The lowly garlic…such grief it’s gotten over the years:
“you have such garlic breath!”
“I can’t get the smell out of my hands”
“that smell is seeping out of your pores”
Ah, but behold the benefits of garlic:
1. The compound Allicin has awesome medicinal properties (and it can combat sickness like the common cold!)
2. It has been shown to reduce blood pressure, improve cholesterol levels, contains antioxidants and can help detoxify heavy metals in your body!
3. And, most importantly, it keeps away vampires (I actually had a hard time finding studies on this though!)
So, take a head of store bought garlic and plant away!!
1. Take the heads apart and place each clove about 4″ apart in soil.
2. Grab the clove with your fingers and push down about 3″ (flat side down, pointy side up).
3. Can you see it down there? Now, just cover it with a touch of soil and you’re done!!
Now that you feel all proud and stuff, think about your garden next year (I just picked this today…Sept 25th!). If garlic is that easy, just think about what else can you do?!?!
September 26, 2014
Suzie, are you saying that we plant these now (in the fall)? Or do we wait until spring?
September 26, 2014
Yup…you plant it now (actually, if you’re patient [I’m not!], plant it in October and then mulch it [just throw some fallen leaves over the top which helps the ground to stabilize and not thaw and freeze over and over again]). You don’t have to anything to it and it will start growing next year. You can use the garlic scapes in the summer (google recipes for scapes…they’re yummy and very popular in the food world now!). When you pull them at the end of the summer, you will have a head where each clove was planted!!
May 23, 2017
Hi Suzie
Loved the picture of you and your dad transplanting garlic.
Can you please advise when to plant, when to harvest garlic in our climate. Also how do you know when it’s ready to harvest. Is it necessary to transplant?
Thank you
May 23, 2017
Hey Anna!!! How are you?? Actually, the garlic I transplanted was a mistake…I forgot to pull one of my garlic bulbs from last year and it started to sprout all together. You see, when you plant garlic – which you do in the fall – you just push a clove into the ground and it goes dormant over the winter and then it begins to grow the tender green leaves (garlicscapes) now, which you can pick and use throughout the summer but leave the bottom to create an entire bulb that you’ll pull out in the fall. Hope that helps…let me know if you have more questions!!