- Hey everyone.

Thanks for watching another episode of "My Wisconsin Backyard", where we are indeed in my backyard and the next time I say the word backyard, caller three gets a free backyard.

(upbeat music) Today we're gonna be harvesting garlic.

So here's my garlic and I like growing garlic for a number of reasons.

It's easy to grow, it's easy to store and you don't have a lot of problems with pests.

The deer don't like it, the bunnies don't eat it, there's not a lot that we're really bothered.

You can see the first two leaves here.

See, here's the first set of leaves gone, second set of leaves, all brown, and then the top sets of leaves have browning on the top.

(upbeat music) I actually planted these bulbs in the fall of last year.

I found that my bulbs are significantly bigger when I plant in the fall compared to the spring.

So I plant them usually September, October, that seems to work the best.

(upbeat music) And what you want to do is loosen the soil around it.

You wanna make sure you don't pierce the bulb 'cause that the skin is gonna be kind of fragile.

Just loosen it up with the shovel and then do the rest by hand.

(upbeat music) Here let me show you this right away.

I let these stay in too long, there's no green on 'em at all, let me show you what they look like.

See how at the top there, that layer, that protective layer is ripped and that garlic is exposed, well, there's no way that's gonna save, that's not gonna be able to save, or we're not gonna be able to cure that.

So your options for this would be just eat it fresh, since you can't save it or just wait until the fall.

Put those cloves into the ground, plant it for next year.

(upbeat music) - As you can see, got some really nice big chunks and now you have to cure this.

Now what you have to do to cure it is just kind of bunch it all together, usually about 10 and a bunch.

Hang it, usually in this weather now with July, August is a little humid, so I probably take about three weeks, four weeks to cure it, but you can't use it, you know, you can use it fresh, you can use it right away, and I like to just hang them as is, I've chopped tops off in the past before, and what that can do is promote growth, and then it'll start growing, you don't want that to happen so I literally just hang 'em as is, let them cure for a couple of weeks in a cool dark location.

I highly encourage everyone to hit up a local farmer's market.

You get a couple of bulbs of garlic, you'll know what the final product is and get those in the ground this fall, they're super easy to grow.

The birds leave it alone, the deer leave it alone.

You can't beat it.

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