Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Great garlic starts in the fall
When it comes to vegetable gardening, tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini tend to top the list of favorites for backyard home-growers. All three are delicious, fun to grow, and provide a host of culinary options. But while I love all of these (and more, of course), garlic is the food crop I most enjoy growing. This isn’t just because garlic is incredibly tasty and an essential ingredient in so many dishes. It’s also surprisingly and gratifyingly easy.
Nothing bothers garlic—not woodchucks, not deer, not slugs, not beetles. (Seriously, would you chow down on something that is so intensely pungent?) This means that you can grow garlic anywhere: inside a fenced garden or in a container on a deck or patio. Garlic tops are so beautiful, you could even grow the plants in a flower bed. Just remember that you’ll need to dig them up at July harvest time.
The other lovely thing about garlic is that you plant it in the fall, when the heavy gardening season is long past, when maybe you’re already pining for the growing season to roll around again. I recently stumbled upon easy-to-remember advice for the best time to plant: any time between Halloween and Thanksgiving. The main factor is that the soil needs to be workable, not frozen. In our area, that can even extend into December.
To grow garlic, plant individual cloves (not whole bulbs) with the stubby end down and the pointy tip up. Place them in good soil about three to four inches deep, four to six inches apart, allowing about a foot between rows. The roots will emerge from the stubby end, so you might as well start them going in the right direction.
After the ground has frozen, mulch the bed with about six inches of straw. Mulch will help keep the ground frozen during the occasional winter warm spell, which is easier on bulbs than going through repeated freeze-thaw cycles. In the spring, you’ll be rewarded with beautiful garlic greens sprouting up when the rest of the garden is still barren.
There are two basic types of garlic: stiffneck and softneck. The hardneck varieties are recommended for areas like ours with cold winters, but if you hope to braid your garlic, experiment with some softneck varieties as well.
Just a moment ago I claimed that nothing bothers garlic; that’s not completely true. It’s correct when it comes to animal/insect pests, but one thing that will harm garlic is too much water. Given the higherthan-normal precipitation we’ve been experiencing in the Delaware Valley, I would recommend planting garlic in raised beds and adding sand and compost to whatever soil you use for planting. It’s especially important at harvest time to stop watering.
For all its pungent aroma and taste, and its reputation as having antibacterial and antiviral properties, garlic is remarkably tender in the kitchen. Too high heat will quickly scorch it. Sauté it slowly at a lower temperature. This will bring out the delicious flavor instead of burning it.
Pam Baxter is an avid organic vegetable gardener who lives in Kimberton. Direct e-mail to pamelacbaxter@gmail.com, or send mail to P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442. Share your gardening stories on Facebook at “Chester County Roots.” And check out Pam’s book for children and families: Big Life Lessons from Nature’s Little Secrets. Available at amazon.com.