Oops had a space in the album name on photobucket, try this link for pic(s)

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:567980}}

If you bought from Whetstone Farms then you bought from a fellow GardenWebber - Nancy aka nancedar. She can be found on the Harvest forum though she does check in here from time to time. She really researched for the best and spiciest garlic to grow.

My garlic (common grocery store variety) is also doing really well this year. It hasn't started to bloom, though the scapes are starting to form, yet the bulbs are already massive. Must have been the mild winter.

I grow creole garlic. It does really well here and has a wonderful 'bite' to it.

I am in the mountains of Western NC. Rock,clay soil are the best I have to offer any plants if not in a container. Any variety work for me ?
docknee4u@gmail.com

DougGuy and triangleJohn - it wasn't me you bought the garlic from - my little farm business at the Wake Forest Farmers Market is called Whetstone HomeGrown (not Whetstone Farms). I offer 50 or so varieties of homemade jam, pickles, chutney, old fashioned and gluten free bakery treats, and the seasonal white cucumber, mini cucumber, yard long beans, patty pan squash, leeks, heirloom tomatoes, blue winter squash, red okra, Asian pears, ice cream white watermelon, purple tomatillos, prickly pear cactus fruit, and fresh Brown Turkey figs. All the weird stuff. LOL -- I like to play with my food!

Music garlic is one of the best - a porcelain, though my fav for salsa is Spanish Roja - a rocambole, which unfortunately does not grow well here in the South. If your garlic begins to make scapes, cut them off to allow the bulbs underground to fill out. When harvesting, tie them up to air dry for a couple of weeks before trying to store them (pinch a neck to see if there is any moisture left).

docknee - choose a hardneck Asiatic, Turban or Creole variety. Or, softneck artichoke or silverskin variety. Dig the clay rocks down about 8" and amend by adding "soil conditioner" (in bags from big box stores - usually fir bark), a yellow bag of cow doo, and compost, if you've got it. Since the garlic stays in the ground a long time it has to have good soil to begin with. Don't be fooled into thinking red clay doesn't grow anything -- look around at all those trees!! If you only need 20 or so garlic bulbs, it really won't be that big of a space to prepare - maybe 10" wide and however long for the number of cloves you'll plant. You can even grow it in your house's landscape area if you don't use pesticides or herbicides on your plants or grass. The deer won't eat it, nor will any other critter than us.

Nancy the nancedar

Here is a link that might be useful: Garlic Info

Well it has been 2 seasons now with growing music garlic in the long bed, and the garlic produces small to average size heads. The taste is really good, but I think there is not enough organic matter in the soil to produce the large heads that I was hoping for.

This season I plan to dig in some composted leaf mulch and some compost we made and maybe some manure, and give it another try. I have been learning how to grow/improve garlic but it's not something you will pick up overnight.

The lady at the Wake Forest Farmer's Market is Gabriel, she goes by "Gabby." Always has the BEST garlic..

Yum garlic!! Thanks for the growing advice, I look forward to giving it a try.