Instead of just planting garlic in the ground, I tried a few different methods to get it growing and I’m delighted with the results.

A couple of years ago, on the allotment, I planted out all my garlic and waited patiently. Sadly, all – and I mean ALL of it, rotted away in the cold and wet Winter we had. As all of our Winters are cold and wet, I needed to try some other methods.

The first one I tried was growing the garlic in my little polytunnel on the plot and I did that for the first time last year. It worked pretty well and I managed to get some decent sized bulbs but, as usual, I wanted more!

Was there a way to get my garlic started before planting it out, to ensure growth had started? Well, it turns out, there is an EXCELLENT way to get garlic started. Think of chitting potatoes and you’ll get the idea. Only this time, we are using water.

Not the most in focus picture but it will have to do! The point is, you get a jar or other such container and fill it with water. Then you carefully place your whole garlic bulb on top – note, the whole bulb. You really only want the bottom of it touching but as you’ll see in the video below, I did have one bulb which I thought was rotting – only to have some surprising results.

After about 7-10 days, you’ll see roots start to appear. After that, the magic comes thick and fast so get your pots/tubs/wherever you’re growing it, ready!

You’ll start to see little green shoots come out the top and every day, you’ll see more and more appear. They practically throw off their papery garlic coats, as if screaming, ‘Plant me’!

And so, plant them you should! You’ll see the whole process in the video but I do want to mention the other thing I’m working on (even though it’s not quite finished).

If you’re garlic has ever had one of those little flowering tops on them – what have you done with it? For, inside, are lots of tiny garlic mini-bulbs. I wondered about planting some – so I have. Now, I did a little reading first so I know this is a long process. Will take years in fact but will give a huge crop of garlic which is what I’m after. I have also tried to ‘chit’ some and I’ll bring you the results of that in a later post.

In the meantime, if you haven’t planted your garlic yet and you want to be sure of getting them off to a good start – try the water method. The growth I’ve seen so far, has been fantastic. I’ve done a few videos about the garlic I’m growing, including a follow up to the chitting experiment, so I’ll put them here in order of when they were put up. I hope you enjoy and will subscribe to the channel as there is plenty more gardening to come, even in the Winter!