The Palouse is an ideal location for growing garlic and, indeed, garlic has become very popular with gardeners in the last few years. Garlic tolerates cold winters and short growing seasons and thrives with minimum care.

Garlic is believed to have originated somewhere in Central Asia, and has been cultivated for at least 5000 years. Early Egyptians wrote about garlic in 3200 BC, and the Greek historian Herodotus stated that the Cheops pyramid builders lived mostly on onions and garlic. When early pyramid builders had their garlic rations reduced, they apparently went on strike! Roman laborers and gladiators regularly ate garlic. About 2500 years ago, garlic spread from the Mediterranean area to China, and Indian medicine included the use of garlic as early as the 6th century BC. Garlic is an excellent source of selenium, phosphorus, iron, and potassium. Plus, it just tastes darned good!!!

There are three kinds of garlic offered in seed catalogs and at nurseries: Elephant garlic, Softneck or Common garlic, and Hardneck garlic. Elephant garlic is quite big (hence the name ‘elephant’) and doesn’t have much garlic flavor—which makes sense since it isn’t a true garlic (it’s a member of the leek family).

Softneck garlic varieties are the kind usually found in supermarkets, and have thin skins and increasingly smaller cloves the deeper you go into the bulb. Also, those thin skins seem to cling to everything and it becomes so annoying to chop. The silverskin variety does store well and has a nice strong flavor. These are the garlic bulbs that you see woven into braids.

Hardneck varieties are the best kind for growing in our area, as they’re more winter-hardy than the common garlic. They have a stiff, sometimes thick, neck with good-sized cloves. The ‘Rocambole’ variety throws up a flowering stem, called a scape. Some people like to eat the scapes and others clip them off to improve bulb size. The reason I like Hardneck varieties best is that it’s so easy to remove the skin on the cloves—it’s thicker than that found on common garlic and slides right off.

Hardneck varieties that seem to do the best in the Palouse region include Italian (blue and purple), German extra hardy, and Roja varieties. Palouse Red is definitely among my favorites. All do well in cold winter climates.

Garlic likes deep, fertile, very well-drained soil and it’s important to have the soil’s pH above 6.0; ideally, 6.5 to 7.0 is best. Garlic also benefits from a lime application about a month before planting, if possible. And add lots of compost if you have it. Plant after the first good frost. Even if the garlic sprouts before snow covers them, the garlic will survive both freezes and snowfalls quite nicely. Mulch heavily after you plant and then pull that aside in the Spring to let the sun warm the plot.

Sow the biggest, fattest seed cloves you can find. (Make sure you buy ones that haven’t been soaked in fungicides.) Plant them root down between one and two inches deep and four to six inches apart. You’ll need about a pound of garlic cloves to plant a 20-foot row. Garlic likes a sunny location best but will tolerate partial shade.

After the garlic has started growing in the Spring, add liquid manure every two weeks. Weed meticulously as garlic doesn’t compete well with weeds. Also, water well and regularly in dry periods, slacking off about mid-July.

Garlic is ready to harvest when the foliage has died off, but don’t let the garlic stay in wet soil or it will rot the bulbs. When they’re ready (yes, you can pull one up, peel apart the sheaths and check to see if they’re ready), wash the bulbs, especially the roots, and let them dry for a week before storing. Store in a dry place.

One caution: deer love garlic! So if you live in areas where these beautiful but voracious eaters live, then protect your garlic from them.