Garlic Beds and Drying Garlic Heads.
I plant garlic just before fall or early spring, the young sprouts from bulbs can handle frost but cannot handle excess moisture. They will rot quickly if not placed in well drained soil. I built my beds up before planting because my soil in Oregon is heavy red dirt, hence the name Red Dust, I came from red dirt and when I die, I will return to red dirt.
I harvest in the late summer early fall, if the weather is behaving I hang my garlic from our apple trees. I don't know why its apple trees, but that's what the Old Timers do, if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.
I braid my soft neck garlic before hanging and drying. It's pretty easy to do if you know how to braid. By mid October my garlic is dry and I bring it inside to hang in my drying room where I process my herbs and garden produce before preserving.
Early spring, around February, and the garlic bulbs are already sprouting.
Pictures taken in Eugene Oregon 2014 by Red Dust 
I have had mine drying by my window for about a month now.
Should I remove them? I don't want them to get rot. :/
I think they are dry now, should I throw them in the spice drawer with all the other garlic bulbs I have that were bought from the store?
:O
also half my garlic is purple, is that good/bad or anything?
They were picked early because the weather here in Washington.
The long garlic braid is amazing! I only have 4 cloves left as I have been using them.
8D
Store them after the covering feels like paper. Garlic comes in different colors, soft neck is white and the hard neck is German red garlic. The paper like covering can be a variety of colors depending on the variety. I leave mine hanging in a brown bag in the drying room. You want to store them out of the light, away from moisture and there is some air circulation. You can put the bulbs in nylon stockings and hang them in a dark dry place too. That's how my grandma dried walnuts after she blanched them. It works for garlic too! I had enough room o grow a huge amount of garlic, I give the braids as Christmas presents.
Thank you for the info. they have been with the dry paper like skin for a bit. I will move them into the spice drawer with the other garlic now that I know that. They were grown off of an old elephant garlic I had last year that sprouted. when you get to he last layer of wrapper they are a red/purple.
The garlic braids are so amazing! Next year I'm hoping to grow enough to make a couple braids myself.
8D
I buy garlic in the store for my garden all the time, I also save a lot of seeds from veggies and fruit I buy. I also save my garden seeds, I let the best plants go to seed instead of eating them. Now when I do buy garden seed, it is only seeds from plants I haven't grown before. I share seeds too ;-)
LOL
I do the same, my family gets annoyed at the bags of seeds everywhere.
:D
For SteemTrail curation under the Gardening tag, can you add a statement about the source of your photos and video? I figure these are all yours, of course. But doing this regularly will help everyone, including people new to Steemit, appreciate original contributions. If you can add a statement like that, I'm happy to recommend your post for the SteemTrail curation. Thanks!
And nice job in being helpful to someone's question!
done
Thanks for doing that! That's a great certificate, too. Feel free to put that at the end of your posts, too, so you can have your thumbnail be a big feature photo. Looking forward to more great gardening posts from you! Enjoy your garlic!
I usually put the thumbnail at the bottom of my post. I occasionally post at the top. I will consistently post at the bottom now. I am having problems formatting because html formatting is turned off, now I am totally confused lololol