Diana, I was wondering, how does one grow garlic? Can you grow in both the spring and fall?
Garlic is easy-peasy to grow. Planting time depends upon where you live:
https://www.thespruce.com/grow-great-garlic-3016629
I suggest mulching heavily with straw (in the north) and garlic likes a goodly amount of water and does NOT like to compete with weeds.
Garlic is super easy Pete, and it does very well in raised beds.
In our growing area stick cloves in the soil by Thanksgiving, cover with 6” of compost, keep the weeds out, water a bit if the weather is bone dry, harvest when the tops are mostly dried up and starting to fall over - usually around July 4th.
Pull it, braid it, hang it in a well-ventilated place that’s out of the sun to cure.
Not all garlic can be braided.
I grow hardneck garlic, which is better for northern climates and produces much larger bulbs, which means less peeling, but hardneck cannot be braided.
I plant mine in Oct and put them in raised beds because when my soil gets wet, it’s pretty mucky.
I prep the beds by digging a trench, putting in well composted manure, some compost if I have any, some fertilizer and some bone meal. I mix it in well and put a very light layer of dirt over it. I don’t want to burn the roots with placing the clove directly on the fertilizer. I lay about 6-8” of landscape fabric between the rows to help keep the weeds down. Trying to weed garlic can be difficult come June or July.
About two days before planting, I break the bulbs up into the individual cloves, leaving the paper on. The cloves get planted 2” deep and when the ground freezes, I cover it with about 4” of straw. It keeps the ground from heaving as it freezes and thaws during the winter, which can damage the plants.
The garlic will start to put out roots in the fall, and MAY show a little green at that time, but you don’t want a lot of top growth. The period of cold it experiences while in the ground for the winter is what causes the bulbs to form. That’s why planting garlic in the spring isn’t usually advised.
In the spring, pull off most of the straw and side dress them with some fertilizer.
Harvest when about half the leaves have turned brown.
There are plenty of you-tube videos for more details.
When I save out bulbs for next year’s crop, I always save the biggest and best. That way you are selecting for the garlic that grows the best for your particular locale.
The few days of bed prep and actual planting can be pretty busy but with the landscape fabric and straw, and the fact that almost NOT bothers garlic, it is otherwise pretty maintenance free and worth the effort.