Getting Garlic in the Ground in Winter

We have Rose in Bolivar, who asks,  “I never got my garlic in before the snow hit. Is it too late to plant it now if the ground thaws some?”

No, actually, no. It would be perfect to do it. If you can’t, you could start it in a pot and then plant it in the spring. Just kind of start it in the dirt.

If you go out there and the ground is too frozen and you can’t get it done, there are some other options. Yes, but you should be able to get it in now.

I’ve really only ever grown it a few times. There’s spring garlic, there’s fall garlic that you can plant. Most of it you can plant in the fall. You do want to allow it to go dormant in the spring. As the stalk gets kind of thick, you allow it to go dormant like you would a tulip or a daffodil or anything like that.

When the greenery is all brown, that’s when you can pull it up. Usually the bigger stalk is the indication that you’ve got a full clove down there. You just want to give them a couple of years to kind of establish. If you’re thinking about garlic, you better start thinking about it now.

We carry some in the spring as well, like a spring salad. I believe that’s more of an annual kind. It’s a little bit smaller of a bulb. The one I’ve always done is the fall garlic. It’s perennial. You can just pull that up and break up those cloves and plant them. Then you’ll have more.

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