Growing Garlic in Melbourne

Garlic is a must have kitchen staple for us. We use it in everything, stir fries, roasts and even bread making. If you love and use garlic as much as us, why not try growing your own?

In Melbourne, growing garlic is pretty easy! Garlic is usually planted around March-June and takes around 6 months until it’s ready to harvest. A few days ago, I got around to planting out my garlic patch and thought I’d share with you some of my garlic-growing notes for those of you who want to give it a go.

BUYING GARLIC to plant

You can either buy garlic from a nursery which is great because you’ll know exactly what variety you’re buying or you can try your luck with organic Australian grown garlic from the supermarket.

If you’re buying from a nursery/garden store, be sure to read the descriptions to see which one is best for you. Supermarkets condition you to believe that there are only one or two types of garlic but in reality there are so many varieties of garlic. Some varieties are ready earlier in the season, others are later season varieties. Some are milder in flavour, some have a hotter, sharper flavour. Some store for a shorter time frame, others can be stored for 7-9 months. If you’re not sure what variety you like best, a good idea is to plant a few different varieties!

This year, I’m trying four different varieties - Porcelain, Lokalen, Dunganski & Purple Turban.

PREPARING YOUR GARLIC GARDEN BED

Garlic loves a well drained, loose soil so that it can push through the soil to form its bulbs. Ensure the soil is full of nutritious organic matter. Also, make sure your garlic patch is in a nice sunny area and free from weeds - garlic doesn’t like any competition!

Alternatively, if you’re starting your garden bed from scratch, then you can do a simple layering of soils like what I did below:

• Build a 30cm tall garden bed: I used the Birdies Heritage Range raised garden bed kits to create a big rectangle bed.

• Start off by adding a layer of thick cardboard - make sure to rip off any sticky tape or stickers etc. This will prevent weeds from pushing through. Cardboard will eventually break down and add carbon matter to the soil

• Then, layer compost, cow manure & mulch until you reach the top of the garden bed.

PLANTING GARLIC:

First, separate your garlic bulb into individual cloves, then sort them according to size. Plant only the medium/large sized cloves as bigger cloves grow bigger garlic bulbs. Set the smaller ones aside for eating.

Before planting garlic, a good idea is to soak it with liquid seaweed 24 hours. This helps the cloves germinate quickly. Of course, if you’re a lazy gardener like me, you can also just plant as is and then give them a drink of liquid seaweed whilst watering.

Plant garlic bulbs around 15 cms apart. I find it easier to line up my garlic cloves in a grid like fashion before planting so that I can see how it all fits. Once you’re happy with your garlic formation, simply push the cloves around 2cm into the soil and cover up. Make sure your garlic is planted upright with the pointy end on top!

Water after planting. Once the garlic has sprouted, I like to mulch around it to help stop weeds from growing.

WHEN TO HARVEST GARLIC:

When buying garlic varieties, be sure to take note of planting/harvesting info as different varieties of garlic take different amounts of time to be ready.

However, generally speaking, garlic is ready to harvest around November - December, though some late varieties are planted later and ready in January. Garlic is ready to harvest when the outer leaves begin to dry up and flop, leaving only around 4-5 leaves left. When this happens, carefully dig them up.

Don’t wait until all of the leaves have died, as there’s a chance the garlic will have started to rot.

HARVESTING / CURING / STORING

Gently shake the soil off and hang in a dry, ventilated place away from direct sunlight. You can plait the garlic stalks if you like! After 1-2 months, the bulbs should start to harden and the outside skin should start to dry up and feel like paper. Store in a dry, ventilated place - garlic can store many months depending on the variety so you plant enough garlic to use all year around!