"McKevvy" wrote ...
"Bob Hobden" wrote:
"McKevvy" wrote ... Hi, I'm a gardening newbie - so much so that I live
in a flat and
hence don't have a garden. I bought garlic cloves 2 weeks ago and now
they have green shoots. They've been sitting on the kitchen bunker out
of direct sunlight. As an experiment I'd like to grow them. Can I have
advice please?

I hope you have somewhere outside you can put a pot or twenty, preferably
in
full sun.
Get some clay pots, fill with John Innes No3 compost, split the heads of
garlic into cloves and push each clove down into the soil so it's below
the
surface. Usually I plant mine out on the allotment at 9 inch spacings both
ways but I doubt you would want about 20 pots with one clove each because
you will probably find you have that many cloves from two heads. Just make
sure there is enough space between the cloves you plant for them to swell
up
and become heads.
Keep them watered in the spring and summer and when the leaves start to
die
off, probably June/July time, they are ready to dig up. Leave it too long
and they start to split apart ready to grow again.

Unfortunately I don't have anywhere outside to place them and I cant
use a window box because of the design of the windows. I can put them
on the kitchen window sill where they will get the morning sun and
it's quite warm there too. Why would I have to use clay pots? Can't I
use plastic?

Many thanks for everyones help - I really appreciate it.

If you intend to grow them inside then plastic pots would be OK however,
"warm" they don't need. Garlic is just about the toughest, hardiest, thing
you can grow and my understanding is that Garlic needs a proper cold spell
to initiate the formation of the cloves otherwise you get just one large
clove only. A cold room windowsill would be better.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
just W. of London