On April 25th I embarked on a little experiment to see if my final bulb of last year’s garlic, which had sprouted far too badly to use, might be grown to any useful size. Given I usually plant garlic in September and you need a frost to separate the cloves I was doubtful, but hey…

I planted two pots – one would be allowed to grow naturally, the other, after reading ye olde article on ye internet (you know the kind…oops – a bit like this I guess…) would keep having its leaves cut back, which apparently would stimulated growth of the bulb.

Yesterday, I dug them up.

Now, I have to confess something. I was so disgusted by the bead-sized ‘bulbs’ from the cut-topped garlics I actually failed to take any photos – but take it from me – spring onions would have been ashamed.

The other batch, though, is actually pretty respectable. Given they’ve had just over two months to grow, I have got a crop.

It’s not what I’d call an ‘event,’  and it looks as though there are not segmented bulbs but one large clove in each but it’s  – what – five meals’ worth of home-grown garlic from something that would otherwise have been composted?

I wouldn’t bother with the snipping-off of leaves again – even at the time I was sceptical – where were the bulbs going to get their energy to bulk up without green?

If I end up with any bolted bulbs next year, though, and a bit of spare soil/space, I would definitely give it a another go.