Growing Garlic, Onions, and Leeks

Hey friends! Today I wanted to chat about growing Garlic, Onions, and Leeks. They don’t get planted at the same time, but they’re all sort of related and tend to be harvested at similar times.

Now that I’ve grown these items for a few years, I feel that these three items are some of the easiest to start with and I’ll share why!

Ready…

Okay, you put them in the ground, mulch them appropriately and walk away. You will need to check them here and there but compared to tomatoes and squashes, which are pest heavy, prune heavy, and fickle with summer heat, these three items will seem like a breeze. And it’s so rewarding.

Nothing beats the flavor of home grown garlic in a Greek Salad or sautéed in dinner. And then you’re not worried about sprays or produce from another country’s you’re eating as local as you can get! Let’s break each item down a little for you and hopefully, there is a nugget of information that will help you next time you plant one of these items.

Growing garlic

I could do an entire blog on each item, and perhaps I will someday day, but for now, I’ll keep it simple and educational.

To grow garlic you need garlic seed, which is a fancy word for garlic cloves wrapped in their protective paper still. You can use seed garlic from last years harvest, a local farmers market garlic (I don’t recommend), or seed garlic from an official place like SeedsNow or MIGardener or Keene Garlic. Start small and grow from there or go all in.

Then you need a prepared space, amended soil, weed freeze you know the drill. Plant your cloves a few inches down, burry them, and heavily mulch them and then wait. And wait. And wait. I usually plant anywhere from October 23rd to All Hallows Eve (Oct 31). Three years ago I planted 63 cloves and last year I planted over 300. Harvest is usually the last week of June through the first week of July and it will all depend on your exact planting date, and if your garlic looks ready!

My goal when I panted Fall of 2025 was to grow a years worth of garlic. I can proudly say, mission accomplished. Just under 300 cloves survived and grew into bulbs. We’ve been cooking fresh with it, I’ve got 150 bulbs curing now, and about 100 left to pull.

Just about all of my bulbs are as large as my hand! And I don’t have small hands. To the curing rack she goes!

Growing onions

Onions are very similar to leeks. You either buy mini bulbs, called sets, or you buy transplants which look like paper clip thin onions and leeks. You can also grow the onion and leek transplants from seed. I’ve done both for various reasons. Obviously growing from seed is a great money saver, but even buying onion starts from places like Dixondale farms, saves money. I compared prices to non organic onions and still we save a ton of money growing onions, the money saved when comparing to organic store bought onions is a huge amount!

Dig your trench, place in your set or transplant, lightly bury them, water them in, mulch them and that’s just about all. They are great at deterring pests and you can pull them early and eat a “spring” onion or a smaller onion or you can leave them to fully mature and reach the stage where they can be cured.

Highland onions, my first few that are ready to cure

My goal this year when I planted spring onions was to have enough to last us a year! That included enough onions to do all my summer canning, mission accomplished. I have about 400 onions that will be stored after curing and 50 ish that I planted last fall we have been eating as spring onions. Our family uses about 5-7 onions a week depending on the week. We’re obsessed!

Growing leeks

Leeks are without a doubt one of my favorites! I put them in so many things, even if the recipe doesn’t call for it. Alfredo? Add Leeks. Marry me rabbit ? Add leeks. Roasted chicken ? Add leeks. Ballerina Farms Beef Pie recipe ? Add extra leeks. You get the idea.

As mentioned above leeks are started from seeds and planted as tiny little leeks in the spring or fall. You can grow them yourself from seed or order them already grown from most places online. I’ve done a mix of both depending on the year. Leeks are ready to harvest in the early summer or over winter (if you planted them in the fall). I preserve my leeks via chopping and drying and then store them with oxygen absorbers. They cook up exceptionally well. Leeks are expensive in the store and when I wasn’t growing them we just couldn’t eat as many as I wanted.

My goal was to grow enough leeks for a whole year: goal accomplished. I planted 85 leeks. I’ve sold a few at my farm stand (literally porch pick up, nothing fancy) and last week I started dehydrating a large batch.

Hopefully if you’ve never ventured into growing leeks or onions or garlic you’ll give it a try this fall or next spring! Leeks and onions don’t require as much time in the soil and as soon as you pull them you can plant something else in that space. So you’re never loosing garden space for long and you are getting crops which make your food taste great and have many health benefits.