If you’re like me and need an endless supply of garlic, you might want to start growing your own garlic instead of running to the store every 3 days. Growing garlic is very easy and you can do it from a single garlic clove. That’s right – with some care, love and time one clove of garlic turns into an entire head of garlic. Yes, garlic is very resourceful.
Garlic Benefits
Garlic is a very popular and delicious plant, but it also comes with a ton of health benefits. Here are some according to WebMD:
- Garlic reduces your blood pressure
- Can prevent tick bites
- Reduces pre-meal blood sugar levels in people with or without diabetes
- Prevents atherosclerosis
- Prevents prostate cancer
See many reasons to eat your garlic.
Reasons To Grow Your Own Garlic
There are many benefits to growing your own herbs and food in general and garlic is no exception:
- always have garlic at home, even if you forgot to buy it
- try fresh green garlic to salads (it’s good!)
- reduce exposure to harmful chemicals that usually come with commercially available vegetables
- it’s super easy to do!
How To Grow Garlic
You can grow garlic in your backyard or in a pot. One clove will turn into a whole head of garlic. It’s a similar procedure, but when you plant your garlic in a pot you will work with less space. It’s best to plant garlic during fall/winter and it will be ready, waiting for you next spring and summer. Here’s how to plant garlic:
- Break an organic garlic head into cloves. As mentioned before – each clove will turn into a garlic head overtime. You want to use large garlic cloves to produce large garlic heads.
- Put each garlic clove at least 3″ / 8 cm deep into the soil. Note: It’s important to space out the garlic cloves, so they have room to grow. I recommend leaving at least 2″ or 6 cm between cloves. When planting the root part should be pointing down.
- Once all the garlic cloves are in, cover them with soil and do not water too much.
- You can harvest garlic when it’s green (fresh garlic – should be consumed within days) or wait until the green parts turn yellow (for dry garlic).
Storing Garlic
After harvesting keep your garlic in a dry and dark place.
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