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 to 10 large cloves per head, and has the more complex flavour of the two. It stores for 4 to 6 months. The best UK varieties: 'Lautrec Wight', 'Carcassonne Wight', 'Chesnok Red'.

Softneck garlic skips the scape, makes 12 to 20 smaller cloves per head, and keeps for 8 to 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 to 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 to 20 cloves, and 8 to 20 cloves gives you 8 to 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 to February: do nothing

Garlic needs 6 to 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 to June: scape stage

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

Late June to mid July: harvest

Watch the leaves. Once the lower 4 to 5 have yellowed but the top 3 to 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 to 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.