How to grow garlic in a small garden

In my small city veggie patch, self-sufficiency is a pipedream.

There's not the room to grow enough food to meet all my needs — nor do I have the time or energy for that mountain of work.

But a few years back, I thought it would be fun to experiment with one crop I could realistically be self-sufficient in: garlic.

It stores well, it's fairly compact and low maintenance to grow, and homegrown tastes so much better than store-bought jars of minced garlic.

So, in April 2020, I put my first cloves into the ground.

Here's what I learnt over the next five years of trying — and often failing — to grow good garlic.

My first few years of garlic failures

That first year was, to put it bluntly, a disaster.

My 2020 harvest didn't stand much of a chance because I didn't enrich my soil with enough organic fertiliser and compost beforehand, not realising garlic is a heavy feeder.

I then planted the cloves about 5 centimetres apart — which, it turns out, is far too close together (15cm is much better).

The result was such comically tiny cloves that I ended up fermenting them in honey as a homemade cold-and-flu remedy.

Delicious, but not quite the pantry staple I'd envisioned.

Year two, I planted in a spot that was quite shady and promptly learnt another key lesson: not enough sunlight equals small bulbs. Garlic needs about six to eight hours of direct sunlight to thrive. 

Come year three, I had the soil and sunlight right, but I didn't plant the cloves deeply enough. This time, I was rewarded with medium-sized bulbs — better, but not there yet.  

How I finally grew a year's supply of good garlic

By 2024, after a year's break to redesign my garden according to permaculture principles, I was ready to put all those hard-won lessons into practice.

I planted in early April and waited patiently (sort of) until the leaves started to dry off and topple over in late November. That's a way garlic tells you it's ready.

I was overjoyed to discover I'd grown my best crop yet — only to watch the bulbs go mouldy in my kitchen a couple of months later because I hadn't cured them properly after harvest.

Yet another lesson learnt: freshly picked garlic needs to hang somewhere shady, dry and well-ventilated for at least a fortnight to harden the skins and seal the bulbs for storage.

I salvaged what I could and froze edible cloves in their skins, where they lasted for months and kept me in homegrown garlic for the rest of the year.

My 2025 harvest — cured properly this time, fingers crossed — is currently carefully stored in my pantry. And my 2026 cloves have just gone in the ground.

My top five garlic-growing tips

• Source locally adapted seed garlic, which often grows better in your specific climate and conditions. I get mine from local Fleurieu Peninsula or Adelaide Hills growers, though I'm hoping my homegrown cloves will soon be good enough to replant.

• Select only the largest cloves from each bulb to plant. Don't bother planting the small ones; eat them instead.

• Pre-soak cloves overnight in a liquid fertiliser before planting to encourage stronger root growth. Seaweed solutions or biofertilisers work well; I use my own DIY fertiliser made from garden weeds soaked in rainwater for a month. 

• Space cloves at least 15cm apart, or they'll compete for nutrients, and plant with at least 5cm of soil on top — a stick marked at 5cm (a "dibber") helps make the right depth holes.

• Mulch well (I use wheat straw) as garlic hates competition from weeds.

How much space my garlic takes up

I now know to plant about 30 bulbs to be self-sufficient in garlic. About 25 typically survive to harvest, which is plenty to cover me for a year.

I plant in three rows, so the crop needs a bed about four metres long by 60cm wide.

That's a fair whack of space monopolised for seven to eight months each year. But it's worth it for delicious homegrown garlic without any chemical nasties.

For those short on garden space, garlic can also be grown in medium-sized pots.

Why I love the slow journey of learning to grow garlic

Considering it's taken five years and a lot of failure to reach my "self-sufficient in garlic" goal, you might wonder why I didn't just give up.

But that gradual pace is what I love about gardening, the way plants teach you slowly across seasons and years — an antidote to our hectic modern world, where technology advances so fast it can feel hard to keep up.

In contrast, what I learn in the garden today will still apply tomorrow, and next year, and maybe even next century, for those who come after me. I find great comfort in that.

Koren Helbig is a freelance journalist and sustainable city living educator who practices permaculture and grows organic food in the backyard of her small urban Tarntanya/Adelaide home.