Garlic Giveaway from Peaceful Valley
Last week I was thinking to myself that it was time to look through all my garlic and pull out the nicest bulbs for planting. Garlic is one of those crops that I’ve been growing since I first started gardening. It’s so easy to grow and brings such great reward.
Earlier this year, my interest was piqued when I read that softneck garlic stores longer/better than hardneck garlic. As much as I’ve read in my lifetime, I have never heard this tidbit of information before. Hardneck varieties of garlic are all that have been grown at Chiot’s Run, because it grows better in colder climates. Though, I have seen softneck garlic at the farmers market, so I know it can be grown successfully. Most of what I see is hardneck though.
Over the past few years, I’ve grown most of my own seed garlic as well. I do occasionally long to grow new varieties for flavor and to see if I can find ones that do particularly well in my climate/area. Your local farmers market can give you an idea of which varieties will do best, ask around, or just try a few that sound interesting.
With so many questions about planting garlic in the comments of this post, I wrote a Garlic Planting Guide over on the Your Day Blog.
When Peaceful Valley contacted me about doing a garlic giveaway I obliged, knowing one of you would love to win their garlic combo pack for your garden. I’ve talked about why I love Peaceful Valley before, so I’m happy to support a company I appreciate (they aren’t paying me to do this post, though I did get some softneck garlic to try).
What can you win?
A Garlic Combo Pack – Comprised of 1 head of Elephant (conventional), 3 heads of California Early White (organic softneck), 3 heads of Purple Italian (organic hardneck), 3 heads of Russian Red (organic hardneck), 3 sets of French Red Shallots (organic). Should yield approx. 50 plants, needs approx. 6-8 sq ft.
A Quart of Liquid Kelp – Cold-processed liquid kelp Enzymatically digested, concentrated liquid extract of California Bull Kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana), harvested from kelp beds in the Pacific Ocean off the Northern coast of CA. Freshly harvested kelp is rapidly processed at low temperatures, using naturally occurring enzymes isolated from the kelp, to digest and liquify the chopped kelp into a dark liquid extract.
a 10 gallon smart pot – which you can use to grow your garlic in if you don’t have enough space in your garden.
1 Garlic Twist (clever kitchen gadget that minces the cloves when you twist it; easy to use and clean)
and a print of your garlic variety.
So why kelp? Peaceful Vally has a great video that recommend soaking your garlic bulbs overnight in kelp before planting. I used kelp before, but I have soaked them in a baking soda and fish emulsion mix. You can bet I’ll be doing experiments by soaking a few and not soaking a few to see how they grow (similar to my remove or leave the scape experiment). If you’d like to read my post on planting garlic including a few of the varieties I grow, head on over to this post.
All you have to do to enter to win is to comment on this post. Contest will end at midnight PT on Wednesday, October 17. contest closed…check back for more great giveaways in the future.
Do you grow garlic in the garden? If so, what’s your favorite variety?
If you’d like more chances to win, there are 7 other blogs doing this same giveaway, with different varieties of garlic.
Peaceful Valley’s Organic Gardening Blog for ‘Bogatyr’
Gardenerd for ‘California Early White’
A Suburban Farmer for ‘Purple Gazer’
North Coast Gardening for some ‘Russian Red’
Western Gardeners for ‘Purple Italian’
Living Homegrown for ‘German Red’
Dirt Du Jour divas are giving away French red shallots
I have grown hardneck garlic, can’t remember the variety with some success. I like that garlic has few pests which seem to love everything else that I plant.
to Milena's comment
Thank you for this post! I’m growing garlic for the first time this year and hope I do things right. I didn’t know about the kelp extract so I’ll have to try that.
Thanks for offering this contest; it’s an amazing giveaway!
to Jenny TB's comment
I’d love to try and compare the different varieties of Garlick.
Corss my fingers…
Thanks.
to Christel Billes's comment
My favorite garlic is Music – picked for it’s name but it grows well and has good flavor. Thanks for the contest.
to Barbara Ardwan's comment
What an amazing giveaway! And what an awesome sounding pot to grow them in. We’ve moved around so much in the last years that I’d want my garlic to be portable. I’ve only tried growing a particularly yummy grocery store bulb. It didn’t do so well, probably because it wasn’t meant for seed or maybe because I didn’t know soaking could help. I’ve been waiting to plant garlic till we settled and I could be sure of a garden space. As much as my family loves garlic, it will be a pleasure to finally grow our own.
to Anne's comment
I’ve never tried soaking my garlic before and will be very interested to see if this makes a difference. Can’t wait to get growing! Very excited about the giveaway too!
to Heather's comment
Very cool give away!
I’ve always wanted to grow garlic. For one reason or another, I haven’t tackled that project yet. I’m going to have to check out Peaceful Valley. Thanks for the new resource :)
to Jaclyn's comment
An amazing prize! Especially love shallots!!
to Chris's comment
My big thing for next year is to try my hand at growing/ adding garlics to my garden. I was so successful with what I grew this year that expansion planes are being drawn up. :) I also have read so much about you liking peaceful valley that I requested a cataloge. I recently recieved it in the mail and enjoyed looking threw it. I diffently had a few BIG stars next to garlic bundle packs.
to Vicki's comment
i would be curious if anyone has had great success using the smart pots to grow garlic and onions. i am trying for the first time this season. i had not much success using the pots with potatoes.
to monique's comment
I like to grow early ca soft neck so that I can make the garlic braids. Always want other varieties, but folks are always amazed by the braids
to Gail's comment
I found a great EASY way to use up my small garlic cloves that are not used for planting….I seasoned some chicken with herbs and salt and pepper and laid the parts over a bed of small peeled garlic drizzled with olive oil and roasted the chicken. Meanwhile I steamed up a batch of green beans and potatoes until tender . When the chicken was done I poured the garlic and chicken juices from the pan into the potatoes and green beans and stirred it up to serve with the chicken….YUM!!!!!
to Stacy's comment
Great article, I am not growing garlic yet, but would love to try it. Thank you for this great give away.
