Look how big my garlic sprouts are getting! Yikes! The ones in the back there are the softneck garlic variety, Polish White (according to the package), and the shorter ones in the foreground are a hardneck garlic. I lost that package, so now I may never know what variety they are!
According to my internet research it is not unusual for garlic to sprout like this in the fall. Supposedly it will look pretty raggedy by the time spring comes around, but should bounce back one the weather warms up. I did read that it shouldn't get more than a few inches tall, though, which mine is definitely pushing. I think I will try to chop up some leaves with my weedwacker and use them to mulch around it, unless I can find some cheap straw. Or maybe I will shred some newspaper - I've been wanting to try that for a while now.
So, how do you "harvest" garlic? I mean, don't we usually eat the bulb part, which is what you bought and put in the ground and is now growing shoots. If you pull the bulb up to eat what was the point?
ReplyDelete@Ellie - You plant the individual cloves, which produce the plants, which then grow a new bulb. It's honestly fascinating to me how many more cloves you end up with than you had at the start!
ReplyDeleteYou can eat the garlic greens. It is really yummy in an omelet or anything that could use a lighter garlic flavor.
ReplyDeleteMmmmm....that sounds like a delicious suggestion!
ReplyDelete