Garlic harvest 2025

Back in June I planted a (for me) very modest bed of garlic from a variety I have been growing for close to a decade. They were survivors, which had made it through years of rust and me actively giving up on them.

Garlic, for me, has been a saga.

I didn’t have high hopes in 2025. I just wanted to have enough to keep ourselves and my father supplied through 2026, as well as seed for next season.

I swore off regular spraying routines or actively trying to prevent rust. I resigned myself to it being an inevitability. But I made some decisions during planting which I do think helped. I gave them 30cm spacing to allow plenty of airflow, and I added nutrients when I planted them.

They grew in a bed which hadn’t grown garlic before, and I protected them from the chickens with bird net. Then I mostly left them alone aside from a couple of weeding sessions and a blanket of grass mulch.

And I watched.

Progress

The plants grew thick and strong and healthy. For most of the season, there was no sign of rust at all. The plants were green with thick necks.

However when I did pull them up, I noticed that there was indeed rust on them. Not a full invasion, but a couple of plants with less air-flow on the edges had a few spots.

I’ve noticed that when I have a bad season, my local friends do too. Likewise, when I have a good season, they do as well. My neighbours didn’t get hit hard with rust either, and they were growing a different strain with far more care and attention than I had the spoons for.

I don’t believe I’ve miraculously found a rust-resistant garlic. I just think it was a good garlic year. But I am incredibly grateful for the peaceful growing season.

Harvest

In early December, we began noticing the garlic dying back, so one afternoon I went out to check. I thought it was still a little early, but once I pulled up one garlic, soon enough I had pulled them all. Every single bulb delighted me. Even the smaller ones. I was so happy!

I put aside the best 5 bulbs of garlic for next year’s seed. That’s always the #1 priority—the strongest, biggest plants always become next year’s planting stock. We’ll get the smaller cloves from these ones for eating later on in winter.

Then I took the next-best 8 bulbs and set them aside to braid for my father. This is an annual Christmas gift which I had to skip last year. He’s a bit difficult to buy for, but he’s really easy to grow for—so long as the process doesn’t send me into a meltdown! I’m happy I’m able to do it again.

The remainder is for us. There was only one damaged bulb (a harvest mishap) this year, so I don’t have to melt my fingernails peeling fresh garlic to freeze. That bulb simply became the first one we began using. The rest has been cleaned up and set out on racks to dry in the container.

The Elephant Garlic

While all of our garlic are survivors, one bulb had a story entirely of its own.

Back in January 2019, I took home first prize at the Paparoa A&P Show in the garlic category with an incredible specimen of Elephant garlic. Despite planting the cloves, it had never done well for me at Orotere.

But one bulbil from that plant mistakenly ended up in the succulent garden. Only God knows how, because I sure don’t. But tracking everything backwards, I’m pretty sure that’s what happened.

Anyway, that bulbil grew a ’round’ – one round clove of garlic. And because I’m me, I threw that round into the garlic bed at the edge when I planted them.

It’s a shame the more-northern A&P shows don’t have a garlic category! But after at least 5 seasons, I managed to get one to grow here.

Garlic is back on the menu!

I had to buy garlic in 2025 and I hate buying garlic so much. It’s expensive, and it’s often not-as-good. In January I spent $85 on a package of New Zealand-grown garlic. I’d planned to plant some of it, but that plan went out the window when I found half of it rotted.

Thus, we have eaten significantly less garlic this year than we have for the better part of a decade.

So being able to go back to eating garlic bread, aglio e olio, and including it in generous amounts throughout my cooking again is really lovely. I used half my damaged bulb simply making garlic butter!

From here on out I’ll continue to grow my garlic for personal use. Growing it for sale was a nightmare, and I like a peaceful life. I also like garlic, and smaller crops seem less prone to disaster.

Overall I’m grateful garlic didn’t give up on me, even when I truly gave up on garlic.