Garlic

It is my first time growing garlic and was not sure what to expect but as it turned out garlic is easy to grow and relatively low maintenance. As an experiment I planted some shop bought cloves at the same time as I planted cutlivated bulbs. My advice is forget about planting your left over shop bought cloves. A lot grew very weak and didn't produce much of a bulb. Those that did grow well turned out small relative to the cultivated bulbs (see image above, cultivated bulb is on the left, shop bought on the right).

I have started to harvest my garlic in the last week. At the moment I am just digging the bulbs out of the ground as I need then and giving a few to friends and neighbours. I came across a few good references on garlic harvesting including youtube video harvesting, curing and storing garlic
and Fine Gardening magazine article on grow your own garlic.

It looks like I will be lifting and drying the garlic in the next few weeks.