The UK garlic planting calendar

Hardneck vs softneck. Picking your camp

Hardneck garlic sends up a flowering stem (the scape) in late spring, gives you 6–10 large cloves per head, and has the more complex flavour of the two. It stores for 4–6 months. The best UK varieties: 'Lautrec Wight', 'Carcassonne Wight', 'Chesnok Red'.

Softneck garlic skips the scape, makes 12–20 smaller cloves per head, and keeps for 8–10 months. This is the plaiting variety. The one you'll have seen hanging in farmhouse kitchens. UK choices: 'Solent Wight', 'Provence Wight', 'Picardy Wight'.

Most kitchen gardens end up wanting both: hardneck for cooking and scapes, softneck for the bulbs that sit at the back of the cupboard through winter.

The UK calendar

October–November: plant

Break the bulb into individual cloves and plant them pointy end up, 15cm apart, 5cm deep, into well-drained soil that's had compost worked in the month before. A south-facing bed is ideal. Water once, then leave well alone.

1. 1

   Choose certified seed

   Order from a UK specialist (Isle of Wight Garlic Farm, Real Seed Catalogue). One bulb gives you 8–20 cloves, and 8–20 cloves gives you 8–20 plants.

2. 2

   Plant individual cloves

   Largest cloves to the outside, smaller ones to the centre. Skip anything showing mould or a soft patch.

3. 3

   Mulch lightly

   5cm of compost or leafmould over the bed in late November, to insulate and feed as it settles in.

December–February: do nothing

Garlic needs 6–8 weeks below 10°C to vernalise. The cold trigger that splits the clove into a proper multi-clove bulb. This is exactly why autumn planting matters for autumn varieties, and why there's no shortcut round it.

March: weed and feed

Green shoots emerge, or pick up speed if they're already through. Hoe off any weeds. Garlic hates the competition. A light feed of pelleted chicken manure or seaweed feed sets things up for fat bulbs later on.

May–June: scape stage

Hardnecks send up their scapes. Cut them off as soon as they form their first curl. Bulb size jumps by 20–30% compared with leaving the scape on.

Late June – mid July: harvest

Watch the leaves. Once the lower 4–5 have yellowed but the top 3–4 are still green, lift carefully with a fork. Don't pull, a bruised neck shortens storage life. Lay the whole plants out on racks somewhere dry, airy and out of direct sun.

August: cure and store

After 3 weeks of drying, the necks will be paper-dry. Trim the roots and necks, brush off the dirt (don't wash), and store in mesh bags or plaited softneck strings somewhere cool and dry. Hardneck keeps for 4–6 months; softneck for up to 10.

Common failures

• Round single bulbs at harvest: planted too late (after December), or through too mild a winter. The cold trigger never fired.
• Rust on the leaves in May: fungal, and common after a wet spring. Cut off the worst leaves and harvest as normal. The bulbs are unaffected as long as some leaf remains.
• Mouldy cloves at planting time: the bulb was stored too damp. Bin them and start with fresh stock.

A 1m² bed of October-planted garlic will keep a household in cooking for 9 months. There's no easier return on effort in the whole UK kitchen garden.