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As the gardening season winds down, your garden beds might be looking a bit empty, but under the surface, it is already time to plan for next year! In this Q&A guide, we are diving into everything you need to know about planting garlic. We will also cover a few fall-planted flower bulbs that will be among the very first to pop up and brighten your yard come spring.
Cold weather actually helps roots develop and triggers the natural growth cycle that many bulbs need. Bulbs planted in autumn will be the first to sprout in spring, giving them the longest possible growing season before the days start getting shorter after late June.
If you really need to, it is possible. You will want to plant as early as possible in spring, as soon as your garden soil can be worked. However, expect a later, smaller harvest and bulbs might not divide into many cloves. Garlic also loves a bit of a cold snap over the winter (nothing crazy like extreme arctic freezes!), because the chill activates key chemical and biological changes inside the bulbs.
A great garlic harvest starts with choosing quality cloves. Pick plump, firm, healthy heads from a local source. Separate your cloves right before planting so they do not dry out, and make sure to leave their protective paper skin intact.
Orientation: Plant your cloves with the pointed end facing up.
Depth: Set them about 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) deep.
Spacing: Leave 6 inches (15 cm) between each clove.
Row Distance: Space your rows 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 cm) apart.
To guarantee a fantastic yield, always pick large, healthy, undamaged cloves after separating them. Cover your garlic lightly with soil so it stays cozy and protected. If you like, you can apply a layer of mulch (we will dive deeper into that in a moment).
Where is the best place to put your garlic? Garlic loves a well-drained spot with plenty of full sun. Pick an area that will not stay soggy in the spring to keep your cloves from rotting.
Keep crop rotation in mind too: avoid planting garlic where you have grown any members of the allium family (garlic, onions, leeks, or shallots) in the last 3 to 4 years.
At Tourne-Sol, we love planting garlic in a field where we grew a green manure cover crop of buckwheat during the summer. We then nourish the soil with fresh cow manure in August or September.
We work the manure into the soil and prep the beds in late September so we are ready to plant in October. We used to wait until late October, but we often ended up working on our hands and knees in cold, muddy conditions. Switching to an earlier start and using a mechanical transplanter when the ground is dry was a total game-changer for us! Mind you, we plant 25,000 bulbs. At home, planting by hand is perfect.
Start by figuring out how much garlic you eat. Do you use one bulb a week, or two? For example, at one bulb per week, you will need 50 garlic bulbs for the year. If the heads you buy have five cloves each, that means buying 10 bulbs to separate into your 50 planting cloves. If you want to save your own seed garlic for next year, add about 12 extra cloves so you have enough to replant on top of what you cook with.
It depends on where you buy it! If you get your garlic from a local farm stand or farmers' market, ecologically grown local garlic will sprout and grow nicely. However, buying garlic specifically sold for planting is always your best bet, as it guarantees your stock is free of diseases or pests like nematodes.
Supermarket garlic (often imported from far away) is a different story. It is usually a softneck variety that is not well suited for cold winters. On top of that, some commercial bulbs are treated or irradiated to prevent sprouting during shipping and storage. Those simply will not grow.
It all comes down to when the ground freezes and the snow starts sticking in your region. I have actually finished planting garlic in my community garden during the first snowfall, breaking through a thin crust of frozen soil with my trowel to get the cloves in just in the nick of time! It was definitely a bit chilly on the fingers, though. Ideally, aim for early to mid-October depending on your local climate.
With unpredictable autumn weather, your garlic might get a warm spell after planting and start sprouting shoots above ground. Is that a problem? Not at all! Even if green shoots poke up in the fall, the plants will survive the winter just fine and bounce back even stronger in the spring.
Usually, there is no need to water unless you are experiencing an unusually dry fall. Nature typically takes care of watering your garden plot throughout autumn long before the cloves run any risk of drying out.
Now for a topic that can spark a friendly debate among gardeners: should you mulch your garlic bed? It really depends on who you ask!
Going Without Mulch:
The soil warms up faster in spring, giving garlic a head start and leading to an earlier harvest.
For large-scale growers, this helps stagger the harvest timing.
Unmulched beds make manual or mechanical weeding easier when tackling persistent perennial weeds.
Adding Mulch (Straw or Fallen Leaves):
Protects garlic throughout the winter and boosts survival rates in tricky weather.
Suppresses weeds so fewer seeds germinate and grow.
Retains moisture around the bulbs, reducing the need for summer watering and boosting yields.
Protects the soil from heavy rains and compaction, making garlic vastly easier to harvest with a garden fork compared to bare soil.
Along with garlic, fall is the ideal time to tuck spring-flowering bulbs like tulips, hyacinths, crocuses, and daffodils into the ground. Planting in autumn gives them time to establish roots, ride out the winter, and pop up among the earliest blooms to brighten your yard.
Some varieties, like crocuses and daffodils, come back reliably year after year, while others (like certain hybrid tulips) tend to fade after a season or two. Try planting a mix of early-blooming and late-blooming varieties to stretch out your flower power from the moment the snow melts, while offering a vital nectar source for early pollinators!
Don't wait too long! Even if you only plant a dozen garlic cloves or a few crocus bulbs this fall, it is such a rewarding way to kick off next spring with fresh flavor and bright color in your garden.
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Happy gardening!
Frédéric
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