I am in Tucson and am going to try to grow garlic this year for the first time too. http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/growing.htm had a lot of information. I am going to experiment the first year with something from the grocery store. If all goes well, I will try some other varieties. Let me know how you do. I am planning on planting in mid october.

I always have garlic growing all over my gardens. They are supposed to help with aphids. I don't know it they actually do. I usually just get what ever planting garlic is at HD or Lowes. Very easy. If you don't pull them, they act like iris - year round foliage. Quite some smell if you do pull them. Modern garlic must be developed to have less smell.

October is the only month to plant Garlic. Garlic is grown in two major divisions: Hard neck and Soft neck. Both will grow here, but best results are with soft neck. Hard neck is smaller and has a hotter taste and soft neck is mellower and easy to braid. You can use garlic right out of the store, and unless it has been sprayed with a retardent, it will grow. Check your garlic source before you buy it a lot of it is coming out of China and is old and crappy and sprayed with God knows what type of chemicals. You can also go down to your local produce house and pick up a 30 pound case. Again find out if it is Chinese. I buy from Dutch Valley Growers back east, and they sell a soft neck California Garlic. You can get it in ten pound or 30 pound cases. Even with freight, it still costs a heck of a lot less than buying the marked up so called fancy stuff from the other websites. It upsets me to see how much they bang the customer for fancy names. Still if you want to try some of the off the wall types go to the web. Otherwise Dutch Valley, your produce wholesalers, or you local store will do quite nicely. Good luck to you. I grow this and sell it locally in Phoenix. It does very well. Just remember soft neck does better in the heat. Contact me if I can be of further help.

Hello Bucks,
Thanks for the excellent post. I tried some garlic last season with limited results. I pretty much gave up and pulled it and composted. I am at it again this year. We will see what happens! I am set to plant in October.

Jonny