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If you’re looking to spice up your sauce, saute mushrooms, or keep vampires at bay, nothing is better than fresh homegrown garlic.

Step 1: Choose your garlic
Choose the type of garlic you’d like to grow. There are two garlic categories, softnecks and hardnecks.

Step 2: Prepare the bed
Prepare your bed by loosening the soil and adding fertilizer such as compost.

Step 3: Plant the cloves
Plant as close to the autumnal equinox as possible and plant the cloves, root side down, in 2-inch-deep holes, 8 inches apart from each other.

Tip
To protect your crop from fungal diseases and pest infestations, soak each clove in water mixed with 1 tablespoon baking soda and 1 tablespoon liquid seaweed per gallon.

Step 4: Mulch
Mulch around emerging green shoots them from frost. Keep the soil moist – but not wet – and weed-free.

Step 5: Harvest
Harvest your garlic when most of the lower leaves have turned brown. Gently dig around the bulb and remove it from the soil.

Tip
Don’t wait for all the leaves to be brown – the bulbs will split.

Step 6: Store the garlic
Store your garlic in a moderately humid area between 50 and 65 degrees. Once you’re ready to dig in, peel back the skin, and enjoy the pungent perfection.

Did You Know?
The ingredient in garlic that is responsible for its pungent smell as well as its antibacterial and potential healing properties is called allicin.