If you’re growing your own garlic, remember they need a short, sharp shot of cold first
Mealtimes wouldn’t be the same without the pungent taste of garlic and there’s still time to get bulbs in the ground for a harvest in late summer.
Garlic is one of those flavours that we associate with Mediterranean food, so it seems odd to be planting it at the chilliest time of the year, but the bulbs actually need a period of exposure to the cold in order to trigger growth and the general rule is that they should be planted between October and February.
When choosing which garlic to grow, it is best to avoid supermarket bulbs and instead head for your local garden centre, nursery or seed merchant who will be able to offer you varieties that have been screened for diseases and are suitable for growing in this country.
Choose a sunny spot and make sure that the soil is well-drained. Dig in some compost or well-rotted manure and add a dressing of general-purpose fertiliser.
Break the bulbs apart and plant the individual cloves, setting them so that their tips are 2.5cm beneath the surface of the soil and 15cm apart.
Birds may try to pull up the cloves so to stop this from happening cover them with a layer of horticultural fleece and only remove this once the leaves have appeared.
Once in the ground garlic is very good at taking care of itself. It seldom needs watering, except during very dry spells, and as long as the ground around the leaves is kept free of leaves, the garlic should be fine until harvest time. You can tell when the bulbs are ready to dig up by the foliage. This will start to turn yellow in late summer at which point you can harvest the crop, storing the bulbs somewhere dry.
And while you are adding compost and manure to the soil for garlic, also spread some around perennial vegetables such as asparagus, artichokes and Jerusalem artichokes. These stalwarts will continue performing for years but it is worth looking after them if you want to get a good crop of tasty veg and you should remember to weed around them and water during dry spells.