FRUIT & VEGETABLE GARDENING Does anyone here grow their own garlic and onions?

[hotcouponmama]

I am still in time to plant some for a late fall harvest, and I read that if I plant them around the base of my new fruit trees, it will help keep pests away, so I am hoping to plant some this next week during spring break.

Anyone grow their own? Is it as simple as planting cloves from a bulb in the store in the ground?

What about onions? Anyone have luck with those?

[OHeather]

I would love to know the answer to this as well. DH bought apples trees for our anniv, (which we planted), so we could watch them grow...how sweet.

[misse]

My MIL has garlic planted in her flower bed below her pecan tree. I asked her for you and she said she had a friend give her a 5 gallon bucket full of garlic bulbs years ago and they spread but she also said there is no reason why you can not plant the bulbs from the grocery store to get a start but she recommends buy onion and garlic bulbs at the feed store.

according to her back in the old days people transplanted them from farm to farm and shared them. If there was an old deserted home place then people would dig up the bulbs in the yard and transplant them. Sometimes you got a surprise and grew flowers along with the garlic. she thinks that is why people started putting them in flower beds. She said she can not tell that it ever made a big difference with the bugs, and what the bugs don't get the birds will.
- there advice from a almost 90 year old woman. she also said to tell you she has been eatting organic for years and agrees it is the secret to long life. She eats a lot of deer meat, and the neighbor is a big time game hunter and he loves to give her all kinds of game. She just realized she has been organic for years.

[kristen.c]

I tried to grow onions last year in a container and I had no luck with that. I'm thinking about putting a few in the flower bed to the side of our patio...I wonder if anyone would notice? It's not like management weeds it or anything!

[frogmama]

We always grew onions growing up. My dad would buy them as green onions and plant them. I've had some luck buying the little pearl-sized seed onions from the farm store.

I have been curious about garlic and this past march (still winter for us) found out that a friend was growing some at her farm. I researched it and started a large (16")pot of half sand and half organic seed starting mix. and planted 5-6 cloves just below the soil. They are about 4 inches tall now, so I'm hoping I'll have some homegrown garllic! I just used some from the grocery store - 2 cloves from an older bulb I had that sprouted and then the largest ones from another bulb.

A few things I learned from teh internet:
-growing in a pot is possible, it just has to be a large pot, at least 8 inches deep
-they like sand (well-drained soil) and nitrates, so you can suppliment with coffee grounds, I guess
-soaking the UNPEELED cloves for 24 hours before planting is good for them - plant them unpeeled too.

and your supposed to let them dry for several weeks before using them, I guess. I'll research more about harvesting if I get to that point, lol.