Reasons to Plant Garlic: Benefits of Homegrown Garlic
• Garlic is one of the easiest plants you can grow and actually seems to thrive on neglect. Basically, you just plant the cloves in the soil, cover them with straw or grass clippings, then sit back and wait for spring. • Garlic plant uses included a nearly endless list of health benefits. Garlic has more allicin, a compound that makes garlic so healthy, along with plenty of antibacterial, anti-oxidant, and anti-fungal properties. Garlic may help you fend off a variety of common ailments, from the common cold to high blood pressure, tick bites, ringworm, and athlete’s foot. • When it comes to reasons to grow garlic, keep in mind that home grown garlic is fresher and more flavorful than sub-standard, store-bought garlic, which is often grown in China and shipped to distributors in the U.S. That garlic may fumigated, bleached, and dosed with chemicals to prevent sprouting before it lands in your neighborhood supermarket. • Growing garlic costs nearly nothing. If you use a lot of garlic, you’ll save a few dollars here, and probably even more in the long run. Every clove you plant produces several times the amount of garlic you started with. Additionally, you can save your best garlic bulbs for planting later.
More About Growing Garlic
• Plant garlic with tomatoes, peppers, carrots, and cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collard greens, or kale. Garlic will deter aphids, Japanese beetles, and spider mites. • Garlic may also discourage deer, rabbits, mice, rats, moles, and voles, and some people claim garlic is a terrific snake repellent. • If you grow your own garlic, you can experiment with different varieties of hardneck or softneck garlic to determine which ones you like best. Unless you shop in gourmet supermarkets, commercial garlic varieties are usually limited to a single type. • Unlike most vegetables, garlic is planted in fall and harvested the following summer. This means empty garden space is put to good use. After you harvest garlic, you’ll still have plenty of time to plant veggies such as beans, squash, or corn.
