When do I need to plant garlic?

I had a go at growing some garlic this year, but I planted it late (end of March) and not surprisingly, the bulbs I got were pretty small. When is the best time to plant garlic for harvest next year? I've heard that it needs to 'overwinter', so should I be thinking about getting it in the ground soon?

Er.....when there's a risk of vampires?

Sorry - there's something here.

http://gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_veg_diary/fruit_veg_mini_project_april_3_garlic.asp

Er.....when there's a risk of vampires?

Hehe.. I have this great mental image of planting an anti-vampire garlic moat around my house now

Well, according to that article, October it is! That's a handy link - I was going to just use some of the bulbs I had left over from the spring, but apparently I'll need a hardy variety for overwintering so I'd better get myself to the garden centre for some new bulbs

I've been growing garlic for the last few years and have had some really good results with it.

Each year I've had much bigger bulbs than you can buy in the shops and they've lasted months.

However this year has been terrible, the bulbs hardly grew at all despite being watered every night - I've dumped the lot.

Think I've had some sort of blight, the stems hardly grew at all and then died off quickly.

When did you plant yours extaxman? The garlic I planted did a similar thing to yours - the stems got to about 5in tall, but then just withered and died off. With the exception of one, all the bulbs were tiny, although there were no signs of rot on any of them. I had assumed it was because I planted them so late, but you're second person to mention to me that they had problems with their garlic this year, so perhaps the unsettled weather contributed something to it too

I planted 2 varieties.

The ordinary variety have made very small bulbs that will probably end up getting roasted round a joint.

The other variety that is still growing vigorously (in a different part of the garden I add) is called Elephant Garlic & has (as you'd imagine) massive bulbs.

I got 3 segments from Homebase this spring & planted immediately.

So far so good.

Planted my garlic early April, did well for the first few weeks then did nothing at all.

Planted some onions in the same patch and they've not done very well either. I think it is due to the dry weather we had, although I watered them every day it was just wetting the surface.

I'll be planting mine as soon as it arrives - Purple Wight.

Last year planted it in late December and got mainly small bulbs (but they were supermarket bulbs, as I'd missed other suppliers). Bulbs that my lottie neighbour gave me to plant did much better - similar size to supermarket.

After reading the posts above, I think I'm going to try planting two lots of garlic - one in spring and the other within the next month or so. Be interesting to see how they compare!

I noticed a few varieties mentioned (elephant garlic, purple wight) Does anyone have any particular recommendations for tried and tested varieties and/or suppliers? I haven't tried them personally, but the The Garlic Farm seems to have a lot of different varieties on offer! I quite like the look of the mixed pack! )

Tracie, I don't think I'd wait until spring to plant your garlic, as the bulbs need the cold of the winter to encourage them to split. If it doesn't get cold enough, you'll probably find that you'll get one large bulb, instead of 'bulblets'.

I've ordered mine from Dobies who do free delivery. Notice on the order confirmation that they are also sending me some free 'mustard golden streaks'.

I think Elephant garlic is milder than the smaller bulbs.