Vegetable Gardening for Dummies by Charlie Nardozzi

Author:Charlie Nardozzi
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Horticulture, Plants, Vegetable gardening, Gardening, Vegetables, Kitchen gardens, Garden Design, General, Gardening: growing fruit & vegetables, Vegetable Crops
ISBN: 9780470498705
Publisher: For Dummies
Published: 2009-09-08T07:00:00+00:00

Garlic

If any vegetable has experienced a renaissance lately, it has to be garlic (Allium sativum). In recent history, garlic was poo-pooed as a low-class herb that needed to be masked on your breath, or you'd risk social embarrassment. Now it's the chic ingredient in many gourmet restaurants and touted as a major medicinal herb to cure everything from earaches to high cholesterol. Garlic also is a key ingredient in some insect and animal repellents and is very effective at repelling vampires (just kidding, I think). These uses come as no surprise to anyone who knows the history of garlic. It has been used medically for centuries, but only recently did people rediscover its benefits.

For some unknown reason, many also believe that garlic is difficult to grow. That isn't true. I describe some popular garlic varieties and explain how to grow garlic in the following sections.

Varieties

Even though you could grow your own garlic from bulbs bought in grocery stores, most of those varieties are adapted to a California climate. Unless you live in central California where most garlic is commercially grown, it's best to select varieties from catalogs and local garden centers.

The beauty of growing your own garlic is being able to sample the selection of varieties now available. Choosing the variety adapted for your area is the first step, but then you also can try varieties from around the world. The flavors of these different varieties can vary from mild to spicy hot.

Garlic comes in two basic types:

Softneck: This type of garlic produces 12 to 18 cloves per bulb in several layers around a main stem. Softneck varieties tend not to produce a flower stalk and are the best types for long-term storage and braiding (twisting the garlic tops in a braid so they're easy to hang in the kitchen). Some varieties include ‘New York White', ‘Inchelium Red', ‘Silverskin', and ‘Early Red Italian'. ‘Susanville' is a good variety for hot-summer areas.

Hardneck: This type produces fewer cloves per stem than softneck garlic (6 to 12), but the cloves are larger. They grow in a single circle around a woody stem. The hardneck varieties also produce an attractive flower stalk called a scape that forms small bulblets at the end. The bulblets and scape are edible (see Figure 11-2). Hardneck varieties don't store as long as softneck varieties, but I've never had any trouble getting the bulbs to last through winter.

The hardneck group has more diversity in clove flavor and color. Varieties to try include ‘German Extra Hardy', ‘Russian Red', ‘Ajo Roja', and ‘Persian Star'. ‘German Extra Hardy' is particularly cold hardy and good for severe-winter areas. ‘Ajo Roja' is particularly well adapted to growing in California and the South.

Figure 11-2: Hardneck garlics produce attractive and edible tops.

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