(Allium sativum)
Description
Garlic is a bulbous perennial that grows long, green leaves that are folded along the length. Around July, the plant sends up a round shoot (known as a scape) with a cone-like flower pod. The white bulb is composed of multiple cloves clustered together.
Cultivation Tips
Garlic is quite cold hardy and very easy to grow from a single clove. A head of garlic picked up at the local grocery store can be separated into about a dozen cloves and each will produce a new plant. Garlic will also produce seeds from the scape (a round, central stalk produced in mid summer), which can be planted in the fall. Garlic can be grown in just about any soil type, but does best in soils rich in organic matter. It will grow in most light conditions, but will produce larger bulbs if given more sun. It requires very little space and can be grown close to many other plants.
Uses
Garlic is an essential flavor in the kitchen, with uses in just about every type of cuisine. There are also many medicinal benefits associated with garlic, such as (citation needed). Garlic can be planted around other plants as a deterrent of deer and rodents, as the smell is off putting to most mammals. The fragrant bulbs can also prevent burrowing rodents from burying nuts near and damaging the roots of plants.
Friends
Plant garlic at the base of plants that get heavy browse from deer and rodents to reduce their pressure.