Permanent garlic bed

[veggiechicken]

I'm sure this has been discussed before - was it Snadger?

Anyway, I grow garlic ('cos its easy to bung a few cloves in) but I don't eat it much and find green garlic easier to use than the faff of peeling a clove...................so, I'm thinking of creating a permanent garlic bed. Filling it with cloves and letting them get on with it. I could pull a bit when I wanted some, green or mature. Much the same as I do with the perennial leeks.
Waddya reckon? Would it work?

Oh and, please don't suggest I grow wild garlic/ransoms instead because they're too invasive and I find the smell overwhelming!

[bearded bloke]

Would you need to think/worry about white onion rot in a permanant bed VC ?

[SusieG]

Love and use garlic lots, VC. Hope it works! I'll watch this space 'cos I'd certainly leave a bit of space to do the same if it's viable!

[veggiechicken]

No idea, BB. Don't have it now - don't want it either.

[muddled]

I think it would work as long as the area has good drainage so they don't rot off in a damp year.
My only concern would be if the green bits turned bitter as they do when stored garlic sprouts indoors.

I have left some garlic and onions in my flower beds to see if they will give me lovely round flowers this year and all have survived the winter.
The flowers taste lovely in salads, a gentle version of the garlic taste.

I also grow garlic chives but for some reason they don't survive winters in my garden.

[veggiechicken]

RE Garlic chives, I have some in a pot that have been there for about 10 years? I never use them for cooking, just sniffing the flowers which smell like roses! Bizarre

[bearded bloke]

It's the only possible 'downside' I can think of VC, I have had ransoms & three pointed leek in the invasive permanent bed for a few years without issue, are garlic subject to crop rotation rules ?

[Thelma Sanders]

If you leave bulbs in then each clove grows the next year. They're too close together to even grow properly, let alone form a bulb. In the end there's nothing worth picking...........

Well, that's what happened on the adjoining derelict plot.

So, I think if you're going to do it, you'll have to do some thinning out, just to keep them going.

[bearded bloke]

The flowers taste lovely in salads, a gentle version of the garlic taste.

They are also nice folded into softened butter & spread on warm toast

[muddled]

mmm...that sounds good!

[Scarlet]

Would you need to think/worry about white onion rot in a permanant bed VC ?

No idea, BB. Don't have it now - don't want it either.

Thats what happened to me, although I did harvest and plant back single cloves at the same time. I can't grow anything "onion like" there now. I lost all my garlic last year. Elephant garlic was grown elsewhere. I've had to make a totally new bed that's not been cultivated before, the sour not for me is they are in the ground for such a long time and you really can't tell so it's such a waste of good growing ground.

[bearded bloke]

mmm...that sounds good!

Also makes a nice mild flavour in baked potatoes with a cheese topping

[Scarlet]

RE Garlic chives, I have some in a pot that have been there for about 10 years? I never use them for cooking, just sniffing the flowers which smell like roses! Bizarre

I use these every week..delicious!

[Lisasbolt]

i forgot to pull a few last year and they grew as a bulb, like a little patch of garlic chives, i have just been snipping away as and when and they seem happy. I also pulled some up and replanted them into pots, must have snapped loads of the roots but i needed the space and they have just got on with it and growing very nicely.
could you just do a few pots and then if you do get any dreaded mould etc you could just remove the lot.

[veggiechicken]

I'd thought of filling one of my 30 or so mini-beds with garlic. One already has perennial leeks and another has potato onions. They're not near the proper veg beds but I don't know enough about how white onion rot spreads to understand the risk