There’s something seriously satisfying about growing your own garlic. It’s one of the easiest crops to be self-sufficient in – it stores well, and you don’t need much space to grow it.
If you use around two bulbs a week, growing 100 or so bulbs will keep you in garlic for a year – and that only takes a little over a square metre of garden space! If you’re garlic-obsessed, imagine the return you’ll get from two- or three-square metres!
Getting Started
- One of the most important factors for success is to grow a garlic variety that performs well in your local climate.
- Garlic is highly responsive to its environment – factors like temperature, rainfall, soil type, and even day length all play a role.
- In warmer growing areas (like southern Queensland), you are limited to growing short-day varieties such as Italian Red, Glenlarge, and Southern Glen.
- The further south you go, the more options you have.
- Chat with local gardeners or farmers’ market growers to learn which types thrive in your region. They might even have planting stock to share!
- To avoid introducing diseases, buy certified disease-free garlic from a garden centre or an online supplier.
Planting
- Choose a sunny spot with well-drained soil rich in organic matter.
- Garlic hates soggy conditions! If your soil is heavy, mound it up at least 30cm to improve drainage.
- Before planting, add compost, organic fertiliser, and rock minerals for extra nutrients.
- Check the pH – if it’s below 6, add some lime.
- The best planting time is March to May, when the weather starts cooling down. Avoid planting in hot or wet conditions.
How to Plant
- Break up garlic bulbs into individual cloves.
- Toss out any soft or diseased ones.
- Pick the largest, healthiest cloves -they’ll grow the biggest bulbs.
- Mark some rows 15-20cm apart, running north-south and lay out your cloves along the rows 10-15cm apart.
- Plant the cloves twice the depth of their length – that’s about 7cm. Make sure the pointy end is up.
- Water well, then cover the soil with 5-7cm of organic Sugar Cane Mulch to hold in the moisture and keep weeds at bay.
Growing & Harvesting
- Shoots should appear within 3-10 days.
- Once they reach 5-10cm tall, start watering regularly to keep the soil moist but not soggy.
- Every 4-6 weeks, sprinkle a little more organic fertiliser around the plants.
- Every fortnight, apply liquid seaweed and fish emulsion to give plants an extra boost.
- When the lower leaves start to turn brown, the garlic is nearly ready!
Harvest Time
- Stop fertilising and reduce watering when the plants near maturity – this helps bulbs store better.
- Garlic is ready when:
- You can feel the cloves’ ridges under the soil.
- There are 4-5 green leaves left – these become the papery skins that protect the bulb.
- If you wait too long, the skins may split, making storage harder.
Curing & Storing
- Where necessary, use a garden fork to gently lift the bulbs from the soil.
- Shake off excess dirt and tie bulbs into bunches of 5-10.
- Hang them in a warm, dry, airy spot for 1-2 months until the skins feel papery and the bulbs are firm.
- Once dry, trim off the roots and tops (unless you want to plait them).
- Store in mesh bags in a cool, dark, dry place.
- Eat any damaged bulbs first and save your best ones for next year’s planting!
