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How to: Planting Your Hardneck Garlic Bulbs in the Fall

How to: Planting Your Hardneck Garlic Bulbs in the Fall

 

By the time November rolls around here in the North, our gardens have been cleared out, neatened up and prepped for a long winter rest. Something else you can do in preparation (or longing) for spring is to plant hardneck garlic bulbs before the ground freezes over. Hardneck garlic requires a "sleep" period of sorts after setting it's roots in order to be able to produce in the spring. 

 

Fresh harvested hardneck garlic for fall planting.

Plant your garlic in fertile soil by putting a few inches of compost or an organic granular fertilizer to the beds. Make sure your area has been fully tilled before mapping out your garlic rows. They'll need to be 2 feet apart.

Tilled backyard garden for hardneck garlic planting.

Cut the necks off your garlic bulbs before breaking the outer skin to reveal the cloves inside.

Trimming hardneck garlic for planting.
Separating hardneck garlic cloves for planting.
Single hardneck garlic clove for planting.
Group of hardneck garlic cloves to be planted.
Gardener holding a hardneck garlic clove.

Dig down 4-6 inches deep for each row.

Home gardener with hoe preparing for garlic planting.

Place your cloves flat end down, pointed tip up. The cloves should be planted 6 inches apart and at least 2 inches of soil above the clove.

Home gardener planting garlic cloves.
Garlic cloves planted in backyard garden rows.

Cover loosely with the soil you dug out to create the row.

Gardener covering garlic cloves with soil.

Cover with some sort of mulch, like straw, grass clippings or chopped up leaves to prevent weeds, as garlic does not like competing with other growth.

Gardener covering garlic raised bed with hay.

Ta-da! You're done! It really is that simple, and you'll be able to harvest your garlic as soon as late July.

Garlic in garden bed covered in mulch and hay.

Get your Garlic HERE!

17 comments on How to: Planting Your Hardneck Garlic Bulbs in the Fall

  • Buck James
    Buck JamesJanuary 25, 2022

    Great blog
    I’ve grown at least 40+ cloves annually, my wife and I consume it all for 40 yrs .

    I’ve got my son growing it in Vermont and my nice is trying in Wisconsin .
    Great blog it was just as if I was right there helping!

  • Leelaine Picker
    Leelaine PickerSeptember 23, 2020

    Thanks. My new maine gardening experiment: growing garlic.

  • Ellen Chamberlsin
    Ellen ChamberlsinJanuary 25, 2022

    Love garlic!!

  • Julie V. Thostenson
    Julie V. ThostensonJanuary 25, 2022

    Thanks, Folks! Great pics for new gardeners and timely for Northern gardens. Suggest you think about adding something about timing for planting in different zones. Here is Virginia: late October, early November, but probably even two weeks later this year.

    My garlic gets a LOT of compost—heavy feeder and the mulch gets pulled back as the bulbs start to mature to provide more ventilation and prevent excess moisture. Garlic “Pigtails” sometimes show up as garnish on dinner plates if I’m trying to pull off a fancy dinner like meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans.

    Thanks for your good work, everybody, from a long-time customer!

  • Joseph Boris
    Joseph BorisJanuary 25, 2022

    Excellently done. I am looking for variuos types of garlic. Thansk.

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