I mentioned in my post yesterday on cover cropping that I am preparing a 14′x5′ bed for garlic this fall. I can not wait to get the garlic in the ground! (That is after I get over my excitement of improving the soil by cover cropping.) In my Southern California garden I grew garlic twice and it was the greatest thing harvesting it myself and feeding my family with it along with giving some away. And how good it tasted too! Friends raved about the unbelievable flavor it had.The flavor of homegrown garlic can not even be compared to store bought. (As for anything else we grow ourselves, right?) After I grew some myself I never looked at store bought garlic the same again. I always look at it in the store and think do I have to buy this substandard poor excuse for garlic. But not next summer, next summer we will be digging up our own homegrown garlic again! And lots of it too as I ordered 2 pounds worth to be shipped out by the end of September. We are big garlic eaters in this house so hopefully this will produce enough to last us the year.
It has been several years since I have grown my own garlic and when we put in the new vegetable garden I knew I had to plant some again. It is not at all hard to grow. Rarely is it bugged by pests, in fact it actually deters them from roses and such. The trickiest part for me was trying to know when to harvest them. And even that is not too hard. I think if you can grow onions then you can grow garlic.
When I grew garlic several years ago I ordered the stock from a place in Washington that sells certified organic garlic. I could never have dreamed that there are so many types of garlic to grow! The choices made my head swirl. Those few years ago I ordered a Silverskin subvariety called Creole Red. Words can not describe just how yummy that garlic was and beautiful too. The cloves had gorgeous purple skins and were of a nice size. And the flavor, oh my the flavor. It could knock you on your butt raw. It was actually rather spicy raw. I have been having Creole Red dreams ever since growing it back in my former garden.
I ordered three types of garlic for this fall’s plantings and of course Creole Red is one of them; a full pound of it to be exact. I also ordered a half a pound of Nootka Rose which is a Siverskin along with Chesnok Red which is a Purple Stripe. I can’t wait to compare the taste of all three.
In case anyone is interested I ordered from Filaree Farms. This is my third time ordering from them and I have had excellent service every time. Their site and catalog is also chockfull of useful information pertaining to garlic so I would highly recommend checking it out. Please note that I am not affiliated with them in any way. I just simply think they are an excellent source for garlic. And if you too want to plant some garlic this fall, I suggest you order soon as supplies are already getting low. Lots of garlic lovers out there I guess!
Ahh, I think you’ve inspired me to grow garlic this winter in my front bed. Anything to deter pests…
yummm
Nancy- Glad to be inspiring! One year I tucked in some cloves around various plants, roses being one of them, and they all grow great. Plus I was able to harvest those tucked away cloves that summer when they formed beautiful bulbs. It was a total win win situation!