2025 Garlic Braids
I came here to blog about braiding the garlic that was harvested during June in Louisville (Lou), McKee and Wayne County (WCo), Kentucky. But first, I had to figure out how to use the upgraded Squarespace software for this website. That has taken several days…just to find how to add a new blogpost. And I discovered I had begun a blog in October 2024 when we were ready to plant the garlic that we had harvested that spring. Unfortunately, in October I was too busy tutoring to find time to blog about garlic. Now that tutoring is very sparse during the summer months when most students are between terms, enjoying a deserved respite, I can devote some time to blogging and posting pics of the braids I am creating every day.
Braid #1 McKee harvest 2025
Though much has happened during the intervening days and months, I want to make this blog short. Let’s see if I can do that.
When the Shelby Park Community Garden (SPCG)—where I have, in two or three rented beds, grown the bulk of my garlic crop some years—received a Tito’s Grant to refurbish the garden and build all new bed frames, the rebuild was on May 9, 2025. That meant I could not grow my garlic there because in Kentucky, garlic is planted in October, November, or December (seed catalogs from northern Idaho and Washington recommend planting “2 weeks before the ground freezes”—but that’s hard to predict in Kentucky where the ground may never freeze in some winters). The reason for planting just before the ground freezes is that garlic grows its root system first and stays in the ground through the winter and spring until its bulb is separating into cloves and the browning spring leaf growth reveals it is ready to harvest, usually the first weeks in June.
This plant is bulbing but has from 3 days to a couple weeks before it will be fully “cloved” and will have reached its mature size. Carefully nestle the dirt in around the bulb and let it continue to grow until the top 5 leaves are half yellow and half green—that’s the sign that the plant has quit sending energy to the leaves.
I was delighted when a friend offered to grow my 2024 SEED in her McKee, Kentucky beds. Garlic is a heavy feeder, so she carefully tended the crop, side-dressing at planting and again in March of 2025 when the plants needed extra nutrition. She harvested in early June and delivered the harvest to my Monticello, Kentucky upper back deck garlic shop where I hung it to cure.
PVC pipe and zip ties proved ideal for hanging, transporting, and curing on the rack. McKee harvest is in the 6 foreground racks.
I planted about a quarter of the SEED bulbs in Louisville and the few remaining SEED in Wayne County, KY (the upper two curing racks).
The latest-planted SEED (November 2024) in Louisville: 2025 harvest from top right, clockwise to upper left: Thai Fire (smallest bulbs), Softneck , Broadleaf Czech (at bottom right and left), Inchellium Red, and top left Music (“roasting garlic”). This wooden curing rack Jim built 3 years ago from scrap wood (lathe removed from the house walls).
Total 2025 harvest: 348 bulbs, before cleaning, during which very few plants had to be discarded due to infestations—larvae or evidence of such—or bumps that indicate something had breached the cloves inside their papers.
I began braiding in Monticello garlic shop, then continued in Lou porch garlic shop and am now back to Monticello. With about half of the harvest braided by July 18, 2025, I’m very pleased with the crop.
So here’s a gallery of some of the 30 braids, so far. I hope you enjoy the “from the earth look” to celebrate the garlic roots. Please send a COMMENT of what you like best In the Comment box below.
Text 502-494-4052 to order and arrange pickup in Monticello or Louisville. The average braid is $35 with larger bulbs and cloves priced higher (up to $45) and smaller ones priced lower (bulbs $15; cloves down to $2). Note: all braided cloves are sold out. If the braid you like best is already sold, with your permission, I’ll substitute one that is similar. (If you want a braid shipped, know that postage is high and is added to the braid prices above and pictured on each label in the gallery.)
