I used to think that garlic was an exotic food. I thought it was like the mango - something so full of flavour couldn't possibly come from nearby, could it?

I couldn't have been more wrong. Garlic is in fact easy to grow in Edmonton and impossible to grow in the tropics. Ha! Suck on that year-round-luscious-food-having tropical countries!

Since it also stores very well, Edmonton could be self-sufficient in the stinking herb if it wanted to be.

It's time to plant your garlic for next year. Here's how:

Get some garlic "seed". The word seed is in quotes because you actually just plant individual garlic cloves. I bought my starters from August Organics at the Old Strathcona Farmers' Market. Their garlic is very tasty, with nice big cloves.

Once you have your garlic, break up the heads into individual cloves

Find a sunny spot in your garden.

Plant them, pointy side up, about a thumb's length into the soil. They don't need that much space, a couple of inches in all directions will do.

planting garlic

push the clove about a thumb's length down

I planted about 140 cloves last week. That will give us 30 or 40 heads for seed, and about 2 heads per week throughout the year.

Garlic adds an element of fun to your growing season because it pops up and gets going early. Soon after the ground starts thawing you will see these little guys popping their heads out:

Make sure to pinch/cut off the garlic scapes as they appear during the summer. Apparently it keeps the plant directing its energy to bulb creation.

Garlic scapes are the flowers of the garlic. Destroy them!

Our garlic crop this year was about 140 heads. We pulled them a few of weeks ago (so, harvest at the beginning of September, plant at the end), and let them dry on our basement floor:

Over a 100 garlic plants drying. They will keep for months.

Garlic is one of my favourite garden foods. It is super easy to grow, and of course it is delicious too. I highly recommend that you get yours in the ground ASAP!