First Harvest

• Plant garlic cloves in the fall and harvest green tops in spring by snipping greenery off with a sharp knife or pair of scissors. You can also pull the complete plant for use as a scallion. These fresh shoots and green onionlike plants produce a mild garlic flavor for dishes that call for a hint of the fragrant fresh garlic clove. Use this early harvest in salads or in cooking as soon as possible after harvest.
  
  

Second Harvest

• Garlic buds form underground, eventually producing the individual cloves that become the garlic bulb. Do not remove the buds, as this results in little or no production results. However, you can harvest garlic scapes, or the round stalks, that appear in mid-June. Gardeners consider the scape as a bud of sorts, because snapping off a scape concentrates plant energy toward bud formation, much like pinching back a pumpkin vine to produce a single fruit of a considerably larger size than if the vine is left to produce four or five pumpkins on one plant. Harvest scapes when they start to curl. Since scapes contain an abundant amount of garlic oil, use them in place of garlic cloves in any recipe. Store scapes for up to three months in airtight containers in the refrigerator.
  
  

Third Harvest

• Treat a mature garlic bulb as you would an egg -- with care. Dig the bulbs after three or four of the top green leaves die back, leaving five or six green leaves. Manually lift each bulb from the soil using a garden fork or spade. Retire harvested bulbs immediately to the shade, taking care not to bruise or otherwise damage the bulb. Carefully brush off any dirt or, if your soil has a claylike consistency, gently spray with water to remove soil. Before curing, trim garlic roots to 1/4 inch, removing dirt from the roots as well.
  
  

Curing Garlic

• Cure garlic for at least two weeks before storing for winter. Hang in bundles of 10 to 12 bulbs in a well-ventilated, airy shed, garage or barn. Alternatively, you can place the harvested bulbs on wire mesh screens; just make sure you provide good airflow and ensure that the curing bulbs are not exposed to direct sunlight.
  
  

Storing Garlic

• Store garlic by braiding several strands of greenery together and hanging the braids where temperatures hover at 32 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit or at room temperature of 60 to 70 F, with low humidity. Braid before the stems cure completely, while the greenery is still pliable, leaving the braided garlic in the drying shed to complete the curing process. Never store garlic in the refrigerator as common refrigerated temperatures spark premature bulb growth.