. White rot can persist in the soil for years — so do not bring garlic or onions back to the same bed for at least four years. Yellow leaf tips in spring are usually harmless and grow out.

Harvest, storage & kitchen

Harvest once about a third of the foliage has yellowed — leave it too long and the skin splits and the bulb stores badly. Then cure it somewhere airy and dry for two or three weeks before trimming the foliage. Stored cool, dry and dark, well-cured garlic keeps into spring; save the best bulbs as planting stock for the autumn.

Frequently asked questions

When and how deep do you plant garlic?

From late September to early November, around 5 cm deep with the pointed end upwards, 15 cm apart in the row and 25 cm between rows. Plant the plump outer cloves of a bulb; the small inner ones only ever make small bulbs and are better off in the kitchen.

Can garlic still be harvested once it flowers?

Yes, flowering garlic stays fully usable — the bulb simply ends up smaller, and the cloves sit around a hard central stem that you discard when peeling. Those bulbs keep less well than unflowered ones, so use them up first.

Can you eat the garlic flower stalk?

Yes, the young stalk — the scape — is a delicacy while it is still soft and bendy: cut it into pieces and fry it briefly like green beans. It tastes milder than the cloves, and snapping the stalks out in June produces it anyway.

Does garlic survive the winter outdoors?

Yes, garlic is fully hardy and stands outside from autumn right through to summer. On bare, windy sites a thin layer of leaves or straw is worth it: it evens out the freeze-thaw cycles that would otherwise lift young cloves out of the soil.