The world record for the heaviest garlic bulb is held by Robert Kirkpatrick of Eureka, California, when his bulb weighed in at 1.19 kg in 1985. While we’re not guaranteeing you’ll reach record levels ...

Who knew that something as humble as a single garlic clove could grow into such a bold, flavour-packed superstar in the ...

For softneck garlic look for 1/3 of the leaves to turn yellow. Dig up a few sample garlic bulbs and check to see if the bulbs have a uniform shape with good sized shoulders. If they are not ready, ...

Softneck garlic is the easiest and most widely-cultivated, because the bulbs are large and the cloves and skin are tight, which prevent moisture loss and allows for longer storage. Through centuries ...

Garlic is a great addition to any garden, especially if your family eats a lot of it. The first step is to decide what variety to plant – hardneck versus softneck.

Homegrown softneck garlic bulbs. Photo: S. Heckly Historically garlic grew wild over much of Europe, Central Asia and the Far East. There are references to garlic going back as far as 5000 years ago.

When purchasing so-called "seed garlic," bulbs that you separate into the cloves you plant in the soil, you are likely to find a bewildering array of varieties for sale. The most important distinction ...

You can plant garlic now but wait until ground freezes to mulch with straw. One clove grows into an entire bulb, so you don’t need too many bulbs of seed garlic. Don’t use garlic from the market as ...

White garlic is the classic go-to variety, but you may occasionally come across purple garlic bulbs. So, is there actually a flavor difference between the two?

Two main types of garlic are grown in the garden: hardneck and softneck varieties. Hardneck garlic varieties produce large, easy to peel bulbs that have dramatic and distinctive flavors.

There are more than 100 named varieties of garlic available, largely through catalogs (check local nurseries for a few varieties of garlic bulbs for planting). See the sidebar for examples of softneck ...