I am in the U.S. and I leave my garlic in the ground if I dont need to
harvest it for my use or for replanting. I have seen a garlic bed that is
nearly 20 years old, and they man that has it only harvests what he wants to
use or sell or give away.

We both harvest it after it has sent up the seed pods and about 1/3 of the
plant has died back. We cut off the seed pods when they are very young, dut
them up and put them in soup or stew.

I would also leave the onions alone until they are ready to harvest. You
might wait to get some other opinions from someone who has the same climate
you do.

Dwayne




"Pip" wrote in message
...
I planted some onion sets last year. After going away on holiday for two
weeks in summer, they had completely dried up, the green leaves were
yellow
and dried out so I just left them in the ground. They are now coming back
to life. The size of the onions themselves now are a little bigger than
the
sets I planted last year.

Should I keep them in the ground to develop or is it best to dig them up
and
start a fresh? They don't seem diseased at all.

The same applies to the garlic I planted last year, though I have heard
that
you can keep garlic in the ground year after year - is this right?

Many thanks for your replies.
regards
Pippa