Growing Guide
How to Grow Garlic
A step-by-step guide to growing full, pungent bulbs from our seed garlic — from fall planting to summer harvest.
Plant in fall
Garlic goes in the ground about 30 days before the first frost. In Maine, that's between October 15 and November 15 — try to finish before late November, when things get muddy.
Separate the bulb into cloves
Each seed garlic bulb breaks apart into roughly 6–8 individual cloves. Keep the papery wrapper on each clove until you're ready to plant it.
Set each clove, pointed end up
Plant 2–3 inches deep in a soft, organic compost blend, root plate down and pointed end up, fully covered with soil. Space cloves 8–10 inches apart. A hay mulch is optional but makes spring weeding much easier.
Watch for the first spring shoots
Garlic germinates quietly beneath the winter surface. As the snow melts, it's one of the very first plants to emerge.
Weed, then cut the scapes
Keep the plot weeded so nutrients go to the garlic, not the weeds. In June, plants send up curling scapes — round shoots with a bulbous top. Cut them once they curl, so the plant puts all its energy into the root bulb. Scapes are great in pesto, stir-fry, or on pizza.
Harvest by mid-July
Once at least two leaves have browned, the bulbs are done growing and it's time to pull them. If the cloves have already begun to separate inside the bulb, you've waited too long.
Cure the bulbs
Move bulbs to a cool, dry place right away — hang them in bunches from the ceiling, or trim the stems and lay the bulbs out flat. Space them so they don't touch, to avoid mold or rot.
Clean and store
Trim the roots and stem and remove the outer wrapper until the bulb is free of dirt. Stored properly, garlic keeps for up to a year and stays tasty and pungent.