I dry ours in an airy place, under cover. I tie the greens together in bunches of 10 or so with string, and hang the bundles either in an unchinked outbuilding or under the metal roof of a porch - out of hot sunlight.If you are in a humid area, between 3 and 6 weeks later at most, they are cured.After curing, i cut away the leaves, brush dirt and snip the roots down short. Peel one layer of the garlic's paper away to get that clean, white look. No cleaning water is needed, even when planted in clayish soil. I found that if i harvest my garlics when the soil is quite dry, i get a much cleaner bunch of bulbs.
I just wouldn't harvest it when water-logged, but damp has not been a problem.
Glad

I have a situation where the soil won't dry out very well when its time to harvest, but it doesn't seem to bother much of anything. I pull them, knock off as much dirt as I can, then lay them on tables covered with several layers of newspaper, kind of layering them so the bulbs are lying on top of the stalks of the ones beneath.

Thanks so much! This is all I needed to know. :-) Glad, your explanation was just perfect, concise and easy to picture. Thanks too David for the reassurance that the watering won't do much if any harm to the garlic bulbs, I can't wait to start drying them! :-)

In my experience, water during the last month or so causes the bulbs to start sprouting which does not ruin them for personal use, but they are not as cosmetically perfect.

Where I live we just about always get a storm around Memorial Day and then once or twice in June which has, indeed, caused a small portion of my crop to start sprouting. This year I considered putting a tent over my beds, but ended up pulling them a bit earlier than I had thought I would to avoid the showers we had this week.

Does the garlic have to be cured outside...or will a dry room in the house be ok. I just worry about all the rain we have been having lately, and I dont have any place that I could keep them outside where the rain wouldnt affect them.

Thanks :)
Donna

I just dry mine on the kitchen counter, and it hasn't been a problem. I'm afraid that if I dry it outside, some critter or other will make off with it.

Garlic can be cut off the stalks imediatly after harvest and cured by putting them on a screen. We cure ours inside a shed (it its humid here with lots of summer storms).
The garlic lady

can garlic be stored or kept somehow for more than a season or two. mine is just starting to show shoots from last seasons crop.