Article: After your garlic has grown for 5-6 months, begin inspecting the plants every week. Look to see if the leaves near the base of the plant have started to brown and wilt. Once these leaves are wilted, brush the dirt away around the garlic cloves. If the bulb is large and the cloves are fully formed, use a trowel to dig around the base of the plant. Once the soil is loose, physically pull the plant out of the ground to harvest your garlic.  If the garlic won’t come up easily, use your trowel to dig 3–6 inches (7.6–15.2 cm) underneath the bulb. This will tear up the root system and make the garlic easier to pull up. It’s typically pretty easy to pull garlic out, though. This method applies to every variety of garlic, although some species will dry out a little faster than others. Typically, the larger the bulb, the more time it will take to dry out. Take your garlic stalks and set them out on a table with the bulbs all facing down. Pick up your first bulb and knock off any large clumps of soil or dirt by hand. Repeat this process for every garlic bulb that you’ve harvested.  If you have any garlic bulbs with missing or exposed cloves, set them aside for immediate use. These cloves have likely already dried out in the ground. If they aren’t already dry, they’ll naturally dry out in your kitchen soon. Do not wash your garlic. You’re going to peel it before using it, and you need to remove moisture, not add it. Hold your first garlic plant by the stem near the bulb. Cut the roots off at the bottom of each bulb with shears or scissors. Leave as many of the leaves on the stem as possible. Continue this process until you’ve cut the roots off of every garlic bulb.  Don’t worry about removing every single root. So long as you remove most of them, your garlic will turn out fine. If your stems are no longer green, feel free to trim them before doing this if you’d like. Each bulb will continue to get nutrients from the stem as it dries, but if the stems are already brown and wilted, there’s no real benefit. Select a location in or near your home that won’t be exposed to direct sunlight and has a consistent temperature of 75–80 °F (24–27 °C) so the garlic dries thoroughly and quickly. Basements, sheds, and boiler rooms are excellent options so long as the temperature in the room is stable and there aren’t any large windows.  You can dry garlic in a cooler location if you need to, but it will take a little longer to dry out completely. If the temperature in the room exceeds 90 °F (32 °C), your garlic may begin to rot or sprout new stems. If possible, choose an area with good ventilation. It’s more important that the garlic stays warm and out of the sun, though. It doesn’t really matter if you dry your garlic vertically or horizontally. If you’re drying your garlic on a table, set each garlic plant out flat so that the bulb is hanging out over the edge of the table. You can also wrap twine around a group of 3-5 plants and hang them up on a hook or plant cage to store them vertically. Leave your garlic indoors and out of the sun. Do not move or disturb the garlic while it dries. Wait at least 10 days before checking the bulbs to see if the skin is brittle and flaking. The garlic is done drying when the cloves are hard and the skin on the bulb is flaking and brittle.

What is a summary?
Harvest your garlic after 6-8 months when the lower leaves dry out. Knock the dirt off of each bulb with your hands. Trim away the roots with shears or scissors. Select a warm, dry location to dry your garlic out. Hang your garlic bulbs up or leave them out on the table. Wait 10-14 days for your garlic to completely dry out.