Autumn Planting Garlic Cloves 'Germidour'

What You'll Need
A garden fork or trowel • Well-rotted garden compost • Concentrated Slow-Release Onion, Garlic & Shallot Feed Granules • Horticultural fleece if birds are a problem • Horticultural grit if you have heavy soil

Prepare Your Soil
Choose an open, sunny position with fertile, free-draining soil. Garlic dislikes sitting in wet ground, particularly through winter. If your soil is heavy, work in plenty of organic matter and horticultural grit to improve the structure and drainage, or grow your garlic in a raised bed or container. Avoid planting in freshly manured ground.

Planting Your Garlic
Keep the bulbs whole until you're ready to plant, then carefully separate them into individual cloves, leaving the papery skins intact. Plant each clove with the flat base down and pointed end upwards, spacing them around 15cm apart. The tip should sit approximately 2–2.5cm below the soil surface, with around 30cm between rows.

Protecting Young Shoots
Birds can sometimes pull up newly planted cloves or emerging shoots before they've rooted securely. If this becomes a problem, cover the crop with horticultural fleece or suitable netting until the plants are well established.

Watering & Feeding
Keep your garlic adequately watered during prolonged dry spells, particularly while the bulbs are actively developing and swelling. Once the bulbs are fully developed and the foliage begins to yellow, stop watering and allow the crop to mature ready for lifting.

Keep It Weed Free
Garlic has relatively shallow roots and doesn't compete well with weeds. Weed regularly by hand or hoe carefully between the plants, taking care not to damage the developing bulbs.

Growing in Containers
‘Germidour’ can also be grown in a large container with good drainage. Choose a pot at least 30cm deep, give the cloves around 15cm between plants and check the compost regularly during dry weather, as containers will need watering more often than open ground.

Good Companions
Garlic takes up relatively little room above ground, so it fits easily into a productive vegetable plot alongside crops such as carrots, beetroot and leafy salads. Just make sure neighbouring crops don't crowd it as the bulbs develop.

Making the Most of Your Bed
Quick-growing radishes and salad leaves can be grown nearby and harvested while your garlic is still developing. Leave enough space around the garlic for plenty of light and good airflow.

Crop Rotation
Garlic belongs to the onion family, so avoid planting it where onions, shallots, garlic or leeks have recently been grown. These crops can be affected by some of the same soil-borne pests and diseases.

Planning Ahead
Where practical, leave three to four years before growing onion-family crops in the same ground again. Once your garlic has been harvested in summer, the space can be used for later-sown salads and other quick-growing vegetables.

When to Harvest
Autumn-planted ‘Germidour’ will generally be ready to lift in summer. Watch the plants as they mature rather than relying on the calendar alone – once the leaves begin to yellow and die back, it's time to start checking the bulbs.

Don't Leave It Too Long
Keep an eye on your crop as it approaches maturity. Leaving ripe garlic in the ground for too long can cause the bulbs to start opening and the cloves to separate, which can affect their keeping quality.

How to Harvest
Choose a dry day and carefully loosen the soil beneath each bulb with a garden fork before lifting it. Avoid pulling hard on the foliage or bruising the bulbs.

Drying Your Garlic
Allow freshly lifted bulbs to dry thoroughly somewhere warm, dry and well ventilated. Once cured, brush away loose soil and trim the dried roots. As ‘Germidour’ is a softneck variety, the flexible dried stems can also be plaited.

Storing Your Harvest
Keep thoroughly dried bulbs somewhere cool, dry and well ventilated. Check them occasionally while they're stored and use any bulbs that begin to soften or deteriorate first.

A Great All-Round Garlic
‘Germidour’ has a mild, rich flavour that makes it an easy garlic to use generously in everyday cooking without overpowering the other ingredients.

Roast It
Tuck whole cloves around roast potatoes, vegetables, chicken or lamb, where they'll soften and mellow as they cook. You can also roast a whole bulb until the cloves are soft enough to squeeze straight from their skins.

Chop or Crush It
Crush the cloves into pasta sauces, soups and curries, finely chop them for stir-fries or mix with butter and herbs for homemade garlic bread.

Make the Most of Your Harvest
Use any damaged bulbs first after lifting and curing, keeping the best, unblemished bulbs for later. It's a simple way to make sure none of your homegrown crop goes to waste.

Understanding Your Garlic Bulbs
Garlic is supplied as a whole bulb made up of individual cloves. Before planting, carefully split the bulb apart and plant each clove separately. Each healthy clove has the potential to grow into a complete new bulb, so one garlic bulb can give you several plants and a much bigger harvest.

Bulb Size & Clove Numbers
Garlic is a natural product, so bulb size and the number and size of cloves will vary. A bulb with fewer cloves isn't necessarily smaller or poorer quality – it may simply contain fewer, larger cloves. The approximate clove count shown on the product page is a useful guide rather than an exact number for every bulb.

Hardneck Garlic
Hardneck varieties tend to produce fewer, larger cloves arranged around a firm central stem. They're particularly well suited to colder conditions and produce a flowering stem called a scape, which can be removed while young and eaten. Hardneck garlic generally has a shorter storage life than softneck types.

Softneck Garlic
Softneck varieties generally produce more cloves of varying sizes and don't have the rigid central stem found in hardnecks. Their softer, flexible foliage means the cured bulbs can be plaited. Softneck garlic generally keeps for longer than hardneck types, although storage life varies between individual varieties.

Your ‘Germidour’ Garlic
‘Germidour’ is a French softneck garlic producing large white bulbs with attractive purple cloves. You'll receive 2 bulbs, with approximately 8–10 cloves per bulb, giving you around 16–20 cloves to plant. Clove numbers and sizes can naturally vary from bulb to bulb.

When Your Garlic Arrives
Keep the bulbs whole until you're ready to plant, then carefully separate them into individual cloves, leaving their papery skins intact. If you can't plant straight away, keep the bulbs somewhere cool, dry and well ventilated until you're ready to get them into the ground.