GARLIC must be one of the easiest crops to grow, needing just a bare minimum of attention once planted. The bulbs are grown from individual cloves. Each clove will yield one plant with a single, rounded fat bulb containing up to 20 individual cloves.

Planted now in a sunny spot in rich, well-drained soil, it will be ready to harvest next summer.

Having invested in quality organic bulbs (varieties such as Thermidrome or Early Wight are good for planting now), future supplies are pretty much guaranteed.

By saving a couple of your best bulbs next summer, you can supply yourself with next year’s seed bulbs and you will end up with your own variety as the garlic adapts itself to the plot conditions.

Some gardeners use shop-bought garlic bulbs, but there is no guarantee these will grow in the soil as they may be treated with a sprouting inhibitor.

It is always better to buy from a supplier such as the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm, through the Organic Gardening Catalogue, or a good garden centre.

Planting garlic is easy. Divide the bulb into cloves just before planting, and push each clove into the soil, pointed end up. Each planting hole should be about ten to 18 centimetres apart.

If you plant them too close together, you will only get small bulbs.

Once planted, keep regularly weeded to remove competition for nutrients. If you find birds have uprooted any cloves peeping out of the ground, you can just push them back in the earth.

Garlic thrives with a cold snap at the start of its growing period.

So while I am not dreaming up a frost, I won’t mind too much as my newly-planted cloves will benefit.