Garden calendar for the kitchen garden - vegetables and herbs. See what to plant right now and for next month.

Growing Garlic

(Allium sativum)

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
				P	P	P

(Best months for planting Garlic in Australia - sub-tropical regions)

P = Plant direct in garden where they are to grow.

Easy to grow. Plant cloves. Best planted at soil temperatures between 10°C and 35°C. (Show °F/in)
Space plants: 10 - 12 cm apart
Harvest in 17-25 weeks.
Compatible with: Beets, Carrots, Cucumbers, Dill, Tomatoes, Parsnips
Avoid growing with: Asparagus, Beans, Brassicas, Peas, Potatoes

Almost ready to harvest
Garlic cloves
Young garlic shoots

Garlic is traditionally planted in cold weather and harvest in summer ("plant on the shortest day, harvest on the longest"). Plant the cloves (separated from the bulb), point upwards, deep enough to just cover with soil. A fairly tough and easy-growing plant. On better soil with regular watering you will get a better crop. On poorer soil, and forgetting to water them, you will still get some garlic, only not quite so much.

Leave a garlic to go to seed, and you will probably get plenty of self-sown plants the following year.

To keep for later use, dig up and leave to dry out for a day or so after the green shoots die down. To use immediately, pull up a head when you need it, or cut and use the green shoots.

Culinary hints - cooking and eating Garlic

Cut the growing shoots or use the entire young garlic plants as 'garlic greens' in stirfry.

Your comments and tips

02 Feb 12, Prue (Australia - temperate climate): This year I let a couple of garlic go to seed and flower, so now I have thousands of tiny garlic cloves/seeds, should I plant them in the ground now as that is when they would of naturally fallen or wait till April? I'm in Melbourne if that helps answer my question
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31 Jan 12, (Australia - cool/mountain climate): I have planted garlic bulbs last year and nothing happened. Thought it all died off, but in the last week or so.... it's been soooo hot here and I now have garlic growing in my pots. Must be from last year's bulbs that didnt work. Not sure why they are sprouting at this time of year, especially in this heat when I thought they were a winter vege. Any comments would be good.
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01 Jan 12, Vanessa (Australia - temperate climate): I live on the Murray River at a town called Tooleybuc. 2011 I planted heaps of cloves. They all sprouted!! I planted my garlic in March/early April. I left them until November and dug some up, only to find rather small bulbs. Left the rest for another month and the bulbs had not really grown much larger. The cloves were fresh Australian grown garlic. Did I overwater them? Is it possible to overwater. The guy I obtained my bulbs from, planted his crop in Feb and harvested in Nov. HELP!! What am I doing wrong?? Please. Any advice would be appreciated. Vanessa
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22 Nov 11, Chandra Akhil (Australia - temperate climate): Hello Barb Burnet ! When you are ready to sell your Golden Australian Garlic seeds please let me know I will be interested to buy some. My email contact is icsakhil@gmail.com Looking forward to hear from you. Regards Chandra Akhil.
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22 Nov 11, Chandra Akhil (Australia - temperate climate): I just want to make a comment on Brianna Dall's comment dated 22 Aug. 11. where she said that "the import stuff has been treated to not germinate". With all due respect to Brianna that is not so. I have used the "import stuff" on numerous ocassion in my garden and it has germinated well.
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16 Nov 11, Barb Burnet (Australia - cool/mountain climate): This year my beautiful aussie golden garlic." the pearls of life' has grown better than ever. And it has been very wet down here. planted iin March and pulled all in Oct. ! sadly I will have to move so will have to sell most of my garlic seed. over the years of growing same seed in different states,.. healthy soil, lime ,& blood and bone. and love.
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17 Jan 12, Cynthia (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Hi Barb, I would love to buy some garlic seed from you. please email me cindyrousell@yahoo.com.au Thanks!
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28 Oct 11, Bruce (Australia - temperate climate): Yes plant them! They should grow. Normally they shoot in autumm and are starting to dry off now ready for harvest next month.
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18 Oct 11, angela (Australia - temperate climate): Hi Greg,I bought a heap of garlic from a shop and havent used it,it is now October can I plant the shooting bulbs or do I just throw them away?Seems a waste.Thank you
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22 Aug 11, Brianna Dall (Australia - temperate climate): Janis you can buy Garlic 'seed' gloves at any good garden nursery. Or if your local green grocery sells local Australian garlic you can just break off the gloves and plant those. It need to be Australian garlic, the import stuff has been treated to not germinate.
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See planting calendar for these countries and climate zones

Australia - arid, Australia - cool/mountain, Australia - sub-tropical, Australia - temperate, Australia - tropical, New Zealand - cool/mountain, New Zealand - sub-tropical, New Zealand - temperate, South Africa - Dry summer sub-tropical, South Africa - Humid sub-tropical, South Africa - Semi-arid, South Africa - Summer rainfall, United Kingdom - cool/temperate, United Kingdom - warm/temperate, USA - Central West Coast, USA - Maritime Northwest, USA - Mid-Atlantic, USA - North East, USA - South East and Gulf States, USA - South West, USA - Upper Midwest

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This planting guide is a general reference intended for home gardeners. We recommend that you take into account your local conditions in making planting decisions. Gardenate is not a farming or commercial advisory service. For specific advice, please contact your local plant suppliers, gardening groups, or agricultural department. The information on this site is presented in good faith, but we take no responsibility as to the accuracy of the information provided.

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