(Mother Earth News) If you’ve tried growing garlic and your bulbs turned out small, it might be because you planted it in spring. If you want full-sized bulbs bursting with great garlic flavor, plant your garlic in the fall and harvest it the next summer.
Garlic is a cold-hardy root veggie, and in most climates, you’ll get much better results with fall planting.
Try to plant your garlic about a month before your ground freezes, so the plants have time to get established. During winter, the crop will go dormant; then once spring and warmer temps roll around again, your plants will experience a burst of growth. By summer harvest time, you’ll marvel at the success of your crop!
This photo illustrates the size difference between spring-planted garlic (left), which pales in comparison to the impressive fall-planted batch (right).