Episode: 10
Title: Growing Garlic
Broadcast: May 21st
Presenter: Steve Wood

Autumn is the time of year to be planting garlic. It’s quite easy to achieve a bountiful crop.

• Imported garlic, and a range of other imported vegetables are treated with an insecticide gas either prior to departure from their country of origin or on arrival into Australia.
• This is to ensure any unwanted pests are destroyed, but it does take the life force out of the bulbs, making them unlikely to grow.
• To plant, break the garlic up into individual cloves, planting them approximately twice the depth of each clove, spacing each one about ten centimetres apart.
• Sprinkle blood and bone, about a handful per square metre, over the bulbs once they are covered.
• If you’re planting in poor or sandy soil, add thirty litres of compost per square metre before planting.
• With two weeks the garlic will start to grow, unaided throughout the winter months.
• By mid to late October, each garlic clove will start to swell, forming a complete, new head of garlic. They are ready to harvest once the foliage starts to die off.
• Store your harvest in a dry, cool location.
• Plant extra so that you have some spare stock to plant in the following autumn.
• A three–metre by two–metre garden bed can produce up to 150 heads of garlic.

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