Dawn has done stated most of what I would say. Here garlic is usually ready late June to mid July. This year I expect an earlier harvest if it stays warm. Early to mid June. Most of mine grew all winter this year. Two varieties planted at the same time didn't even come up till about 2 1/2 weeks ago. Imagine they have a nice root system. I grew on bulb of elephant garlic last summer and replanted the cloves. They have showed no signs of being ready yet.

OK, I have 2 plants of elephant garlic and they look about like that but are starting to send up a seed stalk. Can I still save it? I will probably just replant most of it anyway.

Dawn and Elk, thanks for the information and encouragement. I will wait awhile longer. I do notice today some browning at the tips of the leaves, which is probably the result of our erratic weather. With rain forecast every day for the coming week, withholding water is going to be impossible, though.

Carol, it's funny how you and I seem to always be doing the same things LOL! I'll probably replant mine, too, since it's the only one that survived.

I hadn't planted garlic in quite a few years, but I do know regular garlic does send up a flower stalk. This is my first time with elephant garlic so not sure if it behaves the same way, but from your comments, looks like maybe it does. I had been told that if you let the plant go to seed, you will not get good cloves, so when the flower stalk emerges, you should fold it over so it won't mature, wait a couple of weeks and then take the plant from the ground. I don't know if this was good advice or bad, but it's what I did when I grew garlic in years past. Some people cure the cloves and then plant them in the fall. Back then, I would dig up all the garlic and replant some of the cloves immediately. I had garlic ready to harvest every spring that way. Maybe my success with garlic in those days was in spite of my best efforts, sometimes it happens that way. I had poor soil, lots of weeds, and very little time to be out in the garden, but my tomatoes never got diseased and I always had a nice garlic crop. Go figure.

My regular garlic that I planted last fall is not anywhere near ready, but maybe it will get there in the next few weeks.

Ilene,
Just remember do what works for you. What works for you may not work for me. I was taught gardening by my Mother and grew up thinking the garden needed to be weed free and thought the same when I farmed. About two summers ago we were at a friends and the weeds were terrible in the garden and several feet high. Thought that was because this family had been gone for a time and had someone tending the garden. Then she said that it was intentional. That she had found here with our winds ect. the tomatoes did better that way. She also used a sprinkler if I remember right. Another no no according to many. Hers was just loaded with maters. Finding them was another matter. Not sure how hers did last year in the drought, heat and the worst year I've seen here. This is a hard working lady so really believe it is because she thinks it works better. I also read a recent article where some research has determined some protection whether weeds or other plants especially if they have some height and bushiness to them helps. One of the suggestions was sunflowers and can't remember the rest. Jay

Ilene, We may do the same things at the same time, but it my case it is because I am lazy. Last year I gave many tomato plants, a few datura, and maybe something else to this nice retired school teacher that lives in Missouri, but fairly close to me. She is a lovely lady and wanted to do something in return for me. She sent me some elephant garlic and a few walking onions. I didn't have a good place to put them at the time, so I potted them into large pots with plans to plant out later. There were four elephant garlic bulbs and it was springtime so I thought they wouldn't be ready to use, so I just stuck the whole thing into the pot. Somewhere in walking around the yard and garden, I lost one out of my bucket and never did find it, but I planted the other three. Occasionaly I would give them a little water. About a month ago, it had rained hard and I went outside and found a turtle in the garlic pot. I think he was just trying to get out of the water. LOL Anyway, I still have three plants, but one is not very big. The largest of the three is sending up a stalk. Aren't they called scapes, or scipes, or something like that? You can tell how much I know about garlic. LOL

Anyway, it is still growing, and the pot of walking onions is now a very full pot of walking onions, so I have to get them out soon. I have just been "maxed out" this spring. I think I am too old to do as many things as I still try to do.

It is not yet ready. It should put up a flower stalk soon. I always clip those off as they rob strength from the bulb. Here in 6b we usually dig ours after they are pretty well yellowed but before they die so much that they are hard to find, or as Dawn said, lose flavor from too much heat. I treat my regular garlic the same way. Oh and we always replant our garlic right after we dig it, mulching them well. They will sprout when the weather cools in the fall overwinter and you repeat the process next year.

Carol, I have walking onions too.

My mother used to keep a patch growing all the time, as did her mother-in-law, and her mother before her. And who knows how many generations before that? But they called them "winter onions". It was not uncommon for Mom to go out in the dead of winter and tease a few of those onions out of the ground for a pot of stew she was making. They're so strong, one or two is all you need!

My mother's been deceased for awhile and she was really hateful the last few years of her life so my onions came from a dear friend who died of cancer just a month ago. When I look at them it makes me think of Becky and how she loved her garden, and I always smile.

Dorothy, I see you do your garlic the way I used to, even down to planting the cloves right away, so I will continue on and watch for the flower stalk on that elephant garlic.

Jay, gardening in Oklahoma is a crap-shoot anyway, IMO. When I was working full time and raising grandsons there was little time to work in the garden. The lambs-quarter would come up so thick amongst the tomatoes that the casual observer would wonder which plant was actually being cultivated. Man, are they hard to pull out when they're mature, especially in clay soil! DH loves tomatoes and we used to get all we needed every time we visited Mom and Dad. Then Mom decided to use her tomatoes as a bargaining chip and wouldn't give us any if she determined I'd been "bad". Sadly, I was "bad" almost all the time and after awhile was never able to redeem myself in her eyes. So I grew tomatoes for DH because I didn't think it was fair for him to be deprived. I'm pretty independent and stubborn and I admit it hacked me off when my niece told me that Mom was giving them so many tomatoes that they had developed acid sores in their mouths. Sometimes things do work out (evil LOL). Of course she wouldn't dare to pass any of those tomatoes on to me because if Mom found out, then SHE'd be "bad", too.

This year has been a real challenge to me so far. Let's see.... there's of course the stupid weather that we always deal with and that robbed me -- once again -- of my peaches and plums and most of my apples. Then there's the darn mole or vole digging tunnels all over my yard and it's even in my raised beds. I've lost several things already because of that. I planted beans and found a tunnel directly under where wanted to plant. Grrrrr. I can't try the tip about putting dog poo in the tunnel because I don't want dog poo where I'm growing veggies. I've put down Milky Spore disease but it's too soon for it to be working. Maybe next year. Then I discovered DH has been weed-eating around the edge of the bed where I have planted my giant sunflowers. They have quickly died after being pelted with those sharp little shards of grass (if you've ever used the weed-eater while wearing shorts you know what I mean), and the baby salvia disappeared too. I just finally got him to stop spraying Round-up everywhere and now THIS!! But he means well. I also have to cover everything I plant with stock wire or pinecones or tomato cages on their sides, or the darn cat is digging in it or the dog is walking and peeing on it. Then there's bug infestations.

But, in spite of everything, I've eaten a few batches of tasty asparagus, the tomato plants, for the most part, are recovering from the cold, the wind and the rain, I harvested some oregano yesterday and will be picking mint for drying today. And the cabbage and onion plants are happy for the time-being. The iris are blooming and the zinnias are up, as are some of the beans and most of the pickling cukes, while I continue checking every day for some sign from the peppers and the gourds. So all in all, in spite of everything, it's all good.....

Well, I dug up the elephant garlic today.

Now I have a question. If I plant these little nodules that were clinging to the bulb, will they make decent garlic next year? I've never seen garlic make these before, but this particular garlic was in the ground for probably a couple of years, so maybe that's why.

Also on a related subject, I accidentally pulled up my 'tater onion', and while it has grown, it didn't make any babies. So what should I do now? Should I replant it? Should I let it dry out a little and then replant it?

Yes, elephant garlic does make those little bulblets and you can plant them, but it will take a couple years for them to get any size. Or you can pull them small next spring and use them the way you would green onions.

I remember as a child watching my grandfather taking a piece of buttered bread to the garden, pulling up a stalk of green garlic, cleaning it and eating it wrapped in the bread. He said it was good for the blood.

I don't do that anymore but I do pull green garlic and baby elephant garlic early in the season to cook with. But then I have lots of both and can spare it.

Thanks Dorothy!

I found a couple of bunches of wild garlic growing along my fence row. I have no idea where they came from.
I've been thinking about digging them up and transplanting them, and finding some way to use them. Should I transplant them now, or wait til fall? They are in a very shady spot right now but seem to be thriving.

Shekanahh

Shekanahh,

I'd wait until fall, and before I did that, I'd harvest some and try it and make sure I liked the taste of it before giving it garden space.

Dawn

Wild garlic can be very invasive. There was a clump growing in the flower garden bed at the front of the house when we moved here 7 years ago. We have completely re-done the front, adding a small room and extending the porch, and you know what? I'm still trying to get rid of the wild garlic. It's now between the sidewalk bricks and in my flower bed that is probably six feet away from where it was when we moved here. In past years I've even used Round-Up on it.

Whenever anyone mows, we smell either wild garlic or wild onions in the air. One neighbor has so much of it, it actually makes your eyes water if you're out there when he's mowing. I don't know how he stands it.

My father-in-law has a wonderful crop of garlic this year as well as the garlic shards that curl around the top. When is it safe to harvest the shards? I don't want to wait until the leaves start to turn yellow or brown. Please advise.