How to Plant Garlic in Fall (Which Way Up, How Deep and How Far Apart)

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There’s a particular kind of hope that lives inside a single clove of garlic.

You hold it in your palm, this small, papery, slightly lopsided thing, and it seems impossible that if you push it into the cold ground in October and walk away, it will spend the whole dark winter quietly multiplying itself underground, and hand you back a fat, fragrant bulb the following summer. One clove in, ten cloves out. If there’s a better deal anywhere in the garden, I haven’t found it.

Garlic was the very first thing I ever successfully grew, back in our little garden in Málaga, years before I knew what I was doing. I planted it upside down, far too close together and in a spot that flooded every time it rained, and it still grew. That’s the kind of plant garlic is. Forgiving, patient, and quietly generous, like a good grandmother.

But I’ve learned a lot since then, mostly by getting it wrong first, and these days our garlic comes out bigger, healthier and far less likely to rot. So pour yourself something warm and let me walk you through exactly how to plant garlic in fall, from choosing your bulbs to tucking them in for winter, including the three questions everyone asks: which way up, how deep and how far apart.

Why you plant garlic in fall

You might wonder why garlic goes in now, just as everything else in the garden is winding down. The answer is cold. Garlic needs a long spell of chilly weather, usually somewhere around six to eight weeks of temperatures below about 45°F (7°C), to trigger the clove to split and form a proper bulb. Plant it in spring and you’ll often get a single round clove instead, which is lovely in its own way but not quite what you were hoping for.

Planting in fall also gives the clove time to grow roots before the ground gets really cold. Then it sits there, barely moving through the winter, before shooting up in spring as soon as the days lengthen. By early summer, you’ll be harvesting while everyone who waited for spring is still watching their seedlings.

When to plant garlic

The general rule is to plant garlic a few weeks before your ground freezes, which for most places means somewhere between late September and November. A good rule of thumb is two to four weeks after your first fall frost, or when the soil has cooled down but is still workable.

If you live somewhere with mild, wet winters, like we do now, you’ve got an even longer window, and you can plant right up into December. In very cold climates, aim for early to mid-October so the roots have time to settle before the ground locks up.

Don’t panic about getting the exact date right. Garlic is far more relaxed about timing than we are.

Choosing your garlic

This is where I made my first big mistake, all those years ago. I planted garlic from the supermarket. And while it can work, store-bought garlic is often treated to stop it sprouting, may be a variety that’s not suited to your climate, and sometimes carries diseases into your soil that can stick around for years.

Instead, buy seed garlic from a garden center, a seed company or a local grower. It’s grown specifically for planting and is a variety chosen to do well in your conditions. Better still, once you’ve grown your own, you can save your biggest, best bulbs each summer to replant in fall, and never buy garlic again.

Hardneck or softneck?

• Hardneck garlic grows a stiff central stalk and sends up a curly flower stem in early summer called a scape, which is delicious in its own right. It’s better suited to cold winters and usually has fewer, bigger cloves with a richer flavor. It doesn’t store quite as long.
• Softneck garlic doesn’t produce a scape, has more cloves per bulb, stores for much longer (often into the following spring) and is the kind you can braid into those beautiful garlic plaits. It does best in milder climates.

If you can’t decide, grow a little of both. That’s what I do, mostly because I want the scapes for pesto and the softnecks for the pantry, and I’ve never been good at choosing just one of anything.

Preparing your bed

Garlic likes three things: sun, soil that drains well and not much competition. Choose the sunniest spot you’ve got, somewhere water doesn’t puddle after rain.

Clear out the weeds, add a good layer of compost and loosen the top few inches of soil if it’s compacted. If you’re starting from grass or bare ground, a no-dig bed works beautifully for garlic. I’ve explained how in starting a vegetable garden from bare ground.

If your soil is heavy, wet clay (hello, our new farm), it’s worth planting your garlic in a raised bed, or along a slightly raised ridge of soil, so the cloves aren’t sitting in water all winter. Waterlogged garlic rots, and there’s nothing sadder than digging up a row in spring and finding mush. I talk more about this in growing vegetables in a wet, rainy climate.

How to plant garlic, step by step

1. Split the bulb into cloves

Just before planting (not days ahead, or they’ll dry out), gently break the bulb apart into individual cloves. Try to keep the papery skin on each one, as it protects the clove in the soil. This is the perfect job for small helpers, and my two-year-old takes it extremely seriously, frowning at each clove like a tiny inspector.

Keep the biggest, plumpest cloves for planting. Bigger cloves grow bigger bulbs. The tiny ones from the middle can go straight into tonight’s dinner.

2. Which way up? Pointy end up

This is the question everyone asks, and the answer is simple: the flat end, where the roots grow from, goes down. The pointy tip, where the shoot comes out, goes up. Think of it like a little rocket pointing at the sky.

If you get one upside down, don’t lose sleep over it. The garlic will usually turn itself around and grow anyway, as my first-ever wonky row proved. It just uses more energy doing it, so you’ll get a slightly smaller bulb.

3. How deep? About 2 inches

Plant each clove about 2 inches (5 cm) deep, measured from the tip of the clove to the surface of the soil. In very cold areas, go a little deeper, up to 3 inches (7–8 cm), to protect them from frost heave. In mild, wet areas, stick to the shallower end so they don’t sit in soggy soil.

An easy trick: push the clove in until your finger is buried up to the second knuckle.

4. How far apart? About 6 inches

Space the cloves about 6 inches (15 cm) apart, in rows roughly 12 inches (30 cm) apart. Garlic hates being crowded, and close spacing gives you lots of small bulbs instead of fewer fat ones. If you’re planting in a block in a raised bed, you can space them 6 inches apart in every direction.

I use a stick marked with a line every 6 inches to keep things neat, mostly because if I try to judge it by eye, my rows wander off like a toddler in a supermarket.

5. Cover, water and mulch

Firm the soil gently over the cloves, water them in if the soil is dry and then cover the bed with a thick layer of mulch, a few inches of straw, shredded leaves or compost. Mulch keeps the soil temperature steady, smothers weeds and protects your garlic through the winter. In spring, you can pull it back a little to help the soil warm up.

6. Label it!

You will forget where you planted it. I promise you, you will. By January it will look like a bare patch of soil, and in a fit of enthusiasm you might plant something else right on top. Label the row (I like wooden plant markers you can write on) and write down what variety you planted and when.

Caring for garlic over winter and spring

The lovely thing about garlic is how little it asks of you. Through winter, it mostly just sits there, maybe sending up a few green shoots. That’s normal, and those shoots can take the cold.

• Weed regularly in spring. Garlic doesn’t compete well with weeds, so keep the bed clear, especially as it starts growing again.
• Feed in early spring. A top-dressing of compost or a gentle organic feed as growth picks up helps the bulbs bulk up.
• Water if spring is dry, but stop watering a few weeks before harvest so the bulbs can firm up.
• Snap off the scapes on hardneck garlic when they curl, so the plant puts its energy into the bulb. Then make scape pesto. Trust me.

When to harvest

Garlic is usually ready in early to mid-summer, when the lower third to half of the leaves have turned yellow-brown but the top ones are still green. Each green leaf represents a layer of skin around the bulb, so if you wait until every leaf is dead, the bulb may start to split open and won’t store as well.

Loosen the soil with a garden fork and lift the bulbs gently (don’t yank them by the stalk). Then hang them somewhere dry, airy and out of direct sun for two to four weeks to cure. Once the skins are papery and the necks are dry, trim the roots, brush off the soil and store them somewhere cool and dark. Then save your best bulbs for planting again in fall, and the whole beautiful cycle begins again.

Common garlic mistakes (all of which I’ve made)

• Planting supermarket garlic and wondering why it struggled.
• Planting too close together and harvesting a row of tiny bulbs.
• Choosing a spot that floods in winter. (The rot. The smell. Never again.)
• Forgetting to weed in spring and losing the garlic in a jungle of grass.
• Harvesting too late, so the bulbs split and didn’t keep.
• Not labeling the row and accidentally planting onions on top of it. Twice.

A small act of faith

We planted our first garlic on the new farm last week, in a fine, misty drizzle that soaked through my sweater in about four minutes. The eldest was at school, so it was just me, my two-year-old and the baby asleep on my back. My little one carefully placed each clove in its hole, pointy end up, then patted the soil on top and whispered “night night” to every single one.

Twenty-four cloves. Twenty-four goodnights.

And I stood there in the rain thinking that this is what a garden really is: a series of small acts of faith. You tuck something into the cold, dark ground, say goodnight and trust that it’ll wake up. Most of the time, it does. And next summer, when we pull up those bulbs and hang them in the barn to dry, she won’t remember the drizzle or the cold fingers. But I will. I’ll remember the goodnights.

Go and plant some garlic, my friend. Future you will be so grateful.

With love (and garlicky fingers),

Milly x

P.S. Hardneck or softneck? Tell me which you grow and why in the comments. And if you’re already dreaming about next year’s harvest, my free Grow, Harvest, Preserve Calendar walks you through it, month by month.