Planting Wild Garlic: How To Get The Wild Herb Into Your Garden

Last updated on October 23rd, 2023 at 08:57 pm

Bärlauch pflanzen

Planting wild garlic in the garden is no problem if you have the right location. Here you will learn in detail how to successfully grow, care for and then harvest wild garlic.

Planting wild garlic in the garden has only recently become popular. In the past, hobby gardeners often regarded the aromatic early bloomer as a weed.

Planting Wild Garlic: How To Get The Wild Herb Into Your Garden

Today, wild garlic enjoys great popularity because of its spicy flavor. We show you how to grow the native wild plant and harvest it fresh. The most important thing is to choose the right location.

Planting wild garlic: location and soil

Idealerweise solltest du Bärlauch an einen halbschattigen Platz pflanzen, zum Beispiel unter einem freistehenden Baum.

If you like to use wild garlic in the kitchen for wild garlic soup or wild garlic pesto, you can also plant it in your own garden. This way you can harvest lots of fresh, aromatic leaves from March to April without endangering the wild population of wild garlic in the wild. Follow these tips to help wild garlic grow well.

The right location: As a typical forest plant, wild garlic grows best in partial shade. For example, you can plant wild garlic well under free-standing trees or shrubs. Because the wild plant is very proliferating, it is best to plant it in a raised bed or a specially secured bed. To do this, bury vertical stone slabs or boards in the soil around the bed as a root barrier. In this way, you prevent the roots of the ramsons from spreading too much.
The right soil: Ideally, you should plant wild garlic in moist and well-drained soil that is rich in humus. If you want to make sure that your wild garlic is sufficiently supplied with nutrients, you can also lift some compost under the planting soil.

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Wild garlic as seeds or seedlings in the bed?

Bärlauch solltest du ernten, bevor oder während er blüht

Seeds or seedlings: You can also buy wild garlic as seeds. However, you need a lot of patience if you want to sow the wild plant yourself, because wild garlic has a very long germination period. You can make it easier for yourself by buying young plants in a well-stocked gardening store. As soon as you no longer have to fear frost, you can plant the wild garlic seedlings in the ground early in the spring. Dig a hole about ten centimeters deep and leave a space of about 15 centimeters between the individual wild garlic plants.
Neighboring plants: In summer, wild garlic retreats into the ground. The resulting gaps can be filled with ferns, woodruff, liverwort or lungwort.

Care wild garlic: Watering and fertilizing

Wenn du das Würzkraut so frisch wie möglich ernten willst, solltest du Bärlauch direkt selbst pflanzen.

To ensure that the wild garlic also gets its aromatic garlic flavor until harvest, you should care for it properly beforehand:

Watering: If the soil is particularly dry during the growing season, you should water the wild garlic with a little rainwater. If the wild plant grows too dry, this can have a negative effect on its taste. In the fall, you should also make sure that the soil does not dry out too much.
Fertilize: As a rule, you do not need to additionally fertilize the planted wild garlic. In autumn you can cover it with a layer of autumn leaves. When this decomposes, the wild garlic receives sufficient nutrients.


Harvesting wild garlic plants

Bärlauch kannst du zum Beispiel zu leckerem Pesto verarbeiten

Harvesting: In the first year you should not harvest the wild garlic yet, so that the herb can still sow itself undisturbed and secure its stock. In the second year, you can harvest one or two leaves per plant from mid-March to the end of April. You should harvest it before or while it is flowering. After that, the otherwise aromatic leaves become fibrous. You can also harvest the buds and pickle them: Recipe for wild garlic capers.

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Proper storage: Because you can only harvest wild garlic for a short period of time, you should consider early on how to preserve the herb. Of course, you can use wild garlic immediately after harvesting for many delicious wild garlic recipes. But if you want to use it later, you should freeze the wild garlic or process it into wild garlic oil.

Author

  • James Jones

    Meet James Jones, a passionate gardening writer whose words bloom with the wisdom of an experienced horticulturist. With a deep-rooted love for all things green, James has dedicated his life to sharing the art and science of gardening with the world. James's words have found their way into countless publications, and his gardening insights have inspired a new generation of green thumbs. His commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship shines through in every article he crafts.

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