Where Does Garlic Grow Best? The Right Place to Plant It in Your Garden
Garlic is a must-have crop in the vegetable garden! It loves the sunshine and excels in raised beds, containers, and borders. Plant it in the right spot and it’ll reward you with gigantic heads in summer. Learn where to put your cloves for growing success alongside seasoned garlic grower Jerad Bryant.
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Most garlic successes rely on its placement. Plant it at the right spot and it resists pests, diseases, and physiological conditions. You’ll have little to do while the cloves grow except watch them thrive! Happy garlic is strong, resilient, and easy to grow.
Growing success lies in proper light, water, and soil conditions. Some gardens have the perfect combination, while others require some amending for success. No matter where you garden and how much space you have, you can grow bulging heads that taste delicious. With the right conditions, garlic grows well in containers, raised beds, or the ground.
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You can amend soils throughout the growing season, so don’t worry if you already have garlic in the ground. There are tricks we’ll use to boost the roots belowground and the leafy foliage sprouting above the soil. Water is also easily manageable—irrigation, rain coverings, and natural moisture all play a part in the health of your crop.
So, where does this crop grow best? We’ll find out where to plant garlic and how to ensure it grows well from fall to summer. Grab your cloves, shovel, and a bucket of dirt, and get ready to dig up some answers!
The Short Answer
Garlic grows best under full sun with fertile, free-draining soil and regular water during warm seasons. Whether you live in California or Tennessee, these conditions ensure cloves divide and swell into large heads. They survive in partial shade, although the bulbs and leaves will be small and sparse upon harvesting.
At the end of the growing season, garlic leaves start to yellow, brown, and die. This is a normal part of the ripening process, signifying the heads below ground are forming papery coatings. Garlic needs little to no water during this drying and ripening period. No matter the location, you’ll always want to start with disease and pest-free seed garlic from a reputable source.
The Long Answer
Still not sure where to plant your garlic? Let’s go over garlic spacing, sunlight preferences, soil necessities, and winter considerations. You’ll know exactly where to plant it by the end of this guide.
Give Cloves Space
Garlic needs space no matter what type of medium it grows in. How much space it needs depends on whether you’re planting bulbils or cloves. Bulbils are mini cloves that form off of hardneck garlic flowers, and cloves, or seed garlic, are the individual bulbs inside the underground head.
Bulbils only require half an inch of space around their perimeter. They swell into rounds that you’ll plant next year for heads the following year. Cloves or rounds, on the other hand, need two or three inches of space around themselves. They’ll bump into each other while swelling if they’re too close.
Plant cloves, rounds, and bulbils an inch or an inch and a half deep belowground. If you’re growing them in containers, use ones with a depth of eight inches or more. This ensures the heads sprout roots that are healthy, strong, and resilient to plant pathogens.
Garlic Loves Sunshine
Like onions, shallots, and chives, garlic is a full sun-loving species. It performs its best with six to eight hours of direct sunlight daily. In scorching climates from zones 9 and above, it needs some afternoon shade during the hottest hours. It prefers full sun with little shade in all other locations, especially in cool climates.
Lots of sunlight helps garlic adapt to less-than-tolerable soil conditions. Let’s say you have lots of clay in your garden but the perfect amount of light. Your crop will grow well with adequate moisture levels no matter the hard clay in the beds. It’s still a good idea to amend clay or sandy soils. However, it’s not the end of the world if that’s all you have available this year.
Partial or full shade encourages pests like onion thrips, aphids, and bulb maggots that eat your tender harvest. It also promotes diseases like rust and root rot. Keep issues away by finding a site with over six hours of daily direct sunlight. Move container crops towards more sun if they’re in the shade, and they’ll adapt quickly.
Plant Garlic in Rich, Well-Drained Soil
Garlic does best when planted in a spot where there is crumbly, humus-rich soil. This ensures that the bulbs don’t grow pockmarks or wounds. Like carrots and beets, cloves swell better in free-moving soils than in dense, clay ones. Materials like perlite, rocks, or gravel can puncture the papery coatings and harm your harvest’s health.
You can amend your soils ahead of time to ensure they’re perfect for planting. Start by mixing in an organic mulch like compost at least two inches deep. A rake and hoe are the ideal tools to use. You’ll hoe in the compost, then rake over it to make it even. For bonus points, add leaves on top to protect beneficial organisms while they inoculate the soil.
In the absence of compost use leaf mold, organic mulch, or potting soil. Compost is perfect because it’s fertile and free-draining, but you can use any material with similar qualities. If you’re using a nutrient-poor amendment, add a dose of organic fertilizer to it while you amend the soil.
Add Mulch or Compost On Top
Once the garlic is safe and sound below ground, a healthy dose of mulch or compost on top helps it stay warm during hard freezes. You can utilize leftover materials from soil amending before planting. Simply stack them on top of the ground in a layer that’s an inch or two thick.
In warm climates, mulch may not be necessary for frost protection. However, it adds nutrition, suppresses weeds, and helps drainage while it decays. The only danger here is adding too much mulch—it can block the leafy sprouts from coming up in spring. Keep the layer under two inches thick, and you’ll avoid this and other issues.
Avoid Sites That Freeze and Thaw
Heaving is when bulbs or plants that lack sufficient roots pop out of the ground after recurring freezes and thaws. As grounds freeze, the water in them expands. This expansion can push the cloves out of the warm soil and into the cold.
If you garden with recurring frosts and thawing periods from late winter through spring, you’ll want to plant garlic at the proper depth and add a thick layer of mulch on top. Fall leaves, compost, or garden debris work well to insulate the cloves and prevent them from heaving out the soil in spring. Stay away from straw, as it can cause diseases when it turns wet and mushy in spring.
Your cloves may push out of the ground regardless of the treatment they receive. If they’re still alive with roots, plop them back into the ground and cover them with mulch. They may not produce giant heads, but they’ll still give you a decent harvest come summertime.
