Gently pushing fat garlic cloves into the soft autumn earth marks the passing of one growing season and a wave of optimism for the next. It is such a joy that I have to persuade myself planting the entire allotment with cloves is not a sensible option.
Garlic will grow on any soil other than the perpetually dank and wet, but it's a mistake not to understand how hungry it is. It does best on rich, well-drained soil. Aim for 18-25cm between cloves, depending on their size and the quality of the soil. Anything closer leads to poor air circulation, which brings on leek rust, which causes yellow to orange spots on the leaves, reduces bulb size and can even kill the plant. If you have had leek rust on any of your alliums, don't replant in the same spot for three years.
Before planting, add a layer of homemade compost or well-rotted horse manure mixed with leaf mould. If your soil is heavy, planting on a ridge will help to draw water away from the cloves. If you do not have compost to hand, rake in organic fertiliser such as wormcasts or concentrated granular food.
Don't damage the flat base plate of the clove, as this is where the young roots appear. Use a dibber or trowel to nudge the soil apart and push the cloves in 5cm deep. If the tips are visible, birds will play toss-the-garlic just as the young roots appear. Pea sticks or netting loosely placed over your patch will deter them.
Plant garlic now, and again at the end of January, making up for any losses a wet winter may bring. There are numerous options, but you can't go wrong with the soft-neck varieties 'Cristo' or 'Solent Wight' (the latter planted in January). 'Early Wight', another soft-neck garlic, can be harvested as early as May, when your supplies from the previous season start to dry up. As for hard-necks (meaning they are likely to flower, so you can harvest the edible garlic scapes – the unopened flower buds), I use 'Music', which has tasty, fat cloves.
Garlic bulbs are not cheap, but are guaranteed disease- and virus-free. You can replant the fattest cloves of your own garlic, provided it was disease-free, but replenish your crop with clean material every two or three years. You can also plant supermarket garlic: it's a gamble as they tend to stock varieties suited to warmer climates, but I've had great success in the past.
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