Growing Garlic
Aug 17, 2022
Garlic is one of the most rewarding crops to grow.
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Plant a clove in fertile soil in the fall, tuck it in under a thick layer of mulch, and go inside and sip your tea.
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The next spring it bursts through the soil with a life force so strong it can push through all those layers of mulch.
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It Ā grows big and strong through the summer, using nutrients from the soil and energy from the sun to grow a bulb.
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Keep it weeded and the soil covered in mulch to give it all the space and nutrients it needs.
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You canāt see the garlic bulb, but you can tell how big itĀ is getting by the girth of the stalk.
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Then it will send up curly scapes, the unopened flower, which you can harvest and eat or let flower and create tiny garlic bulbils.
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Then, as the leaves on the plant start to die back you know that it is putting all its energy into growing the bulb and dividing it into cloves.
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When thereās just 3-5 green leaves left itās time to harvest.
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And then you can unearth the goodness that has been growing for almost a year, pulling it from the soft earth one by one.
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The garlic gets cured, which means it finishes putting all that green energy back into the bulb and dries out so that it can be sorted.
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The biggest cloves get replanted and all the rest is put away in wicker baskets or mesh bags to enjoy all winter long.
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Planting each of these big, juicy cloves in the ground is an act of patience, trust, and hope.
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