How to Grow Wild Garlic
Key Facts:
Height: max 50 cm
Light: Best in shade or semi-shade
Soil: Damp
Special Features: Allium ursinum is a UK native, and also known as wild garlic, or ramsons and is a bulbous perennial. Unlike traditional garlic, it is mainly grown for its edible leaves. It can be invasive.
Wild garlic is grown garlic-flavoured leaves, not the bulbs. Growing it from seed is possible, although it is easier to establish when grown from small bulbs. You can buy them "in the green" already in growth.
Wild garlic is a woodland plant and, as such, likes nothing more than a damp spot with partial shade. As shown in the image, I planted wild garlic to grow alongside a shady stream, ideal growing conditions. This was a wild part of the garden with lots of space. Wild garlic does come with a garden health warning because it can be invasive.
You can harvest the leaves from March to May, picking them straight from the plant, and in a good spring, you can get 2/3 pickings from each plant.
If you are creating a wild area in your garden, Wild Garlic has lovely white flowers and looks good with bluebells and forget-me-nots which all flower at the same time.
In addition, Wild garlic is a shade-loving plant and it's likely to attract insects, which in turn attract insectivorous birds.
How to Plant Wild Garlic
There are three ways to grow wild garlic: (1) from seed, (2) bulbs or (3) in the green.
Seed: If sowing under glass, scatter a small amount of seed thinly covered with soil from October to March . If growing outside, either sow before the first frosts or delay sowing until April. Do not allow the seedlings to dry out, and thin if necessary.
Bulbs: If you are growing from bulbs, plant the bulbs 3 times their depth, around 8 cm, in Autumn into an organically rich soil which will not dry out and is shaded. If the soil is on the dry side, cover with a mulch of leaf mould to retain moisture. Bulbs planted in the autumn will be ready to harvest the following spring.
In the Green: Garlic in the green is planted in early spring when the plants are in leaf. Remove the plant from its container, and place the plant so that the soil is at the same level. Firm and water in.
Wild Garlic can be invasive, if you want to control it but still enjoy the lovely garlic flavour, plant it in containers. Place containers in a shady/semi-shade spot to replicate the woodland conditions and also to reduce the chances of the container drying out. Your neighbours may not thank you for a wild garlic invasion. I have seen it escape from one garden under the boundary fence and into the next.
Wild Garlic is not drought-tolerant.
More Ideas for how to cook with wild garlic.
How to forage for and make Wild Garlic Pesto recipe from The Woodland Trust.