It’s an old folklore claim that garlic is an excellent vampire repellant. I think the rationale is that allicin, a chemical compound found in garlic, is a powerful antibiotic, and since throughout Europe vampires are considered to be a disease of the blood, garlic might be worth trying as a vampireicide.  Of course, it’s been well established in a wide range of Hammer Horror films that certain religious symbols – crucifixes, holy water, simple crosses (sometimes even a shadow made up with whatever came to hand) are more than sufficient to send Dracula back to where he belongs. And you do have to be really careful – sometimes he’s hidden in plain sight as a character called Dr. Alucard, or even named after a computer printed circuit board containing the algebraic logic unit. 

So whilst there are these other weapons available, having a good supply of garlic around as a back-up is no bad thing.

With this in mind, last October, after I’d cut down all the tomato plants in the polytunnel, I planted about 70 garlic cloves which I’d saved from last year’s crop. Then I basically just left them to it. They grew very well in autumn and spring, and this week began to show they were ready to harvest by gradually all falling over. This afternoon I lifted them, and this is the result.

Being optimistic, I’m hoping for about 12 – 14 cloves per bulb, or approaching 1000 cloves. I’m quite pleased actually, some of the largest I’ve ever grown.

That ought to sort them!