Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-183
Wild Garlic
Allium ursinum
Wild garlic pushes up leaves in late winter - as early as late January, before almost anything else is ready to cut - flowers in spring, then dies back completely by early summer to sit out the hot months underground. Both the garlic-flavored leaves and the strong bulbs are edible, and where it gets the shade and spring moisture it wants, it spreads into a dense, self-renewing carpet that crowds out winter weeds and then disappears before summer crops need the space. It needs the moist floor of an established deciduous woodland or windbreak - open, sunny ground with no leaf litter will not support it. It's worth learning to tell apart from a similar-looking relative that also goes by the name wild garlic and is a genuine pasture weed - eaten by livestock, it taints milk and meat.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun · Shade
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–9
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 5.5–7.9
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 6–12 in
- Mature spread
- 6–12 in
- Plant spacing
- 4–8 in
- Root type
- Bulb
- Spread pattern
- Both
Keep exploring
Similar plants
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Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & H.Ohashi
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African Eggplant
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Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
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Alsike Clover
Trifolium hybridum
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Amaranth Greens
Amaranthus tricolor
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Anise
Pimpinella anisum
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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