Clove on the Grove

Sunflowers at dusk

Due to an over abundance of sunflowers, huge bunches are available for $5. Garlic bags also available for $3.

Garlic and sunflowers in the stall now!

There will be bunches of freshly picked sunflowers for sale in the street stall tomorrow morning - $5. Stay tuned for pictures

Home grown garlic in the street stall today!

Early garlic has sold out! New varieties are in the shed drying and will be available soon. Check back for updates.

The Turban garlic group has been harvested for 2023! Turbans are generally hot when raw and mild when cooked. This year's varieties include Spanish Violet, Master Jack, Peruvian White and Rose du Var which were grown with some success. These garlic varieties will be out in the street stall in approximately 1 month, depending on the humidity.

Early garlic is ready for sale and will be in the street stall Monday! Bulbs are $1 each and there are bags of 5 smaller bulbs for $3. Glenlarge, Southern Glen and Italian Red garlic is a moderate heat when eaten raw but is mild when cooked. All garlic is grown without herbicides or pesticides with only organic compost, mulch and organic fertilisers added. Taste the difference.

Flower bunches available Friday to Sunday or message me for a midweek bunch...only $5.

Early variety harvest has started!!!

All the garlic is looking good. The Southern Glen and Glenlarge should be ready for harvest in a few weeks and out in the stall after drying, so give me about 6-7 weeks. Other varieties take a little longer to bulb so be patient.
Flowers are almost ready so keep an eye in the box for beautiful native bunches.

Garlic is growing well with some varieties doing better than others. Overall should be a good harvest starting in October.
Garlic sprouts are on the way too and should be starting to appear in the street stall in another couple of weeks so keep a look out!

The 2023 garlic crop is in! 1800 cloves and 20 different varieties will be ready for harvest starting in October. Fingers crossed for a drier winter.

Home grown avocados are available now for $1 each. Get in quick!

The cut down green crop, ready for digging in.

The 2022 garlic crop is mostly sold but what bulbs remain are being sold by the bag. Each bag contains between 5 and 6 bulbs depending on size and is marked with the intensity of the garlic. Get in quick before it's gone. Only $3 a bag!

FREE chillies, juicing beetroot (been in the ground a little too long) and Egyptian walking onions for planting or eating available now! Garlic is still available too but stocks are shrinking.
All produce is grown without insecticide or herbicides.

Home grown hot or mild garlic still for sale.

Freshly picked basil, sage, chillies and Egyptian walking onions available for free in the blue box, so please come and help yourself.

Garlic for sale! Try a variety like Lokalen, for a hot and spicy taste or Glenlarge, a mild tasting garlic. Prices are based on the average size of cloves and displayed on the information tag.

Why do you want to grow garlic?

Really, it was not something that entered my mind when I started to think about a business, but I did love gardening and growing food for my family and neighbours. Garlic just came about because I bought some cloves and left them to the point of them sprouting. I decided to plant them and see what happened. When they were growing I didn’t take too much notice and didn’t know what to do or look for to produce good garlic. At harvest time, the bulbs were small and fully formed but weren’t what you saw in the shops so I decided to try some more in 2021.

The next year, I planted elephant garlic (not knowing it wasn’t a true garlic). I didn’t do any research and just planted the cloves in the garden. The harvest was more successful than the previous years with around 50 bulbs harvested, and this is what got me hooked. I thought, this is easy, as I had quite a good bounty. I saved some cloves to plant the following year.

During 2021, I visited a wonderful garlic farm and cafe at Rainbow Flat and saw what they did. I bought some of their garlic, and planted it along with some other varieties I bought online. I did lots of research and prepared my soil with green manure and compost and built up my beds. I planted the cloves and watched them grow. I learned a lot about growing garlic, and still have a lot to learn but in my first serious year of garlic growing I am relatively happy with my crop. Even though we received a lot of rain, and conditions were not ideal, I still harvested around 600 bulbs of varying size and quality and have almost double the bulbs to plant next year (but do I have the room???). I planted 13 different varieties in 2022 and will replant 10 in 2023. I am currently selling my garlic from my street stall, out the front of my house in Port Macquarie and hope to take a better crop to the markets in 2024. We will have to see how this season goes.

If you want to read about my journey as it’s happening, follow me as I post the ups and downs of garlic growing in a suburban backyard. I would also love to highlight other backyard growers and sellers in my local area, so check back regularly for new posts.

Welcome to the Clove on the Grove page!
I will continue to add new products available from my street stall in Port Macquarie and provide you with information on other local producers that sell from their home front