Last year our garlic was not as successful as we would have liked. The bulbs were small and some were eaten by mice just after planting (our cats clearly don't like garlic flavoured mice). It was not all bad as we did get some to cook with, but most were small bulbs and rather fiddly to peel, although they did taste good. Some also went to seed rather early. Not sure why, could have been the dry weather we had last year. Our onions seemed to fare a little better but also suffered from going to seed early.
On the up side the flower heads produced lots of little garlic bulbils
Bulbils are not seeds. They are clones of the original plant and in this way are like the cloves.
This year I'm trying to grow these bulbils into garlic plants. I understand from my research (Google) that it will probably take a few years to be big enough to harvest, but I can wait.
Today I've planted them quite close together in a old herb planter. This planter took about one head worth of bulbils. I'm using John Innes No. 1 compost.
I'm not sure how important it is to get the bulbils in the right way up. When you pull them gently of the clump easy to see the right way up. The top of some of the bulbils were sprouting and this end was more bulbils, the other more pointed. So I've tried to plant mine narrow, pointy end down.
After planting I sieved a little more compost over the top and then watered well. I've positioned this tray on the window ledge of the utility room. It gets morning sunshine and I can keep an eye on them. The rest of the heads I managed to squeeze into a spare seed tray. I'm leaving these in the greenhouse, and we'll see which one does better.
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