Over Winter Garlic and Onions Planted

Now is the ideal time to plant over winter garlic. This was the first year I grew garlic in the garden and it was one of the easiest crops to grow. Split the bulbs into individual cloves and plant each clove about 3cm deep. Once the cloves have established they require very little maintenance other than to keep weeds under control. Below are the remains of my summer garlic crop.

A pack of 3 bulbs cost me €3 and when split into individual cloves should deliver 3 dozen large garlic bulbs next summer. I picked a strong flavoured french garlic variety, 'Cristo'. I cleaned out and dug over the raised bed where I grew my tomatoes and peppers in the summer. The cloves were planted about 10cm apart and 3cm deep. Planting garlic in October or November should result in larger bulbs next summer. Hopefully I will be able to harvest earlier to allow me to get a second crop into the raised bed next summer to maximise yield from the garden.

When in the garden centre I also picked up pack of over winter onions, variety 'Troy'. For under €2 I got 50 onion sets in the pack. I planted the sets in the same bed as the garlic, about 12cm apart and 3cm deep. With just under €5 investment I am expecting to have 3 dozen garlic bulbs next summer that once dried should last for months, and 50 large onions some of which I intend to harvest young as spring onions.