Onion family
Garlic
Allium sativum
Timings for your region
Suggested: Moderate · Explained in the glossary
Never sown — individual cloves go straight into the bed.
Plantingmid September – early November
Harvestearly July – early August
Practical tip
Planted in autumn it grows far larger than a spring planting — it needs the cold spell. Harvest the following summer, once a third of the leaves have yellowed.
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.
All timings are guide values for the given climate, not a guarantee. Weather, aspect and variety all have a say.