If you've never grown vegetables before, you should start with garlic. Here's how...

SALT LAKE CITY — If it's one of those things you've always wanted to do, there's one obvious place to start. If you've never grown vegetables before, you should start with garlic.

Jessica Berrett said a few minutes of garden work now will give you homegrown garlic next summer!

"I consider garlic kind of a set it and forget it," she said. "You do it late, late in the season, it grows all winter, and then kinda just ignore it until next summer."

What Makes Garlic so Easy

• Very little work, big payoff
• One clove grows into an entire head of garlic
• No seed starting, staking or complicated maintenance

A lot of vegetables need constant attention, but garlic is different. Once it's planted, you can almost forget about it.

"Just make sure it's watered, and that's it," Berrett said.

Every garlic clove you plant becomes an entirely new bulb by the following summer. But don't just grab garlic from the produce aisle.

"We wanna buy varieties that grow well in Utah," she said.

Garlic sold in local nurseries, feed stores and garden centers is usually picked especially for local growing conditions.

"What you buy from the grocery store grows well wherever they grew it," Berrett explained. "But we wanna buy for Utah."

How to Plant

• Choose garlic intended for planting
• Break the bulb into individual cloves just before planting
• Plant two inches deep and six inches apart
• Plant pointy end up, root end down
• Place in a sunny location with well-drained soil
• Add a layer of mulch for winter protection if desired
• Rotate locations in the garden

Berrett said you can start planning now, but don't actually plant until the right time.

"October is usually the best time," she explained. "Just watch the nurseries and when it's available, grab it."

Getting garlic into the ground in the fall gives it time to build a root system before winter and then grow in the spring.

"Next summer, around the 4th of July, the lower leaves on the stalks will start to brown," Berrett said.

That's your sign that it's almost time to harvest.

Berrett said you don't have to be done with the rest of your vegetable garden just yet. There are several veggies that can still be planted and harvested before winter.

Plant Now, Harvest This Fall

• Lettuce
• Spinach
• Arugula
• Radishes

"You can plant lettuces right now. We can plant kale right now. We can plant radishes right now," Berrett said. "All these things will be ready to eat this fall."

Find more garden advice from Jessica Berrett on Instagram, @plant.geek.

This story was adapted from a TV broadcast script using artificial intelligence. Every story, including those adapted with AI, is reviewed by a human editor before publication to ensure that KSL's editorial standards are upheld.