How to grow garlic in pots and small spaces

Garlic is one of the few crops that will grow properly in a pot

You don't need a paddock for garlic, and that's what makes it such a good crop for a courtyard or a balcony, because a single clove turns into a whole bulb and the plant stays narrow the entire time it's doing it. What garlic does want is a long run at it, so the thing to get your head around before you start is that this is a crop you plant and then mostly leave alone for the better part of a year.

When to plant it here, which is the bit most guides get wrong

Garlic goes in over autumn in South Australia, roughly from April through to June, and it comes out in late spring or early summer once the leaves start dying back. A lot of the growing advice floating about online is written for the northern hemisphere and has you planting in October, which here lands you in the middle of spring with a crop that never forms a decent bulb, so ignore the month and go by the season instead.

Getting hold of cloves worth planting

Supermarket garlic is usually treated so it won't sprout, and a fair bit of it is imported, so it's the wrong place to start even though it's the obvious one. What you want is seed garlic, sold as seed garlic, from a seed supplier or a grower. Softneck types generally suit our milder winters better than hardnecks do, and they keep for months once they're cured, which matters when you're pulling up a whole year's worth in one go.

Where it will actually grow

  • A deep pot. At least 20cm deep with drainage holes that work, because garlic sitting in wet soil rots rather than swells.
  • A raised bed. The easiest version, since you control the soil and it drains on its own.
  • A trough or a planter box. Works well along a fence line where you've got sun but no depth of ground.
  • A gap in an existing bed. Garlic takes up so little room sideways that it slots in around slower things without bothering them.

Planting the cloves

Break the head into individual cloves and leave the papery skin on each one, then plant them pointy end up about 3cm deep and 10cm apart. Full sun is what you're after, so pick the brightest spot you have got, and fill the pot with a decent potting mix with some compost worked through it rather than scooping up whatever is in the yard.

Watering and feeding through the long wait

Keep the soil damp rather than wet, because too much water rots the bulb and too little gives you something the size of a marble. Garlic isn't a heavy feeder, so a liquid feed every few weeks through the growing months is plenty, and the one thing worth being fussy about is weeds, since garlic has very little leaf to fight with and loses that contest badly.

Knowing when to pull it up

Most types are ready somewhere around 7 or 8 months after planting, and the sign is the lower leaves browning off while the top few are still green. Dig them out rather than pulling on the stem, then hang them somewhere airy and out of the sun for a fortnight or so to cure. If you leave them in the ground too long the bulb splits open and it won't store.

The quick version, if 8 months sounds like a lot

Plant a few extra cloves close together and cut the green shoots as they come up, the same way you would with spring onions. Garlic greens go through a salad or a stir fry nicely and you get something to eat inside a few weeks instead of waiting until next summer.

Shop related products

Did you know we stock garden pots in a fair range of sizes in the shop, and not everything in the garden centre makes it onto the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 and we'll tell you what's out there.

Have a look through the garden range, or come into the garden centre and we'll sort out the mix and the feed for you.

Read next

Garlic is the crop that teaches you patience whether you were after that lesson or not, and I'm still not a patient gardener, so we're all learning.

Cheers,
Candeece

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