The Basics of Planting Garlic
Many people prefer to plant and grow garlic themselves, which they can use in their food when they cook at home, rather then buy cloves from the grocery store. You don't have to be an expert gardener to do this, nor will you need a large, extravagant garden. Simply follow a few simple tips when planting and growing your own garlic cloves and you will have an arsenal of garlic to put into food, make into dips and cook with, allowing you to claim all the garlicky flavor in your meals is truly "homemade."
What to Plant
Garlic grows from each individual clove of garlic that you eat. So, for example, one garlic clove that is used to spice a portion of pasta sauce could grow a plant with a single bulb, which could then contain up to twenty cloves. This allows garlic to be self sustaining and also relatively easy to plant and grow successfully. So, take an individual clove of garlic, or a few if you want to grow many garlic plants, and prepare to plant them in the ground. Plump cloves which are large and solid are better to plant then small flimsy cloves, as the size and density of the garlic clove often reflects the size and density of the garlic plant it will produce.
Where to Plant
Garlic can effectively grow in a wide variety of soil conditions, but the best soil for these cloves to take root in is soil that has been well-fertilized with manure and compost. The soil should also be in a particularly sunny area of the yard, which is not very damp unless you make it damp. Each garlic clove should be planted in this soil about four inches apart from each other.
Watering Garlic
Growing garlic requires relatively even soil moisture around it, but it is very important to not over water the growing cloves or underwater them. So if the soil is moist around where you planted your garlic, wait until it dries out before watering it again.
