

I am in the middle of planting my garlic now. I planted two types last weekend. Today I planted some heirloom top sets (photo bottom left) of a variety called "Old Homestead". Also several large heads of cloves that I saved from the Farmer's Market.
There seem to be different ideas on when to plant garlic. The photo above (left) is from my nearby community garden and the garlic is very well sprouted. They must have planted it mid-summer!
I spoke with a farmer at the Farmer's Market recently who said people tend to plant too early. He things it grows better planted late, when the days are cold. The old rule of thumb is to plant your garlic on the shortest day of the year (Dec 21). In my area, you likely can't get a shovel in the ground on that day.
I noticed some volunteer garlic sprouts coming up in my garden this week. Must be some I missed harvesting this summer. They are in the two photos on the right. They probably sprouted a couple weeks ago.
I don't have much experience growing garlic yet. Its only my second year. My cloves were small but
very flavorful this year. I have been trying to read what I can find about growing garlic.
Here's a nice article from a Cornell site. Of course, a great garlic resource is Patrick's posts at
Bifurcated Carrots (by the way, he has more garlic posts than carrot posts).
garlic (Allium sativum)