Here are some photos of my 2007 garlic. Both this year (2007 for harvest 2008) and last year (2006 for harvest 2007) I purchased my seed stock from http://www.TheGarlicStore.com.

• See the stock I purchased Fall 2007 for Harvest 2008.
• Return to the Herbs Page.

Planted October 22, 2006 - by the end of March, all the garlic had sprouted and most were several inches high. Note: I had mulched with bark chips in the fall - no matter how much I try and clean them up, I keep finding more. I think this bed will never be rid of them. For the ones planted Fall 2007, I used shredded junk mail and shredded newspapers instead. When watered well for a few days, it turns into a light paper mache - and holds together even with 50 MPH gusting winds.

A month later, in April 2007, they actually look like garlic plants. The "soil" in this bed is about 75% sand and 25% store bought compost and dirt. I've given the Fall 2007 planting a better raised bed; the ones planted straight in the ground, however, are probably running about 60% sand. Each year the beds get better and better as more and more organic material go into them.

Getting closer to harvest. Notice the little "flower" buds? They really hold tiny "bulbils". You can actually plant them, but they take a while to mature. To promote good bulb formation in the parent plant, however, you should cut them off. These were cut off and stir fried in butter. Very spicy.

2007 Harvest Time! Bulbs still covered in sand, but I had to take a picture, anyway. They will cure for several weeks before we start eating them. They smell heavenly! My whole kitchen smelled like garlic for the first several days when I first brought them in.

Cured. Roots trimmed. A lovely Soft Neck garlic. I will make sure that I tag the variety when I pull them next year. I was well into the harvest when I started doing that, so I only know some of them. Still, they were all SOOOOO much more pungent and tasty than the ones from the store.

Until I grew my own, I never knew that there were so many varieties! Hot ones, mild ones, purple ones, tan ones, white ones. The Hard Neck varieties seem to do the best here - probably because they are generally more cold tolerant - but all varieties of garlic did fine. The garlic and the various basils and rosemary went into an absolutely wonderful fresh pasta sauce that my daughter cooked.

2007 will go down in the history books as the year that I discovered garlic... ok, well, it will go down in my garden journal that way, anyway. (I love my camera!)

Six quarts of speghetti sauce, 10 quarts of home made soup (plus a pot to eat fresh), 4 pork roasts, and at least 10 loaves of garlic bread later, the 2007 Harvest is reduced to less than 4 bulbs. Obviously, I didn't plant enough as 4 bulbs will certainly NOT carry us through the winter. So, for the 2008 Harvest, I planted a little over 100 cloves! Thank goodness my daughter likes to cook - other than a few loaves of garlic bread, I cooked none of the above! (But, of course, I ate or will eat much of it!)