What savory recipe isn’t improved by garlic? Okay, so there are a couple, but the point still stands! Garlic is great as both ingredient and seasoning, and there are a ton of reasons for you to keep some on hand in your kitchen. Better yet, you could grow garlic at home. That day, you’d have it on hand for anything and you’d save money.
Sure, growing garlic at home requires spending some money at first, to get all the necessary supplies together. But once you’re all set and have it planted, the cost of buying garlic at the store quickly becomes bigger than the cost of planting it yourself. So check out our quick and simple guide to growing garlic at home!
If you’re growing the garlic outside, you’ll want to plant the garlic in fall, about four to six weeks before the ground freezes. Inside, of course, you can plant whenever you wish, as long as you’ve got the sun!
Make preparations.
Get some good potting soil, and loosen the soil you’ll be planting in. If you’re growing the garlic indoors, put the soil into a suitable pot.
You can also invest in fertilizer.
If you’re growing the garlic outdoors, it’s especially important to get some fertilizer, but either way this organic mix will be useful for growing a good crop!
You’ll want to get the right-sized pot.
These pots are perfect for planting indoors or outdoors, and they come in a pack a 5-pack for only $10!
Prepare the garlic too.
Break up a head of garlic into individual cloves, leaving the papery covering intact as much as possible (these are your seeds).
Plant your cloves 3-4 inches deep in the soil, orienting them to that the pointy ends face up. If you’re planting indoors, you can plant roughly three cloves per pot.
Need planting tools?
Here’s a whole set: pruning shears, trowels, soil scoops, weeders, cultivators, and more. It’s got everything you need to plant garlic, indoors or out!
Sit the pot(s) on a sunny window ledge and water them lightly. You’ll get results soon! In just seven to ten days, you’ll be seeing greens growing in.
Water them gently once you’ve planted them, and cover the bed with 5″ of straw—this will keep the soil warm enough for the cloves to establish roots even once the air gets cold.
Throughout the next spring and summer, keep the garlic bed watered and weed it regularly! Soon, it’ll be ready for harvesting.