Planting Garlic in the Fall: Our Guide to Growing Great Garlic

Garlic is one of those crops that takes a little patience. You plant it in the fall, tuck it in for the winter, and then wait until spring to really see it take off. That little clove you put in the ground in October has a lot of work to do before harvest the following summer.

We’ve learned a lot about growing garlic over the past few years as we’ve cultivated our crop. And while there are plenty of different ways to grow garlic, these are the things that have worked well for us here in Northern Utah (USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6b).

How Honeyville Acres Plants Garlic – Key Take-Aways:

• Plant in the last half of October, aim for the 15th of the month to the 31st.
• Source good, locally grown garlic to plant. Reserve your largest bulbs to plant.
• Keep the bulbs intact until ready to plant. When ready, break the bulbs apart into individual cloves, removing the papery wrapper from the bulb while keeping the skin on each individual clove intact.
• Plant the cloves 3 inches deep, six inches apart, with rows spaced 10 inches apart.
• Plant each clove with the pointed end facing up and the root end facing down.
• Add one teaspoon of bone meal to the bottom of each hole, mix in lightly with the soil, and then place the clove.
• If planting at a large scale, we recommend using reusable landscape fabric as a weed barrier.
• Lay 3 inches of clean, seed-free mulch prior to winter.
• Once planted, we don't typically water our garlic throughout the fall and winter. We start a regular watering routine in the spring, aiming for about 1 inch of water per week.

When to Plant Garlic

Garlic is planted in the fall, generally about 4–6 weeks before the ground freezes. That means sometime between September and November for most of the United States. Your exact timing will depend on your location and USDA Plant Hardiness Zone. Learn more here: When to Plant Garlic.

Here in Northern Utah, we plant the last half of October, starting around the 15th of the month and aiming to be finished by the 31st.

You want to give the cloves enough time to establish a good root system before winter, but you don't want to plant so early that they put on a lot of top growth before the really cold weather arrives.

And not to worry if you see a little green growth before winter. Garlic is resilient and can handle our cold winters. The important thing is that the cloves have time to get their roots established before the ground freezes.

Start With Good Soil

Good, healthy garlic starts with good soil.

Garlic is a heavy feeder, so it needs fertile soil with plenty of nutrients available throughout the growing season. It also doesn't like to sit in water, so well-drained soil is important, especially when you're planting in the fall and leaving the garlic in the ground all winter.

We spend the time after harvest and prior to planting (August–September) getting our plot ready for the next crop. Compost, soil amendments, drainage, and the condition of your soil all make a difference in how your garlic grows.

We've put together a separate post about preparing your soil for garlic, so we'll link that here once it's published.

Start With Good Garlic

If you're planting garlic, start with good seed garlic. We recommend buying planting stock from a garlic grower rather than using garlic from the grocery store. Grocery store garlic may have been grown in a very different climate, and it may also have been treated to prevent sprouting.

When choosing a variety, make sure it’s a good fit for your growing region. Garlic varieties can perform differently depending on climate, so look for varieties that are known to grow well in your area.

Select your largest and healthiest garlic bulbs to plant. If you continue to plant your largest and healthiest bulbs year after year, you can help maintain a crop of consistently large, healthy bulbs.

Keep your garlic bulbs whole until you're ready to plant. When it's time to plant, gently break the bulb apart into individual cloves. Do not peel the skin off of the individual cloves- the clove skin helps protect them while they're getting established in the ground.

And, just a reminder, one garlic clove planted = one new garlic bulb harvested.

How to Plant Garlic

Once your soil is ready and you've broken apart your garlic bulbs, you're ready to plant.

We plant our garlic about 3 inches deep and 6 inches apart with 10 inch rows. Some gardeners use a little more or less spacing depending on the variety and the space they have available, but giving the plants some room helps them develop nice-sized bulbs. And a note on the depth, aim to plant deep enough to completely cover the clove plus an inch of dirt over the top.

Plant each clove with the pointed end facing up and the root end facing down. The leaves will grow from the pointed end, so planting it facing up helps the plant grow straight toward the surface rather than having to work its way around in the soil.

When planting the clove, we put one teaspoon of bone meal in the bottom of the hole, mix it lightly into the soil, and then place the clove. Bone meal provides phosphorus, which is important for root development. Since the garlic is spending the fall building its root system, this is a good time to make sure the young roots have the nutrients they need.

Why We Use Landscape Fabric

If you're planting a few rows of garlic in your garden, landscape fabric isn’t necessary. When you're planting thousands of cloves, though, managing the weeds becomes a pretty big task. Garlic does not like to compete with weeds for essential nutrients, water or space. Weeds can hinder garlic’s ability to grow, especially in the early stages, resulting in smaller bulbs.

We use reusable landscape fabric that has holes precut with the spacing that works well for garlic. It helps keep the weeds down while also making the rows easier for us to manage. We still have weeds pop up around the planting holes and along the edges, which we hand weed throughout the spring. The landscape fabric makes a huge difference when you're managing a larger garlic plot.

Mulch Your Garlic for Winter

Once the garlic is planted, we like to give it a good layer of mulch before winter. We use straw or leaves, usually about 3 inches deep.

The mulch acts like a blanket for the garlic. It helps protect the cloves from extreme temperature swings and repeated freezing and thawing, which can push cloves up out of the soil. It also helps hold moisture in the soil and suppress weeds.

As the mulch breaks down over time, it adds organic matter back into the soil, which is another nice bonus. And whatever mulch you use, make sure it's free of weed seeds and hasn't been treated with anything you don't want going into your garden.

Now You Wait Until Spring

Planting your garlic in the fall is just the beginning of the growing cycle. For a while, it doesn't look like much is happening. But underneath the soil, your garlic is establishing its roots and getting ready for spring.

As the weather starts to warm up in early spring, garlic resumes active growth and the green shoots of the garlic plants will start to emerge from the ground- this is when you start spring care (watering, weeding, and fertilizing). We’ve posted exactly what we do each spring here: Spring Garlic Care at Honeyville Acres.

We’ve come to love the consistent cycle of growing garlic- planting a clove in the fall and getting a bulb in the summer, all while you encourage and support Mother Nature to do her thing!

We wish you a beautiful and abundant garlic crop!