Location: Choose a sunny well draining location.

Soil Preparation: Work into the soil 2 inches of organic matter such as Pay Dirt or Bumper Crop; and gypsum at the rate of 5 pounds per 100 square feet and Master Nursery Master Start at 2 pounds per 100 square feet.

If your soil is extremely hard or can not be made to drain well, it would be wise to consider raised beds that are 6 – 24 inches high.

Garlic cloves: Break up the garlic bulbs and plant the largest of the cloves. The pointed tips should be facing up and be 1-1 ½ inches below the surface, 4-6 inches apart and in rows that are 1 foot apart.

Onions: Onions can be planted as seeds, sets or transplants. Onion sets are miniature onion bulbs. Plant the smallest sets you can find and in the same way as garlic. Onion transplants are planted 4 inches apart in a hole made by plunging the index finger up to the second joint in the soil prepared as above and then firmed around the transplant. If all the onions survive, they can be thinned to 8 inches apart and used in salads (often called scallions).

Care: Keep soil moist, weed regularly and apply Master Nursery Tomato & Vegetable Food or Dr. Earth Tomato, Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer when the plants have grown four to six leaves.

Harvesting: Three to five months after planting the tops will start to turn yellow and fall over. When one-third to one-half of the leaves are like this, stop watering and press all the leaves flat to the ground with a rake or your bare feet. Leave the garlic or onions like this until the leaves are all brown. Dig the bulbs with a fork and store in a cool dry area or leave them in the ground and dig as needed.

Other Notes:

• If onions or garlic send up a flower stalk (bolt) cut it off as soon as possible, close to the ground.
• Onion transplants are much less likely to bolt than are sets.
• Do not cultivate around the plants so that you disturb the roots.
• Plant onions and garlic between September 1^st and November 1^st.