| For those of you with the space and inclination to grow your own,
Elephant Garlic makes an attractive addition to any garden, with
gorgeous flower spikes up to 1.5 m tall. It likes full sun and moist
conditions, and should be planted during September-October, to harvest
the following June. Prepare the site by first clearing it of weeds and
old plants, dig it over and work in some fertiliser. Plant each seed
clove 20 cm from its neighbour, to give these mammoth cloves space to
swell up into a monobulb. This typically splits into several, individual
cloves, and produces stunning flower spikes in late Spring. It's best
to remove these (and eat the delicious scapes!), so that all the plant's
energy is used to feed the bulb, rather than the flower. By late June,
you should have your own, ripe Elephant Garlic, ready to be harvested
and eaten. |
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