Growing Garlic For a Year’s Supply Is Practical

We all dream of a thriving garden that produces enough food for us to live off our own land each year.  Some of you may be able to do that, however for us city dwellers, it doesn’t always seem feasible.  We don’t have to let that get us down though!  Especially because we can grow a years supply of certain crops if we plan it out right.  Growing garlic for a year’s supply is a great one to start with because it’s low maintenance, doesn’t take too much space, and easy to store.

Try growing garlic yourself instead of buying it

Growing garlic is super easy.  It’s very rewarding too.  Garlic is delicious and necessary in so many different recipes.  Garlic can be stored in many different ways too.  It really is the perfect crop if you are just getting started growing a year’s worth of something at one time.

How Much Garlic Should You Plant?

Each clove of garlic that you plant will grow into a new head of garlic.  How do you know how much garlic to grow per person?  It’s a bit subjective.

Obviously a full grown adult who adds a head of garlic into dinner every night is going to eat a lot more than a tiny toddler who has just a sprinkling of garlic powder in their spaghetti sauce weekly.

If you currently buy garlic by the head, calculate how many you buy each week times 52 and plant that many plants.

If you don’t buy your garlic fresh, it’s a little trickier.  You may need to do a bit of trial and error.  Around 20 plants per person should give you plenty of garlic.

If you want to preserve it, round up a bit.  You can always give some away if you have too much.

Also make sure you plant enough that you can set some aside for next year’s crop.  Each garlic head contains around 10 cloves and each clove will produce a new head.  Only plant the biggest and best cloves.  Eat the tiny ones!

You can safely assume you will need to plant 2-3 heads of garlic per person if you are aiming for 20 heads to eat.

Often the best way to determine how much to plant is by keeping records each year.  A good place to write notes like that down is in the Gardening Notebook.

If you over or under plant one year, you’ll be able to remember and adjust accordingly the next year.

How Much Space Will You Need For Growing Garlic?

Garlic plants should be about 4-6 inches apart.  You can grow them in rows or in beds.  If you grow garlic in a row, you would need about one 7 foot row per person.

Growing garlic in a bed is more efficient for space.  Nine heads of garlic will easily grow in one square foot of garden.  This means you can grow one person’s worth of garlic in about 2 1/2 square feet of garden space!  You truly do not need a large garden for growing garlic!

How To Plant Garlic

Planting garlic is super easy.  Here’s a post on how to do it that also includes some links for extra reading.  I’ll let you in on a little secret though.  All you have to do is stick the clove in the ground, and it will grow.  Bam.  Boom.  Done.

How To Harvest Garlic

It’s time to harvest your beautiful garlic plants when the tops die down.  Carefully dig up your garlic patch, brush the dirt of your garlic, and leave it in a warm, dry place for a couple days to cure.  Now you can use it or preserve it however you like!

How To Preserve Garlic

Garlic can be kept whole and in the clove until it sprouts.  Braiding the stems together is fun, and can also be kind of decorative.

You can also choose to many different things with your garlic instead.  You can dehydrate it, ferment it, mince and refrigerate it.

Here’s a post on how to preserve your lovely year’s supply!

Growing garlic is super duper easy, and it’s totally possible for your to grow an entire year’s worth, even if you don’t have a large property.

Have you tried growing garlic?  How much did you grow?

Share in the comments!