Last year just before the first frost, I planted six garlic cloves in one of my raised container garden beds and look what peeked out this week!

When To Plant Garlic For Next Year's Harvest

When planning on having garlic for your pantry next season, you need to get the cloves or garlic bulbs in the ground about two to four weeks before the first frost hits. The reason is, you want to make sure that the roots on the clove/bulb has had a good chance on taking root into the soil.

Last year, I planted some bulbs in the early spring after the ground wasn't frozen anymore and the fear of a late frost had passed; my results were not the best, so I decided last October to get the bulbs in the ground then for this upcoming gardening season.

Seeing the green sprouting out made me smile. I had been outside wandering the property after my walk to the mailbox and thought I'd push aside the leaves I had covered up the garlic with last year and was taken by surprise to see all six had started to sprout up. I gently covered the green sprouts with the leaves again and am imagining using some of the garlic after the harvest to make marinara sauce, homemade garlic spread for bread and rolls and so much more garlic-y goodness!

Hardneck Garlic

I planted a hardneck garlic, which is better for cold winters: and I have that where I live. I am hoping to get two harvests from this type of garlic; one being the cloves themselves as well as the scapes (the green shoots which sprout up above ground- these are great additions to salads and when making homemade salad dressings and I will add some chopped up to my kefir cream cheese this summer or early autumn). I'll remove the scapes a few weeks before the garlic itself is ready to be harvested.

If this year's harvest does good and produces a nice little bundle of garlic for me, I'll probably consider upping the amount I want to plant this coming season for next year. After last spring's failed results, I am hopeful for some awesome tasting garlic coming in about seven months.