Garlic Harvest

This is my first year growing a large crop of garlic. In the past I have planted a few grocery store bulbs here and there that resulted in some small bulbs. Last fall I dedicated an entire 4x4 Square Foot Garden to Romanian Red and Purple Glazer garlic.

I was unsure when to harvest. I have done my research, but there are conflicting views. Some say when leaves begin to yellow, or when 1-2 leaves turn brown, or even when the tops fall over. The longer you allow the garlic to grow, the larger the bulb. If you harvest too late, the bulb may begin to split apart into individual cloves.

Fellow garden bloggers close to my growing area began posting their garlic harvests a week ago. So I decided to dig one up and see what was happening:

It was beautiful and looked ready to me. I used this bulb to make pesto, it was good sized and the cloves were filled out. The garlic was ready for harvest.

While pulling the garlic I noticed most bulbs were quite large, only a few here or there were a little smaller. I tied them in bunches and hung them in the shed to cure:

Once the bulbs are cured, they will be trimmed and stored in mesh bags. The largest bulbs will be planted in the fall for next years crop.

I am delighted at the success of this garlic crop. I have no idea how much garlic we can consume in year, but I suspect I will be more generous with adding garlic to my cooking.