You don’t need a large garden to grow garlic —you can grow it indoors, outdoors and virtually anywhere in a sunny spot. Garlic is relatively trouble-free and perfect for anybody wanting to grow fresh food at home. If you love garlic, then this is the step-by-step guide for you! Learn how to grow these delicious vegetables in your own garden.
1. Choose a pot approximately 30cm or more across, making sure it has drainage holes, (larger pots don’t dry out so quickly and are easier to look after).
2. Place a piece of broken pot or large stone across the drainage hole to prevent soil falling out but not in such a way that the hole is blocked as water needs to be able to drain out freely.
3. Fill your pot with multipurpose compost leaving a gap of 3-4 cm below the rim.
4. Break your garlic bulb into separate cloves and discard any diseased or damaged ones.
5. Plant 6 cloves to a 30cm pot with the pointy end up and the baseplate at the bottom. Each clove should be planted at twice its own depth. The bigger the pot the more cloves you can fit in. Try to keep them about 8-10cm apart and not touching the sides of the pot.
6. Water lightly and place your pot in a sunny position. Make sure it won’t get heavily sodden by rain run-off from a roof.
7. Keep your pot free of weeds and lightly damp. Once growth gets underway in spring give them a weekly feed with a general purpose organic liquid feed. You can stop feeding a couple of weeks before harvesting.
It may be worth covering the pot with some mesh to prevent birds or squirrels digging up the cloves.
