Garlic and shallots are some of the easiest crops to grow.
Today, I'm going to show you how to get
them going at your place.
What you're going to need are your bulbs of garlic, shallots,
or elephant garlic, some organic compost, blood and bone,
vegetable food, and some pea straw mulch.
There are three common types, and today I'll
be planting a couple of each to show the little differences
between them.
Firstly, your regular garlic, which we all know and love,
really commonly used for cooking.
Secondly, elephant garlic, and these guys
are quite a lot bigger, a bit more of a mild flavor,
and are actually a leek.
And lastly, little shallots, which are actually more
like a little onion.
First of all, what we need to do is get our bed prepped
for planting.
Add in some organic compost, pour
a bit of this over our bed.
Now, I'm just going to mix it through.
This compost is just helping us put some good nutrients back
into this bed before we plant our bulbs.
Our garlic and shallots don't actually
need much room to grow, so they're
perfect for little beds like this or even into pots.
Now our bed is nice and flat.
First of all, we're going to plant our regular garlics,
and we go narrow end up.
And these guys need to be about 15 centimetres apart.
So we're going to do two rows.
And now it really is just that simple.
Just place these cloves on the ground, get your spacing right.
And then what we want to do is push them down
about five centimeters each.
As a rule of thumb, plant them about twice as deep
as they are tall, really so they're just covered.
But you also don't want them too shallow,
or when the plants grow up, they become a little top-heavy
and might fall over.
Next, we're going to do a row of elephant garlic.
Same principle as the regular garlic, just space them out,
narrow side up.
And we push them down till they're just covered.
Lastly, our shallots, now these can actually
be a little bit closer together, about eight centimetres.
And you actually don't put them the whole way in.
You leave about 1/3 from the top.
Now, at least with these ones you
can see where you planted them.
Now, that they're all planted, we're
just going to give them a feed with some of this liquid blood
and bone.
I've pre-mixed that into my watering can.
These guys are all quite gross feeders,
and they love rich soil, so they're really
going to like this.
Be nice and generous with this.
Now the last step, just give it a good layer of pea straw
mulch over the top.
We're just going to use a nice, light pea straw mulch here.
This is really just to keep the weeds away,
because these garlic don't like competition.
And we're done.
Plant cloves in autumn and winter for a summer crop.
The shortest day of the year is a good reminder.
They'll do well in any well-drained soil
with full sun.
Give them a top up water in dry months,
but ease off close to harvest to give the bulbs more flavour.
Feed your cloves monthly while they're
growing for maximum crop, with a rich fertilizer like vegetable
food.
They are almost pest and disease free, but take a photo
and come and see us in store if you're worried about them.
Your crops should be ready in December,
but you'll know once all the foliage turns brown.
To harvest, just loosen and pull the bulbs up by the tops.
Leave the bulbs in a cool, dark place for a couple of weeks
before eating to dry and intensify the flavour.
And that's it.
Planting garlic and shallots is really that simple.
The best part is, if you save a couple of cloves,
you can plant them again next year.
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