Heads of garlic are cheap in stores, but there aren’t many varieties. Usually, just one. Yet, there are hundreds of varieties with subtleties in flavor. Growing it in the home garden is one way to sample different varieties. Planting has to be done now to harvest next year.
First, the legalities. Yes, you could pick up a head of garlic at the grocery store, separate the cloves and plant them, and plants would grow. But that’s illegal. Seriously. Read about it here. In Idaho, we can only plant certified, locally-grown garlic and much of it comes from Peaceful Belly Farm. Purchase garlic to plant at local nurseries. Expect to pay around $25/lb. Remember that each head of garlic is several plants. Each clove becomes a plant, and you separate those to plant each one.
Other things to know.
There are two types of garlic available for us to plant. Hardneck or softneck.
Hardneck is not known for a long storage life, but in the spring, these are the plants that shoot up scapes. The scape is a flower stalk that when picked young is delicious in sautes and salads.
Notice there is a stem that extends into the garlic bulb.
Softneck is the type we normally see in stores. The cloves are more disorganized and there’s no stem in the middle. No scapes in the spring, either, but these bulbs have a long storage life.
Here’s a video I did with the Idaho Statesman a couple of years ago about different types of garlic and how to plant the cloves.
I put my garlic in planter boxes made from old pinball machine cases. It grows well in any soil with drainage.