I spent a merry hour this morning harvesting the garlic whilst dodging the showers. I’m really pleased with the bulbs, they’re the biggest I’ve ever  grown. I planted cloves of ‘Cristo’ at the end of last year, they spent a few months buried under deep snow but are none the worse for it. Garlic needs a spell of cold weather – it certainly got that!

The bulbs are currently laid out on racks in the greenhouse to dry, when they ‘rustle’ they’re ready to store either in nets or old tights. I might plait the leaves this year and hang them.

Just as an experiment and for fun (because that’s what gardening is all about) I popped a few organic shop bought cloves in some spare ground when I planted the Cristo cloves. Here’s the result:

Yeah I know they’re small but look at that colour, gorgeous! They split well and are totally usable so I’m chuffed with them. If you’ve never grown a single veg in your life I’d highly recommend starting with garlic. Dead easy to do just pop some garlic cloves in a spare patch of soil (pointy end facing upwards) anytime from autumn to winter, just under the soil level will do then look forward to some home-grown garlic. Yummy!