Planting garlic?

I would like to plant some garlic this year, but how many do I plant per square? They are just regular hardneck and softneck garlic bulbs, not elephant garlic or anything. The more the better as I have limited space, but I don't want them too squished either.

Thanks!

I planted 9 per square this year. Next year I'm going to try 16 per square which is what Mel recommends for onions.

You can always try more and thin as necessary.

Boffer, did you plant your garlic and onions this fall or this past spring? I am still waiting for my garlic, shallot and egyptian walking onions that are due to be delivered sometime in the next 30 days or so. Territorial Seed sends them out from mid Sept to the end of October.

I am concerned that with all of our rain during the fall, winter, spring and into the early summer, that they will drown and rot. Do you have suggestions for the PNW?
The onions I planted this past spring did ok, but not as well as they did back in Nebraska. Of course, not knowing what I was doing, I may have made watering errors, I know I really had to fight the weeds because I was using amended soil in an exisiting garden bed. I grew Red Candy onions from sets (small bulb with a little green sprig) as well as Chippolini onions from sets. The flavor was good, but my biggest onion was still pretty darn small.
Should I cover them with plastic to prevent overwatering this winter? If so, then how frequently should I uncover them so they get enough rain to grow?

LOL

In a nutshell:

I only grow Walla Wallas because my wife can tolerate them, if you know what I mean. I've only done early spring planting and have had disappointing results-until this year. I could do no wrong this year; in this year of poor weather that caused most of my veggies to languish-my WW's thrived! I'm in the middle of making French Onion Soup as I type this. (It's drizzling and gloomy today.)

It's my practice to spread stuff around; I had onions growing in 8 different beds. The soil, although technically MM, would have been slightly different in each bed. The onions did well in all beds-even the left overs that I stuck in the holes of cinder blocks. At this point, I have to give credit to the crazy weather for my onion surplus this year.

Lavender Deb inspired me to get a little more serious about fall planting this year. I have 9 types of garlic waiting to be planted, and I'm expecting onions any day now from the place that Ander suggested. I'm going to try the covered wagon thing with the sides rolled up a bit. A 'roof' so to speak to keep most of the rain off.

I've left carrots in the ground uncovered for the winter, with pretty good luck. This year, I'm going to try a 'roof' over them too.

I'll get some pictures this weekend. I'm thinking a 'roof' and no walls will allow the soil to stay damp from the blowing wind, without getting saturated. At least that's my plan!

I think 16 per square would be fine. I grew them last fall for the first time and they were very happy. I planted some in a square and some with my strawberries and some with my raspberries.

(I know I read that they are good planted near raspberries to repel the bad bugs. I don't remember if I made it up about the strawberries.)

martha wrote:I think 16 per square would be fine. I grew them last fall for the first time and they were very happy. I planted some in a square and some with my strawberries and some with my raspberries.

(I know I read that they are good planted near raspberries to repel the bad bugs. I don't remember if I made it up about the strawberries.)

I read somewhere that strawberries and onions are companion plants. I had some onions in the top of my strawberry jar for a while.

According to Mel, it's 4 per square for elephant and 9 for regular. He's apparently experimented with 16, but I certainly wouldn't do that myself. I plant elephant two per square in diagonal corners, so they are about 9" apart -- any closer and they do not make the huge bulbs I prefer. I plant regular garlic 5 per square in a dice pattern. That seems to work OK and the bulbs get nice and large for the variety. I have a smaller garlic that I planted 6 per square last year. Might try 9 this year on a few squares.

Garlic is planted in the fall so it will have a chance to develop roots before freezing weather hits. You may or may not see upper growth until late winter, depending on your location. Onions around here go in the first of February since our summers get so hot, we need to have them dug by May.

Megan, thanks to your recipe, I made the roasted garlic jelly today. OMG did the kitchen smell good. I just took them out of the water bath canner and I hear the "pops" as i write.
I plan to use it as a glaze for baked chicken, what else can I do with it?

Here is a nice narrative, calendar and photos of growing garlic.

camprn, Thanks for the Link. Because this is a company located in the Hood River Area, the calendar is especially nice for those in the PNW, gives us a good idea of the planting and harvesting schedule. I also like the info on harvesting, curing and storing the garlic.

CLICK HERE for a series of brief videos on planting and caring for garlic.

Camprn, thanks for that link.

Furbalsmom wrote:Megan, thanks to your recipe, I made the roasted garlic jelly today. OMG did the kitchen smell good. I just took them out of the water bath canner and I hear the "pops" as i write.
I plan to use it as a glaze for baked chicken, what else can I do with it?

Yay, Furbalsmom!!! It is actually really good on bread, too... you just have to like garlic. It's a very surprising flavor to taste sweet and garlic at the same time, but it's nice.