It is that time of year again where we harvest garlic! I’ve spent the last few weeks minding the weeds around the garlic, and watching the garlic leaves die back.

Here’s what I said in the fall when we planted the garlic:

Harvest 2016

  • In 2015/2016 we planted: 36 German White cloves, 36 Romanian Red cloves = 72 heads total

I have to say 72 will probably be the max we will plant so we still have room to plant tomatoes. Also there’s the matter of drying 72 garlic plants! Twelve heads will be set aside in the summer for planting again, which means we can use at least one head of garlic a week for a year and have a few leftovers.

I will confirm that 72 heads of garlic is definitely the max I can grow without having to invest in another drying rack. The previous year we harvested 48 heads, but passed a few onto friends for eating and growing and just about finished eating what we had left over just before the harvest.

Garlic Harvest 2016

 

What I am thinking for next year:

Rotation

After attending a presentation by Doug Oster (local gardening guru and my go-to for Pittsburgh gardening), I was scared straight into needing to rotate the garlic in the garden. (In short, you can make the dirt very sick and the garlic gets sick and no more garlic EVER.)

I know, I know plant rotation is a big deal, but given the site constraints from our garden I’m going to need to get creative with plot layout! I would like to continue growing garlic, and in order to do so I need to give it’s current spot a break.

Planting

This year I went wildly overboard with garlic instead of increasing the harvest in small amounts (40, 48….72!) With forty-eight heads we had just barely enough to give away, and still have enough to use without feeling like we were hoarding our garlic. For now, I’m thinking sixty (60) might be a good compromise. The garlic dried amazingly well last year and I was pleasantly surprised to be using great garlic up until almost late May when a few started to sprout. (House gets pretty humid even in the basement come June.)

https://i0.wp.com/www.thesugarpixie.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/20160713_091651.jpg?fit=525%2C700&ssl=1https://i0.wp.com/www.thesugarpixie.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/20160713_091651.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1thesugarpixieGardeninggarden 2016,garlic harvestIt is that time of year again where we harvest garlic! I've spent the last few weeks minding the weeds around the garlic, and watching the garlic leaves die back. Here's what I said in the fall when we planted the garlic: Harvest 2016 In 2015/2016 we planted: 36 German White...Misadventures and fun in the kitchen and beyond