To find out when to harvest your garlic (Alium Sativum), have a look at the leaves. If you planted your plump healthy garlic cloves in the sunshine last fall, chances are they will soon be producing some new cloves of garlic for your kitchen.

Carefully move any vegetation surrounding your lush green garlic plants so that you can easily examine the base of each leaf. If any of the leaves are turning yellow, it means that the plants will soon be ready to harvest.

Go check out a nice dry place to store them, such as a potting shed, garage or dry porch and decide how you will store them some cooks like to hang those varieties that have soft necks in the kitchen if it is not too humid there.

Next, fetch a fork and a barrow or tray and prepare to harvest your yellow-leaved bulbs. Use the fork to lightly break apart the roots of the plants as you lift. Place them down carefully, so as not to bruise the cloves.

If you live in a zone where you know for a fact that the weather is set fair for a few days in a row, then spread out your newly-harvested garlic plants in the sun so that they can dry slowly. If not, then do not take a chance with a shower of rain. Move the garlic plants inside to dry, as they must not get damp. They will still dry, but it may take a little longer. Ensure that they have enough space so that the plants are not overlapping each other. Garlic keeps very well for a few months.

Traditionally, garlic is stored in dry warm conditions so that it does not re-sprout. Alternatively, some cookery enthusiasts like to store the cloves in oil, however you have to know what you are doing if you wish to store garlic cloves by this method. It is a practice best left to the experts as the cloves need to be treated before being placed in the oil to prevent the growth of dangerous organisms which can thrive there - even in the refrigerator.

When harvesting your garlic cloves, remember to keep some back for re-planting! It is best to start them off in cooler weather so wait until mid to late fall, but do try to remember whether the patch you choose will have sun throughout the rest of the year.

Gently split the bulbs into individual cloves. Choose a nice fat healthy specimen each time, and place it, pointed end towards the sky, into the planting hole in free-draining, lightly moistened soil. They should reach about sixty centimetres in height, with a spread of about ten centimetres. Next year, when harvest time comes around, you will be an expert in lifting and storing healthy, plump garlic bulbs!

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