Plant along the edges of your bed. This serves two purposes. First, it leaves the main section of the bed for other plants and leaves the garlic undisturbed. Second, garlic can repel small critters, like rabbits, from nibbling your tender lettuce and carrot tops. Garlic does really well in containers, too, if you have limited bed space.
4. Make sure the soil is healthy.
If you’ve done a good job of keeping your soil healthy with regular amendments of compost, you shouldn’t need fertilizer. However, if you have had issues with plants not thriving, a soil test is in order. You can’t properly fix the issue if you don’t know what’s wrong. A soil test will tell you what you need to do. To plant, gently break the head apart into cloves. Keep the papery covering on them. Dig a hole about two to three inches deep. Plant the clove large side down and pointy side up and cover. Plant them four to six inches apart, depending on the variety of garlic. The larger the bulb, the more space it needs.
5. Mulch.
Since the bulbs overwinter, they need a bit of protection, especially in raised beds and containers. Mulch thickly with leaves, grass clippings, pine needles— about two to three inches deep. You want to keep the soil from drying out and to moderate the temperature. The cloves are planted only two inches below the surface, making them vulnerable to frost heaving. Mulching helps keep the temperature from fluctuating widely. And should you have a dry winter, the cloves won’t dry out if they are mulched properly.
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