Does Garlic Grow Wild?

[Sweet Petunia]

I have a question.
I live in the South (Central Arkansas) and as I was walking in the yard a few days ago I noticed what I thought were onions growing everywhere!! Well, I pulled one up and whoa and behold it was a big clove of garlic!!

So my question is...Does anyone know if garlic grows wild, like onions, here? See over 10 years ago my Father walked around our property planting garlic wherever he got the urge to. So I am wondering if this is maybe a product of that or if it just grows wild here. I have never planted garlic so I wasnt really sure what it looks like. I have always assumed they were onions growing everywhere every Spring!!

[The Helpful Gardener]

Dad is still gardening!

Too Cool!

HG

[Sweet Petunia]

Well...no hes not gardening. But he would probably say he is 'pushing up daisys'!! He died a few years ago. He is the reason I like to garden so much. I learned everything I know from him! But I must have not been paying much attention when he planted the garlic! But I do remember him walking around sticking it in the ground.
He did weird things like that all the time. And I picked up his habit! When I have finished with my gardens and I have extra seeds, I will just walk around burying seeds in random places. I wouldnt water them or anything. Then later I would just wait to see if any of them came up!
Ive done that with Watermelon seeds before and actually got a watermelon out of it!!

[The Helpful Gardener]

Don't mean to argue, Sweet P, but Dad's still gardening. He likely meant for this to happen all along. You will think of him with every bulb, and judging from your last post, you do that already... It's a great story and I like your Dad already... he's still here, and he's still gardening, as long as you have garlic...

HG

[Sweet Petunia]

Aww....now look what youve done. Youve gone and made me cry!
You are absolutely right!! I do think about him with every seed, bulb, flower or veggie. Spring is when I miss him the most.

...And it looks like I'm gonna have Garlic for a looooong loooong time!!
I found out that Garlic does grow wild. Its not as strong as the garlic we buy but its still good to cook with and put in salads ect...
I'm gonna make some salad dressing with some of it. You can eat the whole plant!
You can also preserve it in a jar/bottle of olive oil for up to 8 months. It blooms from Spring to Summer.
When I tilled up a new spot for my garden this year there were garlic bulbs EVERYWHERE!! I have heard that Garlic repeals some insects. If that is true I shouldnt have a bug anywhere!! I think I have hit the garlic lottery!!
I actually feel kinda dumb. I am 46 years old and lived in the same place my whole life and had no idea that Garlic grows wild.
Oh well...I guess we do learn something new everyday....or maybe we are supposed to but I just havent!!

[The Helpful Gardener]

I love stuff like this...gardening has always been a verbally handed down tradition that we are losing because we do not take the skills from the previous generation. It is especially important for it to happen now; 100 years back 40% of us were farmers. Now it is a single percentage point. Ask your grandparents and dads and moms, because I will bet they got more than many of us (don't worry though, you can catch up...)

https://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/pnw/pnw444.pdf

And now you know about wild garlic!

Thanks for the question Sweet P. This one made me smile...

HG

[Sweet Petunia]

Your welcome...but it made me cry.

[2cents]

Sweet P,
What a great dad.....Mine told me to do what your's did for you.
Now, I get garlic growing right in the middle of the yard, I love it.
My 9 yr old(I started late) last evening asked, what is this dad?
We picked garlic and wild onion/chives with some of last falls green onions and made her version of "Stew" I call it Ramen Noodles & chicken with our garden greens. Best Stew I've had in years. I would eat it over steak and lobster anytime, as long as she was helping pick and cook.

I wonder if your dad ever had stew? I bet he did. Likely, he preferred it over steak or lobster.

Those chives/wild onions should be local to your area as well. They make a great addition to Ramen noodles.

HG is right, today we have lost the only resource we had, Word of Mouth.

Your father told you a long time ago how to grow thing, it sound like from example. I figure you are still perfecting the technique.

Good gardening..........

[rainbowgardener]

yesterday we were losing the whole word-of-mouth oral passing on of knowledge tradition. Today we are re-creating it through things like this forum. That's what I love about this!

[The Helpful Gardener]

Booyah, RG!



HG

[yuppupcs]

Lol I have wild garlic growing all over my back yard here in Mansfield, Mo. Just wonderin if maybe he lived here before the previous owner! (just kidding), but thought it was a funny thought! hope you appreciate my weird sence of humor! Your story was pretty cool. I try to teach my kids about gardening, but they aren't really interested even though they do listen to me. I think it's just to humor me and get me to shut up! My son loves sunflowers, so he helps me by planting them all over for me every year. I got my love of gardening from my grandfather and my mother! I remember grandpa always had a HUGE garden that he fed all 7 of his kids from and their families. I remember helpin him when I was little and then sneakin into the garden with a salt shaker when it was gettin close to harvest time. He used to yell at me to "get outta my garden!!" from his house in that not really mad just kiddin voice. He was probably lauphin his tail off when he seen me duck behind the corn and run as fast as I could. I really love and miss him. He died on my 16th birthday. and I still say it was his way of sayin that I was his favorite grandson. He gave me my first coon hound, and when he passed away I got his .22 rifle. I'm gonna quit talkin about him because it's startin to get to me. Let me just say that he was the biggest and best influence in my life so far and I miss him everyday!

[The Helpful Gardener]

As we garden we cultivate memories as well as plants; our own memories stand as testament to those before us who handed just a little of their love of soil on to the next generation. I remember flopping down in a field next to my mother who showed me a wintergreen plant and fed me a berry. My whole world opened to the fact that food was not just supermarkets and McDonald's in that one berry (though it still took a few decades to gel). So even if they squirm and worm a little, let them know if they want to eat, they gotta plant, and they will get it in the first bite, youbetcha...

HG