How to grow garlic: easy step-by-step guide

09.08.2023 - 14:51 / growingfamily.co.uk / Catherine

Would you like to find out how to grow garlic?  It’s such an easy crop to grow!

Growing garlic doesn’t take up much space, it’s not very fussy, and there are lots of different varieties available for you to experiment with.  It’s also a good crop to involve children with too, because it’s easy and fun to plant.

If you’re thinking “This all sounds great – so how do I grow garlic?”, you’re in the right place!

This post covers everything you need to know about garlic growing. I’ve included advice on when, where and how to plant garlic bulbs, plus tips on caring for your garlic plants, harvesting your homegrown garlic, and how to grow garlic in pots.

Garlic (or allium sativum, to use it’s Latin name) is grown from a bulb. Each bulb is made up of a number of garlic cloves. You’ll be very familiar with garlic bulbs; they look the same as the garlic you buy in the supermarket.

To grow garlic, you break the bulb up and plant each clove in the ground. Each clove will grow into a new bulb of garlic – so just one bulb can produce a sizeable garlic harvest.

You can plant *garlic in autumn or spring. If you plant in autumn, your crop will be ready the following summer.

Apparently autumn-planted varieties tend to be more successful and produce larger bulbs.  I’ve always planted my garlic in autumn, mainly because it’s one less crop to get started in the madness of early spring planting!

Does garlic need full sun? Ideally, yes. Growing garlic in a sunny location gives you the best chance of harvesting lots of large, tasty bulbs.

Garlic growing in partial shade will still produce bulbs, but these are likely to be smaller. The flavour shouldn’t be affected though.

Garlic growing is best suited to a loose soil which has good drainage. It doesn’t