Have a God Filled Day
Shirley
to Shirley N's comment
I’ve been growing garlic successfully for the past few years, but would love to try some new varieties!
to Grace's comment
I haven’t grown any garlic yet but would love to try!
to Stephanie's comment
we have grown garlic for a couple of years – russian red…. and LOVE it and are ready to expand it a little bit… thanks for the offer… hoping i win…
take care,
jane
to jane rainey's comment
I would love to try these varieties.
to Laura Johnson's comment
Great giveaway and great blog! As far as my favorite garlic is concerned, I try different ones every year so I don’t really have a favorite yet. I have been growing garlic for 3 or 4 years now. Kind of new to it even though I have been gardening for over 40 years now. Garlic has become one of my favorite crops.
to Angie B's comment
My favorite garlic right now is the Oregon Blue. I got it a year or two ago from a local town called North Plains which has an annual garlic festival. It’s plump and produces well here in Oregon.
to Jerilee Costa's comment
I have never planted garlic before, but I sure have eaten a lot of it! I like your website and will mark it as one of my favorites. Thanks.
to Vickie Westcamp's comment
I’ve only tried growing garlic once and my elderly neighbor decided the leaves were too close to the fence and broke all of them bending them over towards my yard. :( The pot will definitely come in handy.
to Jennifer's comment
I love my hardneck and softneck varieties. They each have a distinct flavor, though I can’t remember specific names. I grow elephant garlic too, and enjoy its milder taste.
to Jennifer's comment
I inherited a mystery hardneck garlic from the previous owners of my old house. I’ve now moved and have to start from scratch to recreate my garden.
to Diane's comment
I grow two varieties of hardneck, but I have no idea what either of them are. One came from my aunt in WV who called it WV garlic, the other came from my CSA box years ago.
to Kingsley's comment
I do grow garlic although I have to admit that I don’t know what vareity it is! I love growing fresh garlic, it compliments the rest of my garden harvest wonderfully.
to Rhonda Hurst's comment
First attempt at planting garlic this year—got 2 garlic bulbs; split them apart into the individual cloves; took all the skin off the cloves and planted. THEN watched video where I saw NOT to take the skin off the cloves.
Ready to do it right—-hope I win
to May Jean's comment
I have not grown garlic
to carrie s's comment
Hi – I grew hardneck last year for the first time. I like it because I think it is a better keeper.
Jackie
to Jackie Isler's comment
I recently finished my Allium Garden. It has a few onions starts (Red Stockton) but really really want some fabulous Garlic. Thanks.
to Carol Rosalind's comment
i grew about 60 heads of hardneck garlic this summer! it was from garlic that i had grown earlier that summer at a farm i interned at and we called it “magic” garlic. i hope to get some softneck garlic planted soon since i have yet to plant any.
to colleen j.'s comment
I don’t know what’s more exciting: free garlic giveaway, 8 new gardening blogs to read, or so much good advice about how to grow garlic!
to Claudette's comment
I’ve been dying to try growing garlic
to EMily's comment
I really want to try this.
to EMily's comment
So far, our favorite variety is Persian Star. We typically grow a mix of soft and hard neck garlic so we get garlic scapes, garlic that stores well, and a variety of flavor.
to Bladepdx5's comment
Look forward to growing this garlic.
to Barbara H's comment
This is a good garlic to plant for cooking and to keep pests away from rose bushes.
to Barbara H's comment
I’m crazy about garlic. Just planted some and decided its not enough do I shopping for more. How fortuitous that I found this giveaway!
to Eve's comment
I love growing garlic. It is easy and very satisfying.
to Loren Scherbak's comment
Thanks for the info and chance to win! Have grown garlic and shallots with good success, but didn’t know some of the tips here.
to Christie's comment
Garlic is my next project.
to Janet Malone's comment
I’ve grown a German variety. It still comes up.
to Kay's comment
I didn’t tell you my favorite variety. I grew music last year and it seemed to do well in our very hot summer.
to Loren Scherbak's comment
Thanks for the chance! I love garlic, have some lovely raised beds for them to grown…
to Jen.'s comment
I inherited some hard neck garlic in the garden of our rental house, so I have no idea what kind it is. I LOVE fresh garlic- one clove has the flavor of 3 store-bought cloves! I want to branch out and try a different variety.
to Mary G's comment
I love cooking with garlic, but I really hate peeling it, so I like a garlic with big cloves like Music.
to Coriena's comment
Garlic is a no-brainer crop and is wonderful fresh from the garden
to Karen Harrison's comment
Garlic grows great here in Montana!
to JiLL's comment
I’ve been growing garlic in my garden for the past 5 years and my favourite variety is Music, which has huge sweet cloves. I just planted some last week.
to Janet W's comment
I would really love to win this! I haven’t grown garlic yet but coincidentally i was thinking of doing such really soon. my boyfriend and I are going to be building some new garden boxes next week and I was going to make one specifically for garlic. I’d love to win these and try my hand at growing garlic, since I eat so much of it!
to Amanda H's comment
I mostly grow german extra hardy but would love to try other varieties.
to Katherine Arrington's comment