Ever wondered how much garlic you should plant to keep your kitchen stocked? A little bit of planning goes a long way in making sure your garlic supply is sufficient for your family.
When calculating how much garlic to plant, 15 garlic plants per person in your family yields enough garlic for one year. Two or three pounds of garlic cloves planted will equal about ten pounds of garlic harvested.
Read on to see how to calculate your garlic needs for recipes, remedies, and garden health so you can ensure a plentiful harvest to use all year long.
PLANNING GARLIC FOR YOUR FAVORITE RECIPES
You can calculate your family’s garlic needs by looking back over your menu. For example, I tend to prepare lasagna for my family once a month. It takes two cloves of minced garlic, but I usually use three. Three cloves x 12 months = 36 cloves for a year of lasagna. Each bulb of garlic I grow will usually give me roughly 7-10 cloves. 36 cloves needed for lasagna ÷7 cloves growing in a bulb=5.14 bulbs of garlic that I need to grow for my next year’s lasagna garlic needs. Here is my delicious lasagna sauce recipe.
And we have spaghetti about once a month also. I use the same sauce so I need another 5.14 bulbs for that. I’m up to ten bulbs I need to harvest now. If I keep going and look over garlic ingredients in our recipes, I have many more I will need. I use garlic in the chili I make in winter months, garlic to dry and mix with salt to make a garlic salt sprinkle for our melted cheese sandwiches, garlic for the copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana soup we love (search for that on the web. It’s delish!).
KEEPING GARLIC ON HAND FOR HEALTH NEEDS
And what about garlic you might use when you’re sick? I don’t know how she still has friends that can stand the smell, but my adult daughter swears by fresh garlic to cure colds and infections. She will mince fresh, raw garlic and spread it over buttered, untoasted bread, fold it, and eat it right down. She is rarely sick for more than a day so maybe there’s something to it.
Years ago I was very pregnant and miserable with a urinary tract infection. A neighbor brought over a cup of freshly juiced carrots with juiced garlic in it. The sweet carrot juice calmed the sharp flavor of the garlic. My urinary tract infection cleared right up. I can’t prove that it was the carrot-garlic juice, but it was, seriously, the only remedy I tried.
When garlic cloves are crushed they release allicin, which, according to Nature.Com, has antimicrobial properties. So consider if you want garlic on hand for medicinal needs. You’ll have to think about planting that in the fall too.
UNLEASHING GARLIC’S GARDEN POWER
You might want to be planning to plant extra garlic for the help it will give you in your garden.
Garlic is useful in the garden for several reasons:
- Pest Deterrent:
- Repels Insects: Garlic’s strong smell can help deter many common garden pests such as aphids, spider mites, and Japanese beetles.
- Deters Larger Pests: Some gardeners find that garlic can help keep larger pests like deer and rabbits away from their plants.
- Companion Planting:
- Protects Other Plants: Planting garlic near other vegetables and flowers can help protect them from pests and diseases. It’s particularly effective when planted with tomatoes, peppers, roses, and cabbage.
- Enhances Growth: Some companion plants, like tomatoes, may benefit from being planted near garlic, potentially leading to better growth and yield.
- Fungal Disease Prevention:
- Reduces Soil Fungi: Garlic contains sulfur, which has antifungal properties. Planting garlic can help reduce fungal diseases in the soil, benefiting neighboring plants.
- Soil Improvement:
- Breaks Up Soil: Garlic roots help improve soil structure by breaking up compacted soil, allowing better water and nutrient absorption for other plants.
- Natural Herbicide:
- Weed Control: Garlic can act as a natural herbicide, helping to suppress the growth of weeds when used in certain preparations or as a companion plant.
- Nutrient Addition: As garlic decomposes, it can add valuable nutrients back into the soil, enriching it for future plantings.
By incorporating garlic into your garden, you can take advantage of these benefits to create a healthier, more productive growing environment.
If you don’t want to be harvesting garlic around special plants that you want it to protect, you can plant garlic bulbils that take 2-3 years to mature. We covered planting garlic from bulbils in this article here.
ESTIMATING YOUR GARLIC PLANTING NEEDS FOR THE YEAR
To calculate how much garlic you need to plant for the year, ADD the amounts of garlic cloves you’ll need for your year’s demands. Here is a helpful list of garlic needs questions to help you figure that out:
- How much do you need for recipes you use regularly?
- How much would you like to keep on hand for medicinal purposes?
- How much do you need for drying/processing for your spice cupboard supply?
- How much garlic will you use in bottling/preserving foods (pickles taste great with garlic in the bottle)?
- How much garlic would you like to use as a helper in your garden?
- How much garlic do you need to set aside to plant garlic again next fall?
- How much room do you have to store the garlic you will harvest?
WHERE TO STORE GARLIC
One last thing to consider when you plant your garlic crop is where you’re going to store it once you harvest it. This could impact how much garlic you decide to grow. You can’t toss harvested garlic in a plastic bag and forget about it. The garlic will need a container that breaths, like a wicker basket. If your basement is dry you can store it there. Areas that are dark, dry, and cool (about 60°) are perfect for storing garlic.
If your basement is damp, you’ll need to find another place to store your garlic, such as the bottom of a kitchen cupboard or pantry. Even though your fridge is dark, cold, and dry, it is too cold. Your garlic will think it is over-wintering and it will begin to sprout when you bring it out of the fridge. You probably don’t have room in your fridge for a hefty harvest anyway. Read our article on curing and storing garlic to learn the ins and outs of long term garlic storage.
If you don’t have room for your harvest you can give extra bulbs away. Some may ask if you can just leave the garlic in the ground. You can! Read our article on growing garlic as a perennial HERE. Perhaps, like the zucchini lady down the street, you can gift neighbors with your excess garlic, ditching it on doorsteps in the night.
