Beware Vampires! I've harvested my organic garlic.

It seemed to be too early, only 6/19/12, but the outward signs made be believe it was time I harvest our garlic bed, which I had planted last October. This was my first year growing garlic. I tried Spanish Roja, German Porcelain, Musik and Elephant garlic.

The Spanish Roja seemed to take a beat down. It was on the south end of the bed, and I think we had one too many wind storms. It was completely blown over. I didn't expect to have anything, but to my surprise, I was able to dig up bulbs. They're smaller, with red skins.

The German Porcelain came out great. It's really white. I will plant this variety again.

The Musik also looked really good. I wish I had planted more of it. I had only planted 6. Next season, I will definitely plant more!

The Elephant was fun to watch growing. It was so much larger than the others. It resembled corn plants. (I threw my toes in the photo for scale.) It has little, fresh looking cloves on the bottom so perhaps I harvested these plants too soon. I will have to taste it after it cures before I decide whether I grow Elephant again. It was fun, but it does take up a lot of space.

I will cure the garlic in our garage for a week, remove some of the stalks and roots and cure for another 2 weeks before moving into storage. It will be difficult to save some bulbs for replanting this fall. I will want to eat them all!

For my records, I purchased these starter bulbs at Jung Garden Center.
From left to right: 2 rows of Spanish Roja (looks dead), 2 rows of German Porcelain, 1 row of Musik, 2 Elephant garlics