Garlic

[OliveOil]

Now its august i think i read its time to plant garlic.

Any tips? Any fave varieties?  I like big bulbs with strong flavour for roasting whole and crushing cloves.

[OliveOil]

[Curryandchips]

It is not essential to plant garlic in August, anytime up to about end October will be ok. I will be planting mine in September, along with some elephant garlic, which is mild tasting but nice in roasts. This will coincide with my winter onion planting, which is essentially to provide reds for the summer salads. I don't have any recommendations for garlic varieties, I will leave that to others, but it is worth buying proper seed garlic, as it will be north european grown so is suitable for our climate.

[grawrc]

Cor, I only lifted mine about 10 days ago!! ??? Haven't dug over the bed for next year's yet because it's still full of (Roseval) potatoes. :-[

[Curryandchips]

Yes grawrc, my garlic and onions will be going into the second earlies beds (Ambo), which are not yet lifted. My rotation is a bit out of kilter this year, but it is only the over wintering crops which are shifted. The reason being, that the original bed is to be occupied by my strawberries, since I read in another post that it is not a good idea to put strawberries onto an old potato bed.

[bennettsleg]

doesn't legend have it that garlic should be planted on the shortest day and harvested on the longest?

has anyone done this and what are your thoughts?

[Curryandchips]

Isn't that shallots?

Update - just googled and there is a tradition yes, but I must admit I don't think it suits the UK climate ...

[supersprout]

Yes, I thought that was shallots too ::)
We plant garlic in November here (Peterborough)
Oh, heard another old saw yesterday - sow Ailsa Craig on Boxing Day. Brrrr!

[Rosyred]

Do you know when the garden centre get there garlic in? Where do you buy the seeds and not cloves?

[supersprout]

erm, curry, when you said seed garlic just now, did you mean cloves? I never done heard of nobody sowing garlic seed ???

[Curryandchips]

Yes, I meant garlic grown for the purpose of replanting, as used in seed potatoes. Sorry if it is the wrong term, but I am pretty good at saying misleading things :)