Garlic ‘Rose Wight’ (Autumn Planting)

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. Cover the cloves with around 3–4cm of soil, leaving approximately 30–40cm 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 dry weather, particularly in spring as the bulbs begin to develop and swell. Avoid waterlogging the soil and stop watering during the final few weeks before harvest to help the bulbs mature.

Watch for Scapes
As a hardneck garlic, ‘Rose Wight’ produces a curling flower stem known as a scape. Remove it while young so the plant can concentrate its energy on developing the bulb. Don't throw it away – the tender scapes are edible and have a fresh garlic flavour that's great in stir-fries, omelettes or pesto.

Keep It Weed Free
Garlic doesn't compete well with weeds, so keep the area around the plants clear. Weed carefully by hand or hoe lightly between the rows, taking care not to damage the developing bulbs.

Growing in Containers
‘Rose Wight’ can also be grown in a large container with good drainage. Give the cloves plenty of space and place the container in the sunniest position you have. Container-grown garlic will dry out more quickly, so check it regularly during dry weather.

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, the cleared space can be put straight back to work with later-sown salads and other quick-growing vegetables.

When to Harvest
‘Rose Wight’ is an early-summer garlic, usually ready around June to July. Watch the plants as well as the calendar – when most of the foliage has yellowed and started to die back, it's time to check your bulbs.

Don't Leave It Too Long
Don't leave mature bulbs sitting in the ground unnecessarily. If garlic becomes overripe, the protective skins can begin to deteriorate and the cloves may start to separate, making the bulbs less suitable for keeping.

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 stem or bruising the bulbs.

Drying Your Garlic
Leave freshly lifted bulbs to dry thoroughly somewhere warm, dry and well ventilated. Once the outer skins and foliage are completely dry, brush away loose soil and trim the roots.

Storing Your Harvest
Once properly cured, keep the bulbs somewhere dry with plenty of airflow. Hardneck garlic generally doesn't keep as long as softneck varieties, so plan to enjoy ‘Rose Wight’ in the months following harvest.

Garlic That Doesn't Hide Away
‘Rose Wight’ has an intense aroma and rich flavour, so this is one to reach for when you really want the garlic to be noticed.

Roast It
Its large cloves are particularly satisfying to roast. Tuck them around potatoes, vegetables and meat, or roast a whole bulb until the cloves become soft, sweet and easy to squeeze from their skins.

Use It at Full Strength
Finely chop or crush the cloves into pesto, garlic butter, marinades and dressings when you want to enjoy ‘Rose Wight’ at its punchiest.

Enjoy the Scapes Too
Don't overlook the young scapes from your hardneck garlic. They have a fresh garlic flavour and can be chopped into stir-fries and omelettes or blitzed into pesto – giving you something to harvest before the bulbs themselves are ready.

Understanding Your Garlic Bulbs
Garlic is supplied as a whole bulb made up of individual cloves. Separate the bulb just before planting and plant each clove individually. Each healthy clove can develop into a complete new bulb.

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 therefore a guide rather than an exact number for every bulb.

Hardneck Garlic
Hardneck varieties typically produce fewer, larger cloves arranged around a firm central stem. They also produce the characteristic curling flower stem known as a scape, which can be removed while young and eaten. Hardneck garlic generally doesn't store for as long as 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 can be plaited once dried, and they generally have a longer storage life than hardneck garlic.

Your ‘Rose Wight’ Garlic
‘Rose Wight’ is a northern Spanish hardneck garlic, producing rosy pink and white bulbs with substantial dark pink to brownish-pink cloves. You'll receive 2 bulbs, with approximately 10–14 cloves per bulb. As this is a natural product, the exact number and size of cloves can vary.

When Your Garlic Arrives
Keep the bulbs whole until you're ready to plant and separate the cloves immediately before planting, leaving their papery skins intact. If you can't plant straight away, keep your garlic somewhere cool, shaded, dry and well ventilated until you're ready to get it into the ground.