[agapanthus]

I have a bed that is growing my autumn planted garlic and elephant garlic. The thing is I have about 50 chilli and sweet pepper plants to go in....having potted them on 3 times. The elephantgarlic is showing signs of coming to an end (probably another 2 weeks or so) and the garlic is about the same. Will there be any more growth during this time or would it be ok to take them up now? I really need to get the peppers in and this bed is the sunniest one I have.

[Annie]

Seems a bit early for garlic to be ready,you can always dig one up to see how big it`s got ,I`m putting some chillies out in 2 weeks but may have to put some in pots or grow bags.

[WG.]

Dunno about elephant garlic but I reckon regular garlic needs another 4 or 5 weeks.  Bulb growth occurs very late so I'd say you would be sacrificing a lot of yield as well as keeping qualities.

If you removed only one (maybe 2) garlic plant at each planting station for a pepper plant then both should be able to co-exist for a month.  Yes?  If your garlic is at 4" spacing then removing one plant will give 8" of room for a pepper.

You'd need to exercise care when removing the garlic adjacent to the peppers.

Use any garlic removed in stir fries, omelettes, etc.

[Annie]

I`m growing Elephant garlic for the first time,it has just put up flower stems so will not be ready for a while,most of the rest of my garlic will not be ready until july/august at the earliest.

[DD.]

IMHO Elelphant garlic is a total waste of space, it's big, but it's not clever. It has very little flavour.

If you trust my word, why not have that up and use the, albeit, immature bulbs. You'll at least have a bit of space then.

If you have a look at this thread, you'll find I'm not alone in my opinion about EG.

http://www.chat.allotment-garden.org/viewtopic.php?p=28366

[agapanthus]

Thanks for the replys. Looks like I'll leave them in and pray that me early spuds will be ready to come out shortly