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could someone who grows garlic tell me where to start?

9 replies

lucysmam · 30/08/2008 13:09

I wanted to try growing garlic and onions in a pot. Do I literally just pop them into a pot of compost?

Was going to do one of each just to try out & see how I get on.

thanks

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LackaDAISYcal · 30/08/2008 13:18

you need to get some onion sets and a garlic bulb from a garden centre

then you split the garlic into separate cloves.....each clove will produce a new head of garlic.

We planted ours a bit late this season and have just harvested it; it's very satifying using your own crop

the onion sets (small bulbs) you can just grow in individual pots or put three or four around the outside of a larger pot.

some more information here

Good Luck

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lucysmam · 30/08/2008 13:36

oh, I didn't know that about garlic!! thought it grew from seeds or something like that, thanks LackaDAISYcal

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LackaDAISYcal · 30/08/2008 13:47

We have grown it from supermarket bulbs before, but it wasn't as nice as the stuff grown from a head from the garden centre.

Mind you, if you got some organic ctuff it might work OK.

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lucysmam · 30/08/2008 13:53

my dad's always at garden centre so will get him to pick me some up tomorrow if he's going this weekend. if not, i might try organic stuff from local co-op, see what it's like

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lucysmam · 30/08/2008 13:54

how long will home-grown onions/garlic last?

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LackaDAISYcal · 30/08/2008 14:12

If dried out well and stored properly, they will last for months. Friends of ours had enough garlic to last them from last summer and well into the spring. I think they only had to resort to shop bought for two or three months whilst their next crop ripened.

We have got about 12 heads this year so will probably run out sooner as we use it quite a lot.

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lucysmam · 30/08/2008 14:20

useful to know, cheers, I'll have a google for how to dry it out properly. Would be useful to be able to do as I use loads in cooking

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LackaDAISYcal · 30/08/2008 15:08

The BBC book "Grow your Own Veg" by Carol Klein is wirth a read. It accompanied the series that was on a couple of years ago and goes through the RHS 3m x 3m veg plot which gives you a year round crop if you wanted to expand into other veg. she goes through all the types of veg, when to sow and harvest and which varieties are better etc.

It certainly took the mystery out of it all for me

We're only in our third year, but first proper year with a grown up veg bed and have had great fun. My 6yo DS thinks it's all great stuff, and he'll try our home grown veg where he wouldn't is we bought it from the supermarket....like courgettes and now he eats all kinds of courgette no matter where they came from.

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lucysmam · 30/08/2008 18:08

Really? My lo is not fussy atm but I thought it would be something she could 'help' with next year maybe and it may encourage her to try other stuff to. I will have a look at my local library and see if they have that book, would be useful to have something as a starting point as ideally I would like to plant a proper veg garden like my own mum had years ago, I just thought starting small would be a better idea than taking on loads!
Thanks for the info LackaDAISYcal