overwintering garlic

[the big lebowski]

hi all im looking to plant some garlic this year and over winter it can anyone recommend me some to grow ? my soil is clay (if that makes a diff) id like to grow about 20-30 and was hoping to spend around £30 ,also i ordered some from a company in the past and when i did the order online it said they would be dispatched when available ,i thought this ment a few weeks and they didnt turn up till december time which was no use to me really ,any thoughts welcome cheers

[Jay-ell]

I'd say if your soil is clay dig in plenty of compost to the bed to lighten the soil as the bulbs might not swell much if the soil is too heavy. The bed I had mine in last year was heavy soil and some of the plants the stem went straight to the root plate without the intervening bulbs

Are you after softneck or hard neck? Softneck keeps longer but hard neck is supposed to have a superior flavour. Hard neck produces scapes - which was the most useful bit of mine this year.

I've noticed that some varieties produce more cloves per head than others so the number of heads needed may vary with the variety.

Price per head also varies - with Marco looking to be cheaper than, say, Provence Wight. If you're not a garlic connoisseur and just want to grow enough to cook then Marco isn't a bad choice - it's softnecked, cheap and can also be planted in spring as well just in case you forgot about it in autumn

[the big lebowski]

hi, thats some good advice ,im going to put them in my potato bed so ill add some compost in when i dig that over,i wasnt sure on the hard or soft types ,that was going to be my next question , i guess ill go 60/40 soft neck as id like to keep them for cooking and use the hard necks 1st ,thx v much ,cheers