If you want to plant wild garlic in your own garden, you don't have to pay too much attention to the care. The herb is undemanding and easy to care for. Nevertheless, here are a few tips for particularly warm days.
This weed, also known as wild garlic, is considered a comparatively uncomplicated early bloomer in the garden. Wild garlic (Allium ursinum) is quite frugal and therefore does not require any extensive care. When planting and growing wild garlic, even beginners can't do much wrong. However, that does not mean that no maintenance is required at all.
The following article reveals in detail what care measures are required so that the herb can thrive wonderfully in your own garden.
Make sure you have enough watering
Caring for wild garlic focuses primarily on watering the plant. Because the weed likes a moist substrate very much. The plant is normally used to this from its natural location, so the same conditions should be provided in the garden.
However, the weed really only needs to be watered when it is in the growth phase or when the ambient conditions are very dry. If it is dry for a long time in summer and the plant is not watered sufficiently, the wild garlic would otherwise run the risk of drying out completely. If you want to prevent this, it is best to water the herb, which is known for its he alth-promoting ingredients, in the evening or in the morning.
However, a location in the semi-shade, which wild garlic clearly prefers, can ensure that the herb can draw sufficient natural moisture from the soil most of the time. All hobby gardeners should only give a little water from the watering can if wild garlic has gotten too much heat and sun.
Fertilize wild garlic
As far as fertilizers are concerned, wild garlic is relatively undemanding. Hobby gardeners do not have to use a special fertilizer just for wild garlic. However, the herb is very grateful for a little foliage, which is used as mulch in the beds with wild garlic in autumn. Incidentally, a fairly thin layer is sufficient toto cover the nutrient requirements of the plant.
The leaves ensure a higher humus content in the subsoil, so that the wild garlic can thrive particularly well. The overall benefits of leaving the fall leaves are as follows:
- acts as a shelter in winter
- natural fertilizer that costs the hobby gardener nothing
- environmentally friendly way of fertilizing without artificial additives
In many deciduous forests there are huge colonies of wild garlic. These also do without any artificial fertilizer. This is arguably the best example of how wild garlic is indeed perfectly content with a little foliage as a fertilizer from nature, which will decompose over time.
What to do if the soil is too acidic for wild garlic?
Only when wild garlic has been planted in soil that is too acidic should a somewhat more extensive care effort be undertaken so that the plant feels comfortable. In this case, the soil must be limed at regular intervals in order to change the pH value of the soil in favor of wild garlic. Then, over time, an acidic soil will turn into a moderately acidic or slightly alkaline soil, which this plant likes.
Do wild garlic have to be cut back?
There are some plants that need to be pruned not just before the onset of winter, but at regular intervals throughout the year. However, this does not include wild garlic. Cutting wild garlic is only for harvesting. Before the coming onset of winter, a pruning is not only not necessary, but also not sensible. Because wild garlic needs its leaves so that the plant can draw the necessary strength.
Keep wild garlic in check
Wild garlic is a wild herb that has the natural urge to spread like weeds in the garden. Because this herb multiplies by so-called self-sowing. Hobby gardeners hardly have to do anything to ensure that wild garlic multiplies wildly in their garden.
If you only want to use a small amount of wild garlic for home use, you should pluck and weed the herb regularly. Otherwise wild garlic will quickly take over in your own garden. Regular bed care is particularly easy if the wild garlic is planted in a separate bed from the start, which has lateral boundary plates so that the herb cannot continue to proliferate underground.
Even if wild garlic has grown too densely populated in your own garden, it can make sense to remove some plants. ThatThinning out the wild garlic helps ensure that the remaining plants in the limited area can be supplied with sufficient water and nutrients and do not have to compete with the surrounding plants. The onions that have been removed from too small a stock of wild garlic can not only be used in the kitchen, but can also be transplanted to another location where they can be used again.
Protection against pests and diseases
This plant is also very robust when it comes to possible infestation with pests or diseases. Special care is therefore generally not required to protect wild garlic. After all, wild garlic plants are rarely affected by this problem.
Only the vole can be dangerous to wild garlic in the garden. However, voles are also a problem for many other plants in the garden, so all gardeners will want to take action against these annoying little creatures anyway.