November: Garlic and Onions

Garlic needs a spell of cold to start it growing, so now is a good time to plant the individual cloves. You can plant any cloves from a supermarket, but it is better to ensure virus free cloves from a garden centre or Colin Smith in Ross, who usually has a good selection. Just push the cloves into the ground, pointed end up, so that they are just under the surface 10cm apart, with 30cm between rows, and leave them to it! Once the leaves topple over and start to die off next summer they are ready for lifting. If you lift them slightly earlier you will have 'wet' garlic, which is milder and delicious roasted.

It is not too late to plant onion sets (for those who do not know, these are small onion bulbs which were grown from seed earlier this year, then kept in cold storage, ready to plant and grow away now) such as Early Crop and Swift, for cropping around June. Push the sets in at the same spacings as for garlic, but with the pointed tips just above ground. You will have to go back over the next few days to push in the ones the birds have pulled out! Once they have rooted the birds can no longer pull them out, so just keep them weed free and they are little trouble to grow. Onions will push up out of the soil slightly as they bulk up, and are similarly ready for lifting when the leaves have dried out. If you are going to store onions you will then need to leave them in a dry, sunny place for a few days for the skins to dry properly.