The past week has been a “heat dome,” with a heat wave of 100 ° most days. Going into it, I could see where we might see rain, and that was on the 4th of July. Not wanting the garlic to get wet after drying out in the bed the past 2 weeks, I went out early to harvest both the hard- and soft-neck garlic. It was in the upper 80s even at 9 am.
I had tested a bulb of the hardneck on June 23rd to see how it was. It looked good, so I just let it start drying out in the bed.
I didn’t grow much garlic this year, as this was my “starting year” for what will become my garlic seed. A local friend had gifted me a couple of bulbs of what she grows, so it was already acclimatized to the area.
I had tried last year to grow my garlic from Whidbey, but it was an utter failure. Bluntly, getting garlic grown near you matters.
It handled the long, very cold winter without issue. It came up strong in spring and handled the late-spring freezes.
When I harvest, I pull it all up, find a shady area, and cut most of the stalks off. Then I trim the bottoms. I don’t knock all the soil off – just gentle brushing of any clumps.
It will fall off as it dries and cures. I clean it up more after it is dry.
I harvested 36 heads of garlic. Yes, rookie numbers for sure. These heads have many cloves, however. I grew a 4-foot-by-4-foot bed this year. I will plant an entire 8-by-8-foot bed this coming fall. Doubling the garlic is how you build it up over the years. We will still have 2/3 of the crop to eat.
In past years, I often grew hundreds of heads worth of garlic, and I sold much of it to others to plant. When we moved in at the end of March 2025, I left behind a year’s worth of garlic in the ground. I told friends they were welcome to harvest it before the house was sold. I didn’t want to see it be wasted. But I was 2800 miles away.
Last fall, I had planted softneck garlic, and it was a full failure. It rotted over the winter. I had maybe 2 or 3 bulbs come up. In late winter, I had a bag of softneck California garlic that started sending up shoots in the garage. I planted it for giggles, and this did grow. But being “spring-planted,” it was a lot smaller. Still edible and fine to enjoy. Just smaller.
Softneck is harder to harvest; you usually need to pop the ground, as the necks are so thin they pull off. Use a hand shovel, but don’t get close to where the bulb would be, so as not to damage it.
At our last house, we had found this homemade tool rack in the well house, and it came along with us here, only for me to realize it wouldn’t work in the tiny shed I have out back. As I was thinking about how to cure the garlic, an idea popped into my mind.
I cut hardware cloth to fit, and used a staple gun to hold it down.
Each piece of garlic fits on the stem. Any missing stems I fitted in between. Just walk away and ignore. It is tucked into the basement, in a corner of the shop. It is cool and dry there, unlike outside, where it is hot and humid in summer.
Once it is fully dried and cured, we will keep it down there, in baskets.
And come October, close to Halloween, you will find me planting it, planning for the next year’s harvest. Which I hope will be double this year.
~Sarah