Time to Plant Garlic

Now’s the time of year to plant garlic in Texas. Even if you don’t like to eat garlic, you should still plant some in your garden.

It’s such an interesting herb. The famous scientist Louis Pasteur discovered garlic’s powerful antimicrobial properties in 1858. According to some gardeners, planting garlic next to potatoes repels the fungus that causes potato blight. I recently planted some garlic cloves amongst my fall potatoes.

Garlic’s strong odor also seems to deter or confuse insects. For that reason, garlic is often added with hot peppers to make a pest-repelling spray. Garlic seems to deter deer as well. Earlier this year, when the deer around my place got in the habit of visiting my garden for a meal, I sprayed the entire garden with garlic-pepper tea, and it seemed to keep them away, too. Or you can just plant garlic around the garden. The smell permeates the soil and even other plants growing nearby.

You can plant garlic just about any time of year ex-cept during the heat of the summer. But your garlic will have a better chance of growing large heads if you plant it right now, during early October.

You can grow it in rows or blocks. Just be sure to leave at least six inches between each plant. All garlic varieties fall within two broad categories: softneck and hardneck. If you order “seed” garlic from an online store, be sure to pick a softneck variety. Hardneck varieties grow better in northern climates and may never produce a head if grown in this part of Texas. Softneck varieties prefer the milder winters of Central Texas Most of the fresh garlic sold in grocery stores are the softneck variety. Look on the label. If it says it was grown in Mexico or Florida, it is almost definitely softneck garlic.

To plant, first break apart the heads into individual cloves. Pick large, plump cloves to plant. I save the small ones for cooking. Look at the way the cloves are attached to the root at the bottom of the head. Be sure to plant each clove in the ground oriented the same way. The pointy end should face up. Plant them about an inch deep. Some gardener recommend planting a little deeper in sandy soil. I like to add an inch or two of compost on top.

Sprouts will emerge in a few days and the garlic plants will continue to grow during the winter and spring. They require warm weather to form heads. You can harvest garlic when the bottom leaves start to turn yellow. You should harvest the plant before all of the leaves turn yellow and die. Garlic harvested too late will rot in the ground.