I recently bought several bulbs of sprouting garlic off the salvage table in a local fruit stand. I have blogged about growing garlic cloves indoors in the past, but this time, since it is Spring, I am going to try growing them in my Square Foot Gardens. Each clove of the garlic bulb will grow a new bulb, multiplying my initial investment many times over.

I researched planting the cloves and found that in a Square Foot garden there were many varied spacings…between four to nine cloves per square. I opted for the larger number since I have so many of the sprouting cloves.

Here are the nine placed in a square foot, ready to be covered over with soil. Inside the garlic bulb were several smaller cloves that had not sprouted. I decided to use these as a rodent repellent and smashed and smeared several on the edges of my square foot borders.

I also placed a few smashed cloves within some squares planted with spinach and kale. So far they have not been nibbled or dug up by hungry critters.

I’m not sure what kind of results I will have, but even if the resulting bulbs aren’t good for cooking, it will still be worth growing the garlic to use as organic repellents and insecticides